Author Archives: liberalgeek

Why the Middle Class is Angry

The fat cats on Wall St. can’t seem to figure out why the middle class is angry at them. Let’s look at the nest eggs that the middle class has been hoping will comfort them in their waning years:

Their 401k’s: Years ago, people had pensions, but boomers and the rest of us have pretty much accepted that they won’t be getting pensions.  Instead, we have been contributing to 401k’s.  But we all know what the stock market has been doing for the past 4 years. And if we slip back into another recession, it could be a lost decade.

Their homes: The housing market has made the stock market seem like a good investment. It will take a few more years to get back to where they were 5 years ago. In the meantime, dreams of downsizing and cashing out have evaporated.

Their Social Security and Medicare: Now on the chopping block and both parties are on board.

Add to that the high level of unemployment in general and the issues that people laid off in their 50’s face trying to get another job, and it is hard to believe that the protests aren’t larger and more aggressive than they already are.

Karen Weldin Stewart: Bag of Hammers

I was driving around the other day and heard Karen Weldin Stewart on the Jensen Show.  Do yourself a favor and listen to the interview. She reminds me of the way that Rich Kotite was when he was the Eagles coach.  He did great at the beginning of the game when he had scripted the plays.  It all went downhill from there.

Stewart sounds at least a little like she knows what she is talking about, but as the interview proceeds, it becomes apparent that she doesn’t know WTF she is talking about. As a listener, I learned nothing from her after the first 2 minutes.  It is very hard to listen to her after that.  And it gets harder as it goes along, but there are breaks in the pain when Gene Reed breaks in.  In fact, you can hear Reed feeding answers to Stewart as it goes along.

As the saying goes, she is as dumb as a bag of hammers.

Primary day 2012 can’t come soon enough for me.

Dramatic Reading of the Drama Queen

On Tuesday, Christine O’Donnell’s new book will be on sale to peddle her lies and mis-characterizations.  Among the reported lies in the book, Christine claims:

  • Mike Castle and Joe Biden conspired to bring down her campaign
  • She never approved the infamous “I am not a witch” ad
  • She was a serious candidate

So Ken Grant has decided to ask the reality-based community to get together at the BBC Tavern on Tuesday evening for a happy hour and selected dramatic readings of Ms. O’Donnell’s …ummm… works.

So here’s the deets:

August 16 at 6PM
BBC Tavern and Grill
4019 Kennett Pike Greenville, DE 19807

Here’s how Ken describes it:

For those wondering why we’re even considering this, well, without some kind of “group” response, the stories in the news Tuesday night and Wednesday could center simply around the book’s release and O’Donnell’s supporters at book signings with maybe a quote from one person from the land of reality, giving the impression that O’Donnell has a lot of supporters and only one or two disgruntled people who are not so supportive. By doing this, there is an opportunity to show that there are those who are calling O’Donnell out on her attempts to re-write history and that group is not made up of wild-eyed lunatics, but of reasonable people with a sense of humor who simply believe the truth should be told.

Personally, I am preparing a piece of O’Donnell prose for a dramatic reading that will shake the foundations of society. Hope you can come out, and can get your hands on that old ladybug costume.

Wisconsin Recall Thread

Wisconsin voters in 6 state Senate districts are voting today.  To a large extent, this election is a referendum on Scott Walker’s union-busting maneuvers and law changes.  If the Democrats pick up 3 of these seats, control of the Senate will change hands and effectively put Walker’s agenda on hold.  Among the Republicans that are facing recall is Randy Hopper (famous for moving out of his district with his mistress).

The polls in the 6 Wisconsin recall elections are closing at 8PM CDT.  Go ahead and comment about them as the results come rolling in.

Something Broke

I think that there has been a shift that may have broken many things.  I think that the whole debt deal and the recriminations have emboldened the detractors on both sides of the President.  And I think that the people that have trusted and continue to trust the President to do the right thing are going to hide in the shadows.

