3 Charts To Email To Your Right-Wing Relative - Nation of Change

Your right-wing brother-in-law is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh lie machine, and keeps sending you emails about "Obama spending" and "Obama deficits" and how the "Stimulus" just made things worse.

Your right-wing brother-in-law is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh lie machine, and keeps sending you emails about "Obama spending" and "Obama deficits" and how the "Stimulus" just made things worse.

Problem: Your right-wing relative is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh lie machine, and keeps sending you emails about "Obama spending" and "Obama deficits" and how the "Stimulus" just made things worse.

Solution: Here are three "reality-based" charts to send to him. These charts show what actually happened.

We all want to fix the terrible problems the country has. But it is so important to know just what the problems are before you decide how to fix them. Otherwise the things you do to try to solve those problems might just make them worse.

If you get tricked into thinking that Obama has made things worse and that we should go back to what we were doing before Obama -- tax cuts for the rich, giving giant corporations and Wall Street everything they want -- when those are the things that caused the problems in the first place, then we will be in real trouble.

We all want to fix the terrible problems the country has. But it is so important to know just what the problems are before you decide how to fix them. Otherwise the things you do to try to solve those problems might just make them worse. If you get tricked into thinking that Obama has made things worse and that we should go back to what we were doing before Obama -- tax cuts for the rich, giving giant corporations and Wall Street everything they want -- when those are the things that caused the problems in the first place, then we will be in real trouble.

The full article is available here

Never-Wrong Pundit Picks Obama to Win in 2012 - Paul Bedard

Allan Lichtman, the American University professor whose election formula has correctly called every president since Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election, has a belated birthday present for Barack Obama: Rest easy, your re-election is in the bag.

“Even if I am being conservative, I don’t see how Obama can lose,” says Lichtman, the brains behind The Keys to the White House.

Lichtman developed his 13 Keys in 1981. They test the performance of the party that holds the presidency. If six or more of the 13 keys go against the party in power, then the opposing party wins.“The keys have figured into popular politics a bit,” Lichtman says. “They’ve never missed. They’ve been right seven elections in a row. A number that goes way beyond statistical significance in a record no other system even comes close to.”

The full article is available here

Braid: Closer To Closed - AV Club

Last year, Braid discussed recording a single for Record Store Day, which eventually turned into the new four-song EP Closer To Closed. Recorded by frequent collaborator J. Robbins (who also helmed the band’s 1998 swan song, Frame And Canvas), Closer To Closed let the members of Braid re-indulge in their songwriting chemistry without the pressures of being in a band.

The subtitle might as well be This Is A Fun Hobby For Us When We Have Time, Just Don’t Expect A Tour.

Singer-guitarist Bob Nanna wrote the three originals on the EP—the other is a cover of Jeff Hanson’s “You Are The Reason”—with singer-guitarist Chris Broach taking lead vocals on the opener, “The Right Time.” Broach’s voice sounds thin, but his and Nanna’s guitars easily slip into their knotty interplay, building to an excellent chorus. The same follows on “Do Over,” with Nanna taking over lead vocals.

The EP comes and goes in 16 minutes, but it’s nice to see Braid picking up as if 10 years hadn’t passed. Here’s hoping more music follows.

The full review is here

Fear, Inc.: America's Islamophobia Network - Center for American Progress

A small group of donors fund a cluster of think tanks that promote rank Islamophobia.

As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, a new report details the right-wing donors behind a network of "experts" who promote xenophobic fear of Islam.

In extensive detail, the report describes how a small group of donors fund a cluster of think tanks that promote rank Islamophobia, and how their misinformation is spread through a network of conservative media.

The important context here is that anti-Islam sentiment is growing in the decade since the September 11 attacks: an ABC News taken last year in the wake of the Ground Zero mosque debate showed 49 percent of Americans had a negative view of Islam, compared with just 39 percent in October 2002.

These efforts recall some of the darkest episodes in American history, in which religious, ethnic, and racial minorities were discriminated against and persecuted.

