Sunday Reads

• A good, if thick, thick analysis showing that … surprise …  paying retail employees more can drive revenues instead of costs RETAIL’S HIDDEN POTENTIAL: HOW RAISING WAGES WOULD BENEFIT WORKERS, THE INDUSTRY AND THE OVERALL ECONOMY

• A look at the War on Coal There was no ‘war on coal,’ but there should be. Just not on the backs of miners. Delay is denial

• As of this post, Mitt Romney’s share of the popular vote is now 47.49% which nicely rounds down to … 47% Current Vote Count

• A neat little site that shows what happens to US costal areas as se levels rise Surging Seas

• Ross Douthat is still an idjit, here with a wonderfully convoluted argument against the payroll taxes for safety net programs

• In case you missed it, it is still funny as hell Top Georgia GOP Lawmakers Host Briefing on Secret Obama Mind-Control Plot

 

This is why these people scare the hell out of me

So,…. in my twisted brain, it would seem that if God despised Barack Obama and the policies he’s set forth soooo much,….

That instead of creating an economic meltdown in the world, with all the very bad, bad stuff that would accompany it,….

Maybe God could have just caused Barack Obama to lose the election.

Seems that might have been a simpler solution.

But I guess I’m not a deep enough thinker. And definitely not a pious enough individual.

Wonder if I’ll be saved on the day that I finally understand people like Franklin Graham.  I hope so.

From David Corn at Motherjones

Franklin Graham: God May Have to Cause “A Complete Economic Collapse” to Save Nation From Obama

By David Corn

Some conservatives are having a tough time with President Barack Obama’s reelection. Take social conservative leader Franklin Graham. In an interview with Newsmax.com, the Rev. Graham, a prominent evangelist and son of top-dog evangelist Billy Graham, maintained that Obama’s victory will put the country further along a “path of destruction.” And he suggested it would take a “complete economic collapse” to place the United States on a better course and return it to godliness.

Graham equated the Obama years with a national rejection of God. “In the last four years, we have begun to turn our backs on God,” he said. “We have taken God out of our education system. We have taken him out of government. You have lawyers that sue you every time you mention the name of Jesus Christ in any kind of a public forum.” Oddly, Graham ignored the fact that he and other shepherds of the Christian right have griped about such matters for much longer than four years. It didn’t start with Obama.

 

Sunday Comics (The … We Won !! … Edition)

more below the fold

 

Comics! (The … What Global Warming? … Edition)

more after the break

 

Ryan Budget in Pictures

Tax breaks to the very wealthy – Check

Gut programs for poor and disadvantage – Check

Deficit Reduction – well this is a little more complicated.  The CBO scored Ryan’s budget using HIS revenue projections.  These projections are based on “closing loopholes” in the tax code.  And what loopholes would he close? He has no idea, hasn’t specified a one, and we have seen how much the Republicans want to go after tax loopholes with the recent Big Oil subsidy fight.  The Tax Policy Center scored the Ryan plan using what is on paper, not what “we’ll get around to doing”, and it don’t look pretty

Obama called the budget “thinly veiled social Darwinism.”  That is indeed what it is.  The whole basis of modern conservative economics is social Darwinism, and many of us have thought that for a long time.  But it has had to become so blatant and egregious for politicians to finally speak it aloud.  And this budget comes from a man who milked the “entitlement society” for all it’s worth … A man who had the balls to tell a student to work three jobs for his education instead of relying on Pell Grants when he himself relied on SSI survivor benefits for his education.

 

Bush and Paulson Save America from Depression!

Bet that got your attention 🙂

That is the line that Mitt Romney is pushing,

“I keep hearing the president say he’s responsible for keeping the country out of a Great Depression,” Romney said in front of around 200 people at an American Legion post. “No, no, no, that was President George W. Bush and Hank Paulson.”

Reeeeeally? lessee here …

courtesy of Reflections of a Rational Republican

 

Sorry Mitt … Gotta call BIG bullshit on that one …

 

Sunday Comics

 

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

So, the latest job numbers are out. In February, 227,000 jobs were added.  Now if we look at total employment at the beginning of 2009, when Obama took office, we see that we are at a net deficit of ~864,000 jobs.  Now I will grant this is an arbitrary measure since it is hard to argue that that the president has any influence on job numbers in the first months of his presidency, but I will go with it since this is what the punditocracy on both the left and the right like to use as a benchmark.

Now the conservative establishment is all over this, telling us “yeah there is job growth, but not NEARLY good enough” and “look at all the jobs lost since Obama became president.”  Pundits and politicians on the right claim things would be MUCH better if Republicans were running the show.  They argue the anemic growth is due to regulations, high taxes & run away government spending, not the fact that trillions of dollars of middle class wealth and income was wiped out by the housing and financial collapse.

Is there anyway we could compare? hmmmmmm …..

Oh wait! The first term of George W Bush might be a good comparison.  There was a recession due to the dot-com bubble and there was the aftermath of 9/11. And as a convenient coincidence, Republicans controlled the House for those years and the Senate for half the time – compared with Democrats controlling the Senate for the last three years and the House for half the time.  So as far as party based head to head match ups, this one is pretty damned close.  So, let’s look at the numbers.