I got a call last night from OFA asking me to make a donation to the campaign to counter some campaign that Karl Rove is rolling out. I turned them down.  I didn’t tell them that it was because I was disappointed in the way the whole debt ceiling deal went down, but that was part of it.

But continuing to try to explain what is happening to tea partiers and hostile progressives alike is a disheartening battle.  I don’t know what will recover the spirit that moved me and others to tears on election night 2008, but I’m a Democrat, so I always have a little flame of hope.  Even if it’s hidden under a bushel.

OK, You Can Panic

As you may know, on Friday about 11 hours of comments (and posts) were disappeared from the blog.  This appears to have been a glitch on the redundant database servers that store most of the data for the site.  In technical terms, the servers stopped synchronizing data in the late morning and in the late evening, one of them crashed, losing a big chunk of recent data.

Sadly, those comments and posts are not recoverable.  I apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused.

Top Ten Cost-Cutting Measures Revealed!

It’s time to figure out how we are going to make ends meet in case we don’t have a debt ceiling increase by August 2nd. Since it is unlikely that we wouldn’t pay the interest on our debt, we need to come up with about a 50% reduction in spending on everything else.  I’m thinking that if all of my list were enacted, we would be just about there.

Top 10 ways the government can save money in the event of the no debt ceiling deal

10. Freedom Fries in Congressional cafeteria served raw
9. Encourage seniors to switch to generic brand cat food
8. Outsource Congressional staffer jobs to Indian H1B workers
7. Soldiers to buy their own bullets like teachers buy their own supplies
6. Strategic oil supply to be secretly replaced with Folgers crystals
5. Congresscritters that sleep in their offices are billed for their stay
4. CIA replaced by Pakistani intelligence agency
3. Federal corn subsidies to be paid with Treasury bonds
2. War on Drugs outsourced to highly effective Mexican Fedarales
1. 1% of Federal budget to be spent making jobs wishes at wishing wells

Any more ideas (ya know, in case some of mine aren’t adopted)?

Tuesday Lunch With Dean Baker and Alan Rosenblatt

On Tuesday, I will be attending a lunch discussion with Dean Baker and Alan Rosenblatt at an event sponsored by DCRAC, The West End Neighborhood House and The YWCA.  DCRAC describes the event this way:

Baker will discuss how the Washington press corps misreports economic issues and why the federal government needs to invest in communities, grow jobs and grow the economy. Rosenblatt will address the variety of ways nonprofits and civic organizations can utilize social media to engage their clients and the press, the general public and elected officials. Over a dozen nonprofit organizations from Delaware will be in attendance.

Due to space limitations, the event is by invitation only, but I plan to live broadcast the event on UStream, but with better equipment than I did for the Karen Weldin Stewart event last year.  Check back here at noon to see what’s happening and catch the discussion.  I will also be live-tweeting the event on Twitter.

Entitlement Reform

We must have entitlement reform! That’s been the mantra of the Republican lemmings that have been following Paul Ryan toward the horizon. They use the word entitlement like it is some sort of slur. “Why do those people feel entitled to anything?” And just so that we are clear, the entitlements on the table are for the old and the sick.

But I have seen the rise of entitlements in a different way. The way that the wealthy have decided that they are entitled to tax cuts. Why should I have to pay for rising medical costs on Medicare? I’m a job creator! The sense of entitlement is palpable. Tax increases are off the table.

  • Tax increases for the top 1% are off the table to pay for wars
  • Tax increases for the top 1% are off the table to balance the budget
  • Tax increases for the top 1% are off the table to repair infrastructure
  • Tax increases for the top 1% are off the table to pay medical costs for the elderly
  • Tax increases for the top 1% are off the table to help people devastated by tornadoes
  • Tax increases for the top 1% are off the table to feed children living in poverty
  • Tax increases for the top 1% are off the table to support the VA health system

Why? Because the wealthy are entitled to the protection of Congress. Because the wealthy are entitled to keep as much as they want. Because the wealthy are entitled to funnel huge sums of money to political campaigns to keep their taxes low.