From Catholics, Mormons, Japanese Americans, European immigrants, Jews, and African Americans, the story of America is one of struggle to achieve in practice our founding ideals.

Unfortunately, American Muslims and Islam are the latest chapter in a long American struggle against scapegoating based on religion, race, or creed.

The full article is available here

Our Current Model of Economic Growth Is Driving Us Over The Cliff - Paul Gilding

I have come to the conclusion that our human society and economy is now so large that we have passed the limits of our planet’s capacity to support us. 

This means things are going to change. Not because we will choose change out of philosophical or political preference, but because if we don’t transform our society and economy, we risk social and economic collapse and the descent into chaos.

In all this though, there is a surprising case for optimism. As a species, we are good in a crisis, and passing the limits will certainly be the biggest crisis our species has ever faced.

We have the opportunity to build a society that represents our highest capacities, with extreme poverty eliminated; great technology that works with rather than against nature and provides us with abundant energy and resources; a closed-loop economy with no waste; communities that work and support one another.

The full article is available here

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - Warren Buffett

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks.  These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species.

Last year about 80 percent of these revenues came from personal income taxes and payroll taxes. The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends.

I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off.

And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

The full article is available here

Not Trickling Down: The Percentage Of Americans In Poverty Now Equals China - Politics USA

In a recent report, experts said the number of poor in America is nearly identical by percentage to China where more than half the population are peasant farmers who barely subsist from day to day.

America is said to be the wealthiest country on the planet and it has its fair share of extremely wealthy citizens who enjoy special privileges based on their financial worth. However, for all the wealth in America there are still a disproportionate number of people living in dire poverty with no hope of ever exceeding their present condition and it should be a cause of shame for the nation.

It is unfortunate, but regardless of the amount of wealth in America, there are at least 31 million children living in poverty which is approximately one in five of all children.

Researchers at Cornell University discovered that children who grow up in poverty are deeply affected in their educational and psychological development. The researchers found that the instability of children who grow up in poverty are affected by their home lives and that environmental stressors hinder their education and there is a direct correlation between a family’s income and success in school.

The full article is available here

Leaked Documents Show Speculators Drove 2008 Oil Price Spike - Public Citizen

The growing controversy over the leaking of trading documents naming 219 investors in oil futures positions during the 2008 oil price spike shows two things.

First, the data reveals that excessive speculation by banks and others is the driving force in oil markets, pushing prices beyond the supply-demand fundamentals. Who wins when prices rise? Wall Street traders that are engaged in speculating. Who loses? Every consumer who fills up at the pump.

Second, this data shows that we need this information to be made public on a regular basis. The companies named – including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – were significant players in the 2008 price run-up. The public should know who is responsible for high gas prices. It should get this information not just now, three years later, but on a regular basis, within two weeks.

The President's Bold Jobs Bill (Maybe) - Robert Reich

Some of the Presidents political advisers have been pushing for small-bore initiatives that they believe might have a chance of getting through the Republican just-say-no House. They also figure policy miniatures wont give aspiring GOP candidates more ammunition to tar Obama as a big-government liberal. But the President is sounding as if he's rejected their advice. That's good policy and good politics.

Good policy because any jobs bill has to be big enough to give the economy the boost it needs to get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession.

A bold jobs plan is also good politics. With more than 25 million Americans looking for full-time jobs, the wages of people with jobs falling, and an economy on the verge of a double dip, the President has to come out fighting on the side of average people.

Remember: Faster growth means a more manageable debt in the long term. Which means the President could tie this (or any other jobs bill of similar magnitude) to an even more ambitious long-term debt-reduction plan than hes already proposed.

The full article is available here

The Truth about the So-Called "Light Bulb Ban" - Republican Jim DiPeso

A group of congressmen, including one Michelle Bachmann, are backing legislation to repeal what they call the "light bulb ban." Which is sort of like proposing legislation to repeal the flying spaghetti monster. Like the "bulb ban," it exists only as the figment of vivid imaginations.

