27 October 2012

The sexiest man alive

Obama went Off the record until enough people complained and the transcript was released - in which he bragged about his certainty that he can finally get the Republicans to take Yes for an answer in a Grand Bargain. I'm with Susie: "I don't know about you, but this is only a 'bargain' to millionaire politicians. I'm not interested in sacrificing myself on the altar to the deficit gods. Nope. Particularly when cutting government services during a recession is a surefire way to stall a recovery, just like 1937 when FDR gave into the Republicans on deficit reduction."

Yet another Republican says odious things about rape. I swear, it's as if they are doing damage control for Obama - no sooner does he step in it than they come in swinging to punch themselves in the face.

What's Social Security worth? A lot more than people who "just" want to "adjust" it for people under 55 will ever admit. To generate the same amount of income they would be receiving from Social Security taken at age 70, the individual would have to pay $436,517 today into an immediate annuity, says Mr. Meyer. (via) See? It'll be easy for the under-55s to "plan for the future" when they've killed Social Security for you!

Sam Seder did a particularly interesting interview with Matt Taibbi on The Majority Report, where Matt talked about seeing how Russia became an instant oligarchy and then coming home to watch the same thing happening in America.

It happened on Wall Street, and in the pharmaceutical industry, too, and in the latter case it means that research just doesn't thrive.

There Is Always More To Lose. (But guess what! You are losing it anyway.)

Paying taxes to your boss: "I suppose there's a certain elegance to Republican thinking. Instead of giving your tax dollars back in tax breaks, why not let your boss keep it? Oh, and those services your money was supposed to pay for? Try not to think about it." No, really. From the story: "Republican Governor Tom Corbett is deciding whether or not to sign legislation that would require some workers to pay taxes to their bosses. Yes, you read that right. The bill, which would allow companies that hire at least 250 new workers in the state to keep 95-percent of the workers' withheld income tax, is an effort to recruit Oracle to the state."

Colorado voters may have the impression that the marijuana regulation amendment to the state constitution is legalization - but it isn't. "Regulation of marijuana, by definition, creates more prohibitions on the time, manner and place of marijuana use. Legalization would be the removal of all prohibitions on marijuana, but A64 doesn't even remove one criminal penalty from the books. A64 creates more laws regarding marijuana and empowers the Department of Revenue to create even more unlimited new rules and regulations regarding marijuana. A64 will result in more prohibitions on marijuana, not fewer." Spread the word.

That acceptance speech for the Human Rights Visibility award was kinda awesome.

Ana Popovic

8 comments:

  1. I just don't understand why our side doesn't make a better case for things like Social Security. It is overwhelmingly popular despite many people thinking they will never collect.

    Maybe it should be repeated over and over that only wage earners pay SS. Interest and dividends are not subject to SS. Also, if you make that 250,000 we hear about in the tax debate, your SS rate is half of what the rest of us pay.

    Finally, since 1983, we have paid almost 3 trillion more into SS then it cost to run the program. This was supposed to "save" SS especially for the baby boomers. Yet we have been hearing the word "bankrupt" ever since in connection with SS. If that 3 trillion didn't save SS, then it was just a stealth income tax on lower wage earners.

    GIVE IT BACK, NOW!!!

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  2. George W. Bush was infamously called "All hat and no cattle." Mike Flannigan's nickname for Mitt Romney is "No heart, all chattle" in The Man Who Fell to Earth, Redux.

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  3. I doubt that the Republicans are willing to give up Senate seats to re-elect Obama.

    Unknown, don't be silly. The Democratic party leadership is not our side.

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  4. Sent in my ballot today. Finally decided to vote against the marijuana initiative. Whoever wrote the law was more concerned about putting tough penalties, to curry favor with the law and order crowd, than they were in actually legalizing pot.

    Too bad I would have liked to see a stand off between the fed and states over this issue, just not at the cost of ruined lives.

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  5. Nancy Pelosi was on Charlie Rose a couple nights ago repeating many times how she and Reed where chomping at the bit to accept the Grand Bargain.

    She seemed to be proud of the fact that she was willing to sell out her constituents.

    There was a statement about keeping SSI in a separate category, but she also said that everything should be on the table.

    http://www.charlierose.com/

    Of course Rose was even worse. He cheer lead the republicans and treated the Woodward book like gospel.

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  6. i've been a 'decriminalization' person for years now, on many issues. less is more, when it comes to the law.

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  7. Hi Avedon. So there's something new under the sun this election season - people forgoing yard signs in favor of tribal signaling.

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  8. A word in favor of the Electoral College

    A shameless blogwhore, but hopefully of interest, especially to East Coasters.

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