That’s who feels entitled around here. And if you dare to agree with me, you’re engaging in class warfare. God forbid we should engage in class warfare after years of the cries of socialism, communism and wealth redistribution as the top 1% amassed more wealth in a rigged game.

And every time they get a tax cut, you know what they do, they ask for another. Talk about entitlement.

Missing the Boat on Gingrich’s Tiffany’s Issue

I’ll admit it, I am enjoying the epic flame-out of the Gingrich 2012 campaign. Watching him contort himself to prove that he is totally consistent with his 24-hours-ago-self is like paying the extra money to see behind the scenes at the circus freak show. This latest blunder presents a golden opportunity for those of us that have been trying to show that tax cuts don’t create jobs.

Newt has been shown to have been on the hook for $500,000 to Tiffany’s in New York. He has been subjected to a number of humorous references because of it. He’s been called Blingrich by several late-night hosts and Colbert suggested that this was because Newt buys his engagement rings in bulk. Newt’s expalnation?

As a private citizen who has done well, I think I’m allowed to pick and choose what I prefer doing.

True enough. Newt likely spent money on things like a diamond and platinum necklace ($45,000) that his wife Callista was spotted wearing. It sure must be fun to go back through the Getty Images of Callista and comparing them to the Tiffany’s catalog.

But the point that we aren’t hitting on, is that this is the sort of bullshit that we are enabling. The tax cut that Newt Gingrich received from the Bush administration didn’t go to create jobs. Sure, Tiffany’s probably was able to hire a “Gingrich jewelry consultant” position, but most of the money for Callista’s jewelry probably went to buying the precious metals contained within. There are no commercial diamond mines in the US and platinum mostly comes from South Africa and Russia. So some the tax cuts that the Gingrich’s received in 2003 that were supposed to create jobs, were instead spent on raw materials mined in Africa.

This is what we have to discuss. The uber-wealthy aren’t the job creators here, and cutting them an undeserved break on their contribution to our society doesn’t spur job creation. It allows them to amass more wealth, at the expense of our nation.

Newt Gingrich needs to be held up, not for mocking, but as the poster boy for what is wrong with the alchemy of trickle down economics and the degradation of civil society that it causes.

Here’s what Newt said on Face the Nation.

I’m a guy running for president who pays all of his bills, and after-tax income at no cost to the taxpayer, and who currently owes nothing except one rental property in Wisconsin. I am debt-free. If the U.S. government was as debt-free as I am, everybody in America would be celebrating.

Newt, America could be debt free if it weren’t for the snake oil you have been selling for the last 20 years. And the problem is that the cost to US taxpayers is that we are now paying interest on that tax money that you legally evaded paying, we can’t get an interest free loan from Tiffany’s as a country.

Of course, all of this is predicated on Democrats actually using this. So, nevermind.

Roger Ailes Exposé in Rolling Stone

If you have 15 minutes, do yourself a favor and read the exposé of Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News in Rolling Stone.  I had heard a good deal of the information before, but the story has been well researched and documented and weaved into a full picture of the man, his mindset and the ideology that drives the network.

Once, after observing a dark-skinned man in what Ailes perceived to be Muslim garb, he put Fox News on lockdown. “What the hell!” Ailes shouted. “This guy could be bombing me!” The suspected terrorist turned out to be a janitor. “Roger tore up the whole floor,” recalls a source close to Ailes. “He has a personal paranoia about people who are Muslim – which is consistent with the ideology of his network.”

As I read it, I am struck by the intractable nature of the problem.  I don’t see a way to counter the guy or his message. I have a feeling of doom as the noise machine seems impervious so long as Ailes decides to stay on.  The only bright spot I see is the guy is old and out of shape.

The article even has a Christine O’Donnell quote:

During her Senate race in Delaware, Tea Party darling Christine O’Donnell bragged, “I’ve got Sean Hannity in my back pocket, and I can go on his show and raise money.”

What a world.