The rhetoric of the "bulb ban" crowd departs sharply from reality.  The legislation did not ban incandescent light bulbs. It set efficiency standards for general-purpose lighting.  Bachmann and her like-minded allies argue that the 2007 law restricts freedom of choice.

That's exactly the opposite of what's been happening in the lighting market. Philips, GE, and Sylvania beat the law's deadline and have introduced incandescent products that meet the law's requirements. There are more lighting choices than ever before. That's the case today and will be the case next year and the years following.

If anything deserves scorn, it's not the 2007 energy law. It's politicians who seem to have enough time on their hands for political posturing and pointless legislative capers.

The full article is available here

The Hopeless Politics of 2011 - Steve Kornacki

The best case scenario for Obama and his supporters — gut it out for the next 15 months, eke out a small but impressive-seeming win, then hope the Republicans of the 113th Congress decide its in their interests to be just a little bit more open to collaboration.  If that doesn't sound like much to hope for, well, welcome to the politics of 2011.

The current majority party in the House is at the mercy of rank-and-file members who, either because they believe it themselves or because the constituents they will answer to in their next primary election do (or both), approach every issue with the assumption that President Obama, even if what he is saying or doing actually meshes with what once passed for Republican orthodoxy, is totally and completely wrong.

They have convinced themselves that these deficits are mainly the product of a spending binge that Obama and the Democratic Congress embarked on in 2009 and 2010 — and that they can only be arrested through aggressive, immediate spending cuts. Tax hikes, of course, are off the table.

You can point out — over and over again — all of the logical flaws in this reasoning, but don't assume it will change anyone's mind. That would assume that the GOP's deficit dogma is coming from a logical place. But it isn't. Instead, it's best understood as a primarily emotional phenomenon, the product of the intense resentment of and resistance to Obama that has defined the party's base (and its opinion-shaping commentators) since even before the 2008 election.

There's no reason to think that the current Wall Street meltdown, no matter how long it lasts and now matter how clearly the market expresses its disdain for austerity, will prompt Republicans to give an inch — not when they can simply claim that because something bad happened on Obama's watch, it's a direct result of his policies and that he needs to be opposed even more fiercely going forward.

The full article is available here

Obama In An Era Of Decline: How Will He Manage Debt Crisis, Tea Party, GOP? - Peter Beinart

The decision by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade America’s credit rating marks the clearest sign yet that we have entered a new era in American politics.  Today's political environment is like the deeply pessimistic 1970s. President Obama, like presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter, will be defined by how he manages the politics of decline.

Even if Obama can win reelection, the crucial question is, Can he win big enough to change the GOP? The single factor most contributing to American decline is the Republican Party’s theological opposition to raising taxes, a theology with Ronald Reagan as its patron saint, even though Reagan himself raised taxes several times as president.

Obama’s real challenge, therefore, is not merely to win, but to win convincingly enough that he provokes a reassessment on the other side of the aisle, a Republican version of the Democratic Leadership Council that challenged liberal orthodoxies in the wake of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush’s victories in the 1980s. Unless that happens, Americans may be living with the politics of decline for a very long time.

The full article is available here

Nuclear Power Losing Favor in Much of the World - Amitabh Pal

A number of countries have recently rethought their romance with nuclear energy.

In Germany, the government has been compelled by a galvanized mass movement to announce an end to nuclear power.  The Italian people delivered a similarly resounding message to their government in June.  The Swiss government has also seen the light, pledging in May to shut down the country’s nuclear plants by 2034.

And even China, that energy-consuming colossus, paused new nuclear plant construction.

Unfortunately, some other prominent countries are way behind the curve. Even after Fukushima, the United States is still refusing to go a different route. In fact, Senate Republicans, instead of being sobered by Fukushima, are even holding up new safety recommendations issued by a Nuclear Regulatory Commission task force, calling them "more Washington red tape."

The full article is available here

5 Governance Problems That Contributed to U.S. Credit Rating Downgrade - Darrell West

The recent decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade its credit rating of U.S. government debt from AAA to AA+ resulted not from lack of money, but poor governance performance by federal officials. A number of long-term trends has paralyzed policymakers and made it difficult to address pressing problems. Unless these conditions improve, it will be difficult for elected leaders to address the budget deficit.