OBAMA Jan’09 thru Feb ’12

Net change in non-farm payrolls: -864K

Net change in private sector employment: -274K

Net change in public sector employment: -364k

BUSH Jan’01 thru Feb ’04

Net change in non-farm payrolls: -2,021K

Net change in private sector employment: -2,716K

Net change in public sector employment: +715K

Wow! I would say that is a pretty stark contrast. Obama and the Democrats look way more successful than Bush and the Republicans given similar circumstances.  Bush and the Republicans lost 2.7 million private sector jobs and added 715 thousand government jobs (a complete anathema to conservative principles) whereas Obama and the Democrats have lost 274 thousand and 364 thousand respectively.   I would argue that if Obama had been able to push through an even larger stimulus his numbers would be even better (both public and private).  On the economy’s current course, barring an Iranian incident or the disintegration of the EU, Obama is well on track to besting Bush’s impressive net loss of 13 thousand jobs in his first term.

Any rationale for supply side economics has been dead for some time and the Obama presidency has served to put another nail in that coffin.  Not because he has been a model Keynesian, he hasn’t, but because he prevented the brutal austerity that Republicans would have imposed upon us, austerity that would have driven us out of the Great Recession ditch and right off a Great Depression cliff.

This all leaves poor Mitt Romney with really no leg to stand on.  The best he can do is argue that things would be just a little bit better if we resorted to demonstrably failed tax policies.  That is it. That is his only raison d’être for becoming president, and an extremely weak one at that.

notes:

1) Numbers gleaned for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (love that site!)

2) Public and government payrolls do not add up exactly to non-farm do to computational methodologies

 

Sunday Comics

continue on …

 

RedState

oh! oh! oh!

While one cannot predict the future, the current state of the GOP primary, the batshit battle over contraception (including the frothing of Rush) and the corresponding illumination of deep divisions within the Republican party gives those of us on the Left reason to pause and to hope.  It may turn out that in the long run the Tea-Party-Revolution of 2010 could actually prove the Left’s greatest asset.

Perusing through Redstate.com and contrasting with current congressional proclivities is quite entertaining.

Senate Alert: Kill Energy Subsidies

We’ve been gunning hard for the Pompeo/DeMint bill, which would end all subsidies and special tax preferences for energy companies.  This is our chance to stand decisively on the side of the free-market and against crony capitalism and picking winners and losers in the market.

We’re not just against handouts for green energy; we must oppose them for natural gas as well.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! Wrong answer Dan.  If you check with the corporatist GOP establishment,  you would see that you should be FOR energy subsidies in order to establish America’s energy independence.  Let’s try again.

Super Tuesday By The Numbers

But whenever the verdict of the delegate race becomes final, the voters have already spoken, and their message is clear: this is still the conservatives’ party, awaiting only the right leader to unite it.

OHHHH! Wrong again.  See the problem here, as was deftly pointed out by Jon Stewart, is that the mythical conservative leader does not exist.  In fact he/she can’t exist, it’s not possible.  Your views, wants and desires are so conflicted, no one person could encapsulated them all and possibly utter a coherent sentence.  Second problem is the corporatists  that run the GOP (and I believe now are regretting funding the Tea Party) would never let someone like that at the helm as he/she would utterly turn off independent voters, as Santorum is proving.

Senate Republicans and Boehner Unite Against Conservatives

Don’t even need to copy any blurbs over, the title says it all.

Keep on infighting boys and girls.  The more you argue amongst yourselves and tear each other down the more likely Obama wins.

 

Bill Maher on Voting Against Your Interests

I myself have never understood why middle class voters vote Republican, and this little Maher rant encapsulates that frustration.

 

Sunday Comics

Continue for more

 

Who Would You Want for Singer-in-Chief

or

 

So yes, Obama is flawed, but has soul, has feeling … Mittens on the other hand has none, he’s just “phoning it in” – like all the other aspects of his personality

 

Sunday Comics

Continue on to see more

 

Horrors! Birth Control!

Dear Lord …

I must admit that when Obama first announced the policy of requiring health insurers to cover birth control, and the initial outcry started, I had to wonder why he chose to stir up this hornets at this time.  But after the absolutely batshit response by the far right, I now view it as a masterful campaign strategy.  When you think about it, based on the economic state of the country this election should be a cakewalk for the GOP.  The sitting president always ends up owning the current state regardless of whether it is his fault or not.  But this time it is not even close to that.  First OWS has effectively shifted the narrative on the fiscal crisis, with an unintended complicity by the GOP as they told the average American, “we’ll screw you now, give tax breaks to businesses and the uber-wealthy and everything will be better … later.”  Secondly, the right has engaged in this social warfare against unions, abortion, gay marriage, and now contraception.  The second thing is totally turning off ‘independent’ voters in droves as the the far right is dominating the this conversation and coming off as completely batshit.  And while the economy may suck, and Obama may not be performing up to expectations, independents certainly don’t want don’t want some batty social idealouges running things.  It’s one thing when you try to get in someones wallet and a whole other when you try to get into their bedrooms.

some of the batty comments

Sarah Palin,

[Obama is] underestimating the wisdom of women. Because women understand there is access to preventative care and contraception out there, and we don’t need government to tell our employers that they must provide that for us.

huh? That doesn’t even make sense as a rebuttal

Truly, it is a war on our religious liberties and that violation of conscience that he would mandate that is un-American because it violates our First Amendment in our Constitution.

Actually no it doesn’t.  When religious organization chooses to enter the business realm they must obey those rules.  If you don’t want a black person in your home – fine, you can do that (even tough it makes you an ASS).  Don’t want a black person in your restaurant – not fine.

Santorum,

“I am not a believer of birth control.  It goes down the line of being able to do whatever you want to do without having the responsibility that comes with that.”

ahh, so it is OK for you to impose your religious views on the rest of us.

And go to the recent Jon Stewart post here to hear the real batty responses. Hitler?!? seriously?  Yes you are freaking out independents enough that they will vote for Obama simply because “well at least he isn’t nutz”