Tax cuts have become the panacea of conservative economic thinking, but curiously, the AP reports Republicans are now lining up to raise taxes on nearly half of all Americans. In his radio address this weekend, President Obama called for an extension to the payroll tax holiday he signed into law last year, which benefits every working American, lowering the 6.2 percent tax that funds Social Security to 4.2 percent. The tax cut will expire in January, and many of the same Republican lawmakers who fought tooth and nail to preserve the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are now coming out against an extension of the payroll tax holiday.
“It’s always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn,” says Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), “but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again.”
Hensarling, the House’ fourth-ranking Republican, is right — some tax cuts do more than others to “get the economy moving again.” He just has it backwards about which cuts do that. Tax cuts for wealthy, such as those in the Bush tax cuts, are the single “least effective way to spur the economy and reduce unemployment,” according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, because wealthy Americans were more likely to save their money than spend it.
HERE and HERE
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
RICK PERRY IS A DEEPLY RELIGIOUS PORN MOGUL
The DallasVoice.com reported: “In 1995, Rick Perry purchased between $5,000 and $10,000 worth of stock in Movie Gallery, a huge distributor of pornography that later became the target of a boycott by the American Family Association, which of course funded Perry’s recent day of prayer.”
THE STORY HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, AND HERE.
"Popovers... when you want to put something that's not your foot in your mouth!"
Inside the café, Gail Mitchell and a companion grilled him: “You said Social Security was unconstitutional.”
“Social Security’s going to be there for those folks,” Perry answered his inquisitors, making reference to the elderly.
“But you said Social Security is unconstitutional,” Mitchell repeated.
“I don’t think I — I’m sorry, you must have,” Perry said before stopping himself.
Instead of elaborating, Perry stuffed a generous piece of popover in his mouth. (Perry called them “pop ups.”)
“I’ve got a big mouthful,” Perry said and then ordering a glass of water. He later tripped over one of the women standing at his side pressing him on Social Security.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Perry said to her.
STORY HERE
Monday, August 8, 2011
World In Crisis
London Riots Rage On For Third Day
Violence and looting spread across some of London's most impoverished neighborhoods on Monday, with youths setting fire to shops and vehicles, during a third day of rioting in the city that will host next summer's Olympic Games.
Skirmishes broke out between police and groups of youths across Britain's capital, and also spread to the nation's central city of Birmingham – where police said dozens of people were involved in damaging shops across the city center.
In the Hackney area of east London and districts in the city's south, vehicles and buildings were set ablaze as authorities struggled to halt groups of rampaging young people.
Hundreds of youths attacked shops and set fire to cars in Hackney, while police in riot gear were pelted with fireworks, bottles and lumps of wood.
Thick smoke billowed from a high street in the Peckham district of south London, where a building was set ablaze along with a bus – which was not carrying passengers. In nearby Lewisham, lines of cars were torched.
HERE
Dow Jones Industrial Average Closes Down More Than 630 Points, Sixth-Worst Point Loss Ever
Stocks plunged Monday as anxiety overtook investors on the first trading day since Standard & Poor's downgraded American debt.
The Dow Jones industrials fell 634.76 points. It was the sixth worst point decline for the Dow in the last 112 years and the worst one-day drop since December 2008. Every stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 index declined Monday.
Investors worried about the slowing U.S. economy, escalating debt problems threatening Europe and the prospect that fear in the markets would reinforce itself, as it did during the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.
"'What's rocking the market is a growth scare," said Kathleen Gaffney, co-manager of the $20 billion Loomis Sayles bond fund. "The market is under a lot of stress that really has little to do with the downgrade." Instead, Gaffney said, investors are focused on "how Europe and the U.S. are going to work their way out of a high debt burden" if economic growth remains slow.
HERE
Ohio Shooting: 8 Killed In Rampage, Gunman Among Dead
A northeast Ohio man ran through his small town neighborhood Sunday shooting eight people, including his girlfriend and her brother, before he was shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire with police, authorities said.
Eight people, including the gunman, were killed. Witnesses told reporters at least one of the victims was a child.
Police did not have a motive and did not release the names or ages of the gunman or the victims but provided a chronology of the shootings that began around 11 a.m. in a middle-class neighborhood of Copley, a town of about 14,000 west of Akron.