(1) Super-Majority Requirements in the U.S. Senate: The dramatic increase in real or threatened filibusters in the U.S. Senate has moved American democracy from majority to super-majority rule.

(2) Extreme Politics in the U.S. House of Representatives: The American public has expressed its support for sacrifice on the part of all Americans to close the budget deficit and is open to a range of policy proposals. But House extremists block action and keep Congress from taking reasonable steps to address the deficit and debt.

(3) Excessive Political Polarization Across the Country: The United States has the most polarized politics that we have seen in a number of decades.

(4) Partisan Redistricting in American Elections: The rise of extremist politics arises from legislative redistricting that creates homogenous districts which are not politically competitive.

(5) Low Voter Turnout Encourages Political Leaders to Play to the Base: Only around 40 percent of eligible Americans vote in congressional elections and 60 percent vote in presidential races. These low turnout rates create incentives for Republicans to play to conservatives and Democrats to focus on liberals.

The full article is available here

‘Crazy, Stupid, Love.’ Is Surprisingly Good - Pop Matters

In a summer littered with big-budget sequels, second-tier superheroes, and the usual animated fare, it is a bit of a shock to find a studio comedy aimed at adults. Crazy, Stupid, Love. has an even bigger surprise going for it. It’s really good. 

Crazy, Stupid, Love. could have easily been a low-brow comedy. The set-up of a promiscuous ladies’ man becoming the wingman to a newly single sad sack could easily have devolved into sex and diarrhea jokes. Instead, it shoots for much higher ground, exploring the ways that well-drawn characters look at love.

The unifying theme is that love is equally raw and potentially frightening for all of them. The title may call it crazy and stupid, but the film delves into how love makes us, in equal parts, angry and sad, nervous and intoxicated.

The full article is available here

Reality is Calling... The Problem Isn't Deficits, It's Jobs - Robert Creamer

The only surprise is that it happened so fast. The cacophony of right-wing talk about how we need to "cut spending" to create jobs reached a fever pitch in the debate over the deficit ceiling that culminated just days ago. Now the world economy is sending a stark message that makes such talk sound stupider and stupider by the minute. The "conventional wisdom" is getting whiplash.

As markets tumble and job reports show no growth, it is crystal clear to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with economics that Republican budget cutters are completely, utterly wrong. In fact they are 180 degrees off course. They are trying to do exactly the opposite of what the economy needs in order to grow and create jobs.

History will remember them the same way it views their ideological progenitors that in 1937 decided Roosevelt's New Deal had gone too far and needed "fiscal discipline." That led to a sharp end of the economic recovery and a renewed downward plunge into joblessness. We've seen this movie. It's a disaster film.

The full article is available here

Former George W Bush speechwriter: Krugman was right - Salon

When David Frum, former speechwriter for George W. Bush, says nice things about Paul Krugman it's worth taking notice. Krugman was one of Bush's toughest critics; to suggest that he was correct in his savage evisceration of Bush's economic policies is apostasy of the highest order.

But Frum goes even further than that in his post "Were Our Enemies Right?" Frum suggests that the entire conservative movement has fundamentally misunderstood how to manage the economy.  There is precious little evidence that the conservative camp -- outside of a few ostracized-and-excommunicated conservatives like Frum or Bruce Bartlett -- has changed its views on economic issues one whit.

Far from it -- they've doubled down! The federal tax burden has reached a 60-year low -- and they are still pushing for further tax cuts. A deregulated financial sector contributed to the excesses that caused the financial crisis, and they're still fighting, tooth-and-nail, every attempt at reregulation. History and economics tell us that cutting government spending in a period of low or negative economic growth runs a severe risk of slowing growth even further, and yet they've made deficit reduction their primary political goal.

The full article is available here

New Tool Maps How Badly Climate Change Affects You - Grist

A new web tool from the Natural Resources Defense Council lets you map climate change threats -- excessive heat, disease risk, pollution, drought, and flooding -- anywhere in the United States.

It's not just designed to depress you, either; each state's map includes information about how to address climate change impacts, and details the state's preparedness plan.

Based on an analysis of data gathered from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other resources, NRDC’s new “Climate Change Threatens Health” webpage lets users see the effects of climate change at a regional and state level.

The full article is available here

Right's 'Madness' and Standard & Poor's Ineptitude Conjure Downgrade - Paul Krugman

On one hand, there is a case to be made that the madness of the right has made America a fundamentally unsound nation. And yes, it is the madness of the right: if not for the extremism of anti-tax Republicans, we would have no trouble reaching an agreement that would ensure long-run solvency.

On the other hand, it’s hard to think of anyone less qualified to pass judgment on America than the rating agencies. The people who rated subprime-backed securities are now declaring that they are the judges of fiscal policy? Really?


Just to make it perfect, it turns out that S&P got the math wrong by $2 trillion, and after much discussion conceded the point — then went ahead with the downgrade.  More than that, everything I’ve heard about S&P’s demands suggests that it’s talking nonsense about the US fiscal situation.

In short, S&P is just making stuff up — and after the mortgage debacle, they really don’t have that right.  So this is an outrage — not because America is A-OK, but because these people are in no position to pass judgment. 


The full article is available here

Obama’s Unhealthy Obsession With Independents - The New Republic

The debt ceiling deal has been struck and the score looks to be in the neighborhood of Republicans: a zillion, Democrats: zero. It is perhaps the inevitable outcome of a process in which Obama treated GOP default-threatening tactics as legitimate and accepted the GOP framework that cutting debt, not creating jobs, was the country’s central problem.

As a result, we have a deal that severely undercuts Democratic policy priorities and cuts government spending just as the economic recovery is showing signs of tanking. Just how, exactly, did it come to this? The most plausible explanation is that Obama and his political advisors are convinced that striking a bipartisan compromise on debt reduction is the way to the hearts of America’s political independents, who famously abandoned the Democrats in 2010.

The administration’s chimerical search for the independents of their dreams has not served the country, nor the president, well. Obama has stumbled ever further into a political heart of darkness, hemmed in on all sides by radical GOP views on government and governance. And he can’t expect independents to bail him out.

The full article is available here

They Might Be Giants: Join Us - AV Club

The weird, eclectic Join Us serves as a refreshing corrective to years of kiddie albums and so-so grown-up discs, and reestablishes Linnell and John Flansburgh as geek-rock explorers of the highest order.

The sparkling “Can’t Keep Johnny Down” kicks things off in winning fashion, showcasing Linnell’s surprising late-career ability to craft a slick pop tune. But aside from a few more ringers, the rest of the album resembles the grab-bag goodness of 1990’s Flood.

Left-field arrangements and instrumentations abound, and even the flat-out rockers (“Judy Is Your Viet Nam”) and straight-up throwbacks (“Old Pine Box”) are shot through with a newfound sense of kitchen-sink experimentation.  The busy, upbeat highlight “When Will You Die” revels in TMBG’s giddy black humor, and ends up being one of the group’s most jubilant, life-affirming songs.

The full article is available here

Democracy and Caring About Each Other - George Lakoff

The democracy of care, shared responsibility, and trust is the democracy of the American Dream.

Democracy, in the American tradition, has been defined by a simple morality: We Americans care about our fellow citizens, we act on that care and build trust, and we do our best not just for ourselves, our families, and our friends and neighbors, but for our country, for each other, for people we have never seen and never will see.

We are now faced with a nontraditional, radical view of “democracy” coming from the Republican party. It says that “democracy” means that nobody should care about anybody else, that “democracy” means only personal responsibility, not responsibility for anyone else, and it means no trust.

If America accepts this radical view of “democracy,” then all that we have given each other in the past under traditional democracy will be lost: all that we have called public. Public roads and bridges: gone. Public schools: gone. Publicly funded police and firemen: gone. Safe food, air, and water: gone. Public health: gone. Everything that made America America, the crucial things that you and your family and your friends have taken for granted: gone.