"A person running through the neighborhood and firing a gun" prompted calls to police, Copley Police Department said in a news release late Sunday. At a home, the gunman shot his girlfriend, ran to a home next door and shot her brother and four others, then chased two people through some yards and shot one of them, police said.
He went into a third home and shot another person before leaving and exchanging gunfire with a police officer and a former police officer.
HERE
Violence and looting spread across some of London's most impoverished neighborhoods on Monday, with youths setting fire to shops and vehicles, during a third day of rioting in the city that will host next summer's Olympic Games.
Skirmishes broke out between police and groups of youths across Britain's capital, and also spread to the nation's central city of Birmingham – where police said dozens of people were involved in damaging shops across the city center.
In the Hackney area of east London and districts in the city's south, vehicles and buildings were set ablaze as authorities struggled to halt groups of rampaging young people.
Hundreds of youths attacked shops and set fire to cars in Hackney, while police in riot gear were pelted with fireworks, bottles and lumps of wood.
Thick smoke billowed from a high street in the Peckham district of south London, where a building was set ablaze along with a bus – which was not carrying passengers. In nearby Lewisham, lines of cars were torched.
HERE
Dow Jones Industrial Average Closes Down More Than 630 Points, Sixth-Worst Point Loss Ever
Stocks plunged Monday as anxiety overtook investors on the first trading day since Standard & Poor's downgraded American debt.
The Dow Jones industrials fell 634.76 points. It was the sixth worst point decline for the Dow in the last 112 years and the worst one-day drop since December 2008. Every stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 index declined Monday.
Investors worried about the slowing U.S. economy, escalating debt problems threatening Europe and the prospect that fear in the markets would reinforce itself, as it did during the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.
"'What's rocking the market is a growth scare," said Kathleen Gaffney, co-manager of the $20 billion Loomis Sayles bond fund. "The market is under a lot of stress that really has little to do with the downgrade." Instead, Gaffney said, investors are focused on "how Europe and the U.S. are going to work their way out of a high debt burden" if economic growth remains slow.
HERE
Ohio Shooting: 8 Killed In Rampage, Gunman Among Dead
A northeast Ohio man ran through his small town neighborhood Sunday shooting eight people, including his girlfriend and her brother, before he was shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire with police, authorities said.
Eight people, including the gunman, were killed. Witnesses told reporters at least one of the victims was a child.
Police did not have a motive and did not release the names or ages of the gunman or the victims but provided a chronology of the shootings that began around 11 a.m. in a middle-class neighborhood of Copley, a town of about 14,000 west of Akron.
"A person running through the neighborhood and firing a gun" prompted calls to police, Copley Police Department said in a news release late Sunday. At a home, the gunman shot his girlfriend, ran to a home next door and shot her brother and four others, then chased two people through some yards and shot one of them, police said.
He went into a third home and shot another person before leaving and exchanging gunfire with a police officer and a former police officer.
HERE
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
How Recession Is Hastening the Wal-Martization of America
A new report finds that the vast majority of the jobs created in the so-called recovery have been low-wage jobs. That's a recipe for continued economic pain.
THE STORY HERE
THE STORY HERE
Monday, August 1, 2011
Fukushima Plant Now Leaking Highest Radiation Levels Since Tsunami
In case you forgot, one of the worst disasters since the advent of nuclear energy is still underway. And although the initial shock has worn off, the radiation levels sure haven't: TEPCO measured 10,000 millisieverts/hour—that's fatal.
This figure's 3,900 times higher than the naturally-occurring cosmic radiation we soak up every year—only it's leaking from the paralyzed plant every hour. These levels disperse dramatically with distance—so, say, Tokyo isn't in any danger—but the news should be startling, and proof that the plant is still an enormous hazard to the people of Japan, who are still grappling with contaminated beef, poisoned by the hemorrhaging reactor.
OH, DAMM
This figure's 3,900 times higher than the naturally-occurring cosmic radiation we soak up every year—only it's leaking from the paralyzed plant every hour. These levels disperse dramatically with distance—so, say, Tokyo isn't in any danger—but the news should be startling, and proof that the plant is still an enormous hazard to the people of Japan, who are still grappling with contaminated beef, poisoned by the hemorrhaging reactor.
OH, DAMM
Republicans Just Trying To Save Face
The current debt ceiling debacle is sputtering its last coughs. While Republican leaders are tinkling their victory triangles, a more nuanced view reveals that Obama and Dems are the ones who outplayed the GOP.
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