The democracy of care, shared responsibility, and trust is the democracy of the American Dream. The “democracy” of no care, no shared responsibility, and no trust has produced the American Nightmare that so many of our citizens are living through.

The full article is available here

Why I Voted Against the Budget Control Act of 2011 - Dennis Kucinich

The wealth of America is being accelerated to the top and this bill pushes that acceleration.

The Budget Control Act of 2011, is a landmark in American history, but for the wrong reasons. It is a fake solution to a phony crisis. It provides for a radical transformation of the structure of government. It is an attack on the principle of government of the people. All this in the name of fiscal accountability.

This bill fails on its own terms, which are allegedly about fiscal accountability. The debt has three main drivers. The first is the recession, the second reason is the Bush tax cuts and the third reason is the wars. 

It is inexplicable that we are creating more space for war and less space for jobs, housing, education, caring for our elderly, home heating assistance and a wide range of activities of any government which truly cares for its people.  A policy of no limits for war and hard limits on domestic spending, coupled with hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the rich, disproportionately affects the poor and middle class.

Main Street has suffered a massive loss of retirement savings, housing security, access to affordable health care, real wages and benefits, full employment and massive loss of small businesses. The wealth of America is being accelerated to the top and this bill pushes that acceleration.

The full article is available here

The Moral Default - Jim Wallis

If the wealthy are not asked to share in the sacrifice, then cuts will undoubtedly come from those who can least afford it.

The debate we have just witnessed has shown Washington, D.C. not just to be broken, but corrupt. The American people are disgusted watching politicians play political chicken with the nation’s economy and future.

In such a bitter and unprincipled atmosphere, whoever has the political clout to enforce their self-interest and retain their privileges wins the battles. But there are two casualties in such political warfare: the common good and the most vulnerable.

The most glaring problem with the deal is that it doesn’t, at this point, include revenues. There is no balancing between spending cuts and tax increases, and this deal, so far, falls completely on the side of spending cuts. It is possible that revenues will be revisited in the new super committee, but given the insistence of a cuts only approach by the Republican leaders, it is not clear how likely a more balanced approach will be.

Corporate tax loop holes for the very rich were protected, while the core safety net for the most vulnerable is still in great jeopardy. The private jet industry mobilized to protect its tax deductions; the most profitable oil companies in the country will continue to get their public money for offshore drilling subsidies.

But programs like WIC and SNAP — providing critical nutrition help for low-income mothers and their kids, or malaria bed nets and vaccinations for children in Africa are threatened. If the wealthy are not asked to share in the sacrifice, then cuts will undoubtedly come from those who can least afford it.

The full article is available here

Tom Morello, The Nightwatchman: Uniontown - Pop Matters

If this is your initial introduction to Tom Morello’s “Nightwatchman” saga, then you’re in much better luck than the Rage and Audioslave fanatics who purchased his first solo album on a whim figuring he’d tear up the acoustic guitar like he does the electric.

Union Town tightens up the sound Morello’s been testing with his alter-ego, blending the simple folk he always wanted out of this project, but mixing it with the electric guitar talent he’s been known for since the early ‘90s. On four of the eight songs, Morello squeals quick riffs at each bridge, though not in his signature scratchy vein, but rather in a cleaner, more rehearsed style.

It’s a smart move, though, and one that could gain more Rage and Audioslave listeners without losing the point of this project, which this time is to spark protest against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his bill to end collective bargaining.

Morello bellows on the title track, “If they come to strip our rights away / We’ll give ‘em hell every time,” and for someone who’s made millions of dollars and never gotten screwed over by the record companies, he still comes off as legitimate.

The full article is available here

The Debt Ceiling Debacle - HuffPost

The irresponsible decision of the Tea Party Republican right to hold the economy hostage over the raising the debt ceiling has paid off big time. And Americans will pay the price.  For all the president's talk about shared sacrifice and the wealthy paying a bit more by closing loopholes, the two choices before the Congress now are all about spending cuts without revenue increases.

What is notable about the current choices is how far removed they are from the opinions of most Americans. By overwhelming majorities, Americans want Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid protected. The most popular options on deficit reduction are raising taxes on millionaires, lifting the cap on Social Security, taxing Wall Street bankers for the mess they made, closing off shore tax havens and various corporate subsidies and loopholes.

The full article is available here

If Corporations and the Rich Paid 1960s-Level Taxes, the Debt Would Vanish - Our Future

This “debt crisis” in no way had to happen. No natural disaster, no tsunami, has suddenly pounded the United States out of fiscal balance. We have simply suffered a colossal political failure. Our powers that be, by feeding the rich and their corporations one massive tax break after another, have thrown a monstrous monkey wrench into our national finances.

If corporations and households taking in $1 million or more in income each year were now paying taxes at the same annual rates as they did back in 1961, the IPS researchers found, the federal treasury would be collecting an additional $716 billion a year.

In other words, if the federal government started taxing the wealthy and their corporations at the same rates in effect a half-century ago, the federal debt to investors would almost totally vanish over the next decade.

The full article is available here

Nearly 10 Years Ago Today, U.S. Began Borrowing Billions To Pay For Bush Tax Cuts - Think Progress

As debates about deficit reduction continued to be heavily tilted toward cutting spending, which threatens to undermine a fragile recovery, rather than raising revenue from those who can afford it, it’s important to remember the budgetary impact of the Bush tax cuts.

Nearly 10 years ago today, on August 1, 2001, the Associated Press reported that the Treasury Department was tapping $51 billion of credit in order to pay for the budgetary cost of the first round of Bush tax cuts’ rebate checks. The AP reported at the time that Democratic Party opponents of the tax cuts worried that they’d return government budgets to "red ink."

The full article is available here

Horn of Africa Hunger Emergency: Somali Children Walk for Days or Weeks to Reach Relief Camps

Relief workers are struggling to keep up with the exodus of hungry refugees.

In some parts of drought-stricken Somalia, one child in 10 is at risk of starving to death, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In a recent report, ICRC stated that the number is twice as high as it was in March.

Additional feeding centers are being set up by the Somali Red Crescent (an ICRC affiliate), but relief workers are struggling to keep up with the exodus of hungry refugees.

Adults who arrive in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, where border camps are swelling, report that children have died en route.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there are 11 million people in the Horn of Africa affected by the worst drought in decades.

The full article is available here

What My Father Believed - John Guzlowski

My father believed we are here to lift logs that can’t be lifted, to hammer steel nails so bent they crack when we hit them.

In the slave labor camps in Germany, he’d seen men try the impossible and fail.

He believed life is hard, and we should help each other.

If you see someone on a cross, his weight pulling him down and breaking his muscles, you should try to lift him, even if only for a minute, even though you know lifting won’t save him.


The full article is available here

Being Poor Is A Lot of Work - Bart Campolo

Until very recently, I had no idea how hard it is for some of our friends just to find somewhere to lay themselves down to sleep at night.

I knew that inner-city families moved around a lot, but I didn’t realize how much heartache and humiliation goes before and after most of those moves, both for the families and for the neighborhoods they come and go from in search of better space.

Part of the problem is low incomes, of course, which leave almost everyone around here one minor setback way from missing rent.

But beyond that, there are often rats and roaches and bedbugs to contend with, along with those normal, everyday conflicts with neighbors that, in this environment, can quickly become unacceptably dangerous. There are broken pipes and broken heaters and, as often as not, broken promises from landlords who live in a very different world.

The full article is available here

The Republican Party - Getting to Crazy: Paul Krugman

Anyone surprised by the extremism and irresponsibility now on display by Republicans in the debt limit debate either hasn’t been paying attention, or has been deliberately turning a blind eye.

President Obama has made it clear that he’s willing to sign on to a deficit-reduction deal that includes extraordinary concessions.  Yet Republicans are saying no. Indeed, they’re threatening to force a U.S. default, and create an economic crisis, unless they get a completely one-sided deal. And this was entirely predictable.

Voodoo economics has taken over the GOP.  Those within the GOP who had misgivings about the embrace of tax-cut fanaticism might have made a stronger stand if there had been any indication that such fanaticism came with a price.  But there has been no pressure on the GOP to show any kind of responsibility, or even rationality — and sure enough, it has gone off the deep end.

The full article is available here

The Rise of the Wrecking-Ball Right - Robert Reich

Government-haters seem to be everywhere.  Congressional Republicans, now led by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, hate government so much they're ready to sacrifice the full faith and credit of the United States in order to shrink it.

Add in the relentlessly snide government-hating and baiting of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and his imitators on rage radio; include more than thirty years of Ronald Reagan's repeated refrain that government is the problem; pile on hundreds of millions of dollars from the likes of oil tycoons Charles and David Koch intent on convincing the public that government is evil, and you have all the ingredients for the emergence of a wrecking-ball right that's intent on destroying government as we know it.

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2011 Natural Disasters Cost a Record $265 Billion - Grist

Some politicians might not believe in climate change, but insurance companies do. They track disasters, and it turns out that disasters just in the first six months of this year already cost the world more than any other year of disasters on record.

The price tag for 2011 disasters reached $265 billion. Most of that cost ($210 billion) came from the tsunami in Japan.

But flooding in Australia, tornadoes in the United States, and earthquakes in New Zealand also contributed, and the Munich Re insurance giant draws a connection between some of these disasters and climate change.

The full article is available here

The Crisis Enters Year Five - Tikkun

The current capitalist global crisis began with the severe contraction in the housing markets in mid-2007; therefore welcome to year five.  Here’s the "good news": the major banks, the stock market, and corporate profits have largely or completely “recovered” from the lows they reached early in 2009.  However, the bad news is what prevails.

The most widely cited unemployment rate for workers without jobs but looking remains at 9%. If instead we use the more indicative U-6 unemployment statistic of the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, then the rate is 15%.

At the same time, the housing market remains deeply depressed as 1.5 to 2 million home foreclosures are scheduled for 2011, separating more millions from their homes. After a short upturn, housing prices nationally have resumed their fall: one of those feared “double dips” downward is thus already underway in the economically vital housing market.

The combination of high unemployment and high home foreclosures assures a deeply depressed economy. The mass of U.S. citizens cannot work more hours — the United States already is number one in the world in the average number of hours of paid labor done per year per worker. The mass of U.S. citizens cannot borrow much more because of debt levels already teetering on the edge of unsustainability for most consumers.

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Gillian Welch: The Harrow & The Harvest - Pop Matters

Throughout its ten songs, The Harrow & The Harvest locks into oldness and Americana.  What we have are ten more examples of what make Welch & partner David Rawlings great: high lonesome harmonies, beautifully judged musicianship, exquisite songcraft, and a relationship with tradition that is both serious and playful.

The same awareness of fate that drove so many of those old ballads, and that howls like a bitter wind through the Carter Family’s repertoire, informs many of the songs on The Harrow & The Harvest. Indeed, one way to read that title (beyond the very tempting connection to a certain Neil Young album) is as a recognition of the cyclical inevitability of the seasons, of sowing and reaping, the rewards and punishments wrought by time.

The full article is available here

Republican's Sick Priorities - The Nation

How deceptive for politicians to stress “entitlements” when they talk about gutting Social Security and Medicare, two programs long paid for by their beneficiaries. The Republicans make it sound as if they’re doing us a favor, cutting government waste by seeking to strangle America’s two most successful domestic programs.

And now Barack Obama seems poised to join their camp in undermining the essential lifeline for most of the nation’s seniors, many of whom lost their retirement savings in the banking meltdown.

These threatened programs are not government handouts to a privileged class, like defense contractors and bailed-out bankers, who do feel eminently entitled to pig out at the federal trough.

On the contrary, Social Security and Medicare have been funded by a regressive tax that falls disproportionately on working middle-class income earners, while caps in the system leave the wealthy—most notably the hedge fund hustlers who helped cause today’s economic crisis—largely untaxed.

The full article is available here