Please see my new, updated blog

New blog entry here:http://therightissowrong.blogspot.com/2010/07/bp-pals-around-with-terrorists.html

New Blog: The Right is Wrong

I wanted to change the name of this blog to more clearly reflect my point of view.  Since the software didn't permit this, I started another one:
http://therightissowrong.blogspot.com/
All the entries on this blog has been transferred to the new location.  I'm working on restoring the various widgets to the new blog.  In the mean time, I'll continue to post in both locations.
Hope to see you there soon.
Teresa

Sharron Angle: The Choice Candidate

John Kyl sees Nothing, Nothing

When is a deficit hawk, not a deficit hawk?  When he thinks his political interests are in conflict with his professed economic philosophy. Case in point, John Kyl.  He has opposed the bill extending unemployment insurance on the grounds that it would increase the deficit.  But Republicans are on a roll with wealthy campaign contributors and what politician in his right mind would want to stop the cash from flowing in?  Even for the good of his country.

Never mind that paying people the meager amount they need to keep food on the table and a roof overhead for their families while they look for work acts as a stimulant to the economy.  Because unlike the rich who have more than they need, the unemployed spend their checks immediately.  The wealthy aren't putting their surplus money into circulation, so it doesn't help our economy's recovery.  It makes no sense to extend the very tax cuts were one of the factors that lead to our current budget shortfall.

Teresa's Daily Skewer: King and Queen

Teresa's Daily Skewer: King and Queen

King and Queen

The Best Little Whorehouse in Louisiana

The Best Little Whorehouse  in Louisiana Featuring David Vitter, BP, the DC Madam, and the Conservative Right

The Audacity of Nope

The Chairman's New Clothes, A Fairy Tale of American Exceptionalism

"This was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."
—Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, at a  Connecticut fundraiser about the war in Afghanistan, which President Bush launched following the 9/11 terrorist attacks (July 2, 2010)

Following a firestorm of Republican criticism, Steele said,  "On the other matter, in terms of Afghanistan and all of that, let me be very clear: Absolutely, without equivocation, or doubt or hesitation, I'm foursquare, a thousand percent with our troops on the ground. My goodness, do not leave these young men and women without the resources they need. And that should have been very, very clear -- that I think it's important for us to recognize that this war on terrorism was brought to our shores and we must fight it. We must fight it. And we will fight it and we will win it, because that's what the resolve of the American people is on this. That's part of that exceptionalism again that we bring to this."

Michael Steele's recent comments concerning American exceptionalism demand a nuanced discussion. The term, like our national flag, has become an object of emotional projection, evoking a plethora of feelings and meanings. Ironically, he was forced to call upon the power of these words to recover from the earlier gaff about our role in Afghanistan. (inadvertent telling of the truth by a public figure) Defending his continued tenure as nominal head of the Republican Party, Michael Steele wrapped himself in the mantle of its ambiguous implications. American exceptionalism brings to mind liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism and laissez-faire. We love to think of ourselves as the best in all things because we are true to these great American values.

Although incorrect in referring to Afghanistan as Obama's War, Steele did raise an important question in doubting Obama's ability to succeed there. As Americans, we believe in our mid-20th century potency to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." (John F. Kennedy inaugural address January 20, 1961). Yet, at what cost to the needs of our citizenry do we fight in Afghanistan? In light of the corruption of the government in Afganistan, will our involvement actually assure the liberty of people here or abroad? Does the region's history doom our mission to be a fool's errand?

In what other ways has our belief in American exceptionalism blinded us to the reality of our situation? We have neglected our infrastructure. For example according to Thomas Friedman, “The difference is starting to show. Just compare arriving at La Guardia’s dumpy terminal in New York City and driving through the crumbling infrastructure into Manhattan with arriving at Shanghai’s sleek airport and taking the 220-mile-per-hour magnetic levitation train….Then ask yourself: Who is living in the third world?”

Individualism and laissez-faire implies that each of us is free to achieve to our highest potential. Yet our national health hampers the realization of our dreams. We are no longer the best nourished, healthiest people on the planet. Our healthcare system is ranked 37 by the World Health Organization. One marker of our declining overall health is a decline in height in the US population while Europeans are increasing. John Komlos, Professor of Economic History at the University of Munich, and Benjamin Lauderdale of Princeton University's Department of Politics points to poorer diets in the US. Other factors might include Europe's superior health care and welfare systems, better health care in western and northern Europe and more comprehensive welfare systems.  At the same time,  we are overfed and under-exercised. We lead the planet in obesity, an epidemic 30% of  our population.

Despite our professed value of populism, championing the people in their  struggle for power with the elite, we are falling behind in educating the masses. We offer some of the world's greatest universities, yet student achievement among the vast majority of students is in decline. UNICEF ranked the US school system as 17th globally in student achievement.  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked US student scores as 33rd in the world, although they fare better in math scores at 27th.

And what about our beloved egalitarianism? CBS news reports that "Women in the United States who are 30 to 44 and who hold a university degree — meaning a bachelor's degree, master's degree, doctorate or medical degree — make only 62 percent of what similarly qualified men do."

And so I show Michael Steele in the embarrassing position of the legendary emperor parading in his new raiments.  The clothes that he and everybody else believed to be the most costly and fabulous.  The clothes that were woven from the fiber of fiction.

http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres56.html
http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/661-Europeans-are-taller-than-Americans.html
http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/worlds-best-universities/2010/02/25/worlds-best-universities-top-400.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/13/national/main838207.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/26/world/main530872.shtml
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity
http://www.geographic.org/country_ranks/educational_score_performance_country_ranks_2009_oecd.html

Joe Manchin's Sweet Dream

Guest blogger De Walker is an activist who is deeply involved in moving the national discussion about unemployment compensation issues. I would like to thank her for preparing  this informative discussion of recent events. Here Facebook page on this topic is entitled "Middle Class Americans."

July 9, 2010
The unemployed are left in holding pattern yet again due to political games. The house has passed a watered down bill by Senator Stabenow which excludes 99ers , tier 5 and Cobra Subsidy. They in addition passed a 30 day bill from the Republicans that included a $25 addition to benefits, Cobra subsidy and tier 5, but was only a temporary solution for 30 days. Both bills were passed to the Senate on June 30th and both parties refused each other offers. This development happened after the millions of the unemployed that had been paying for unemployment insurance benefits their entire working lives had been waiting for several versions of the bill to pass for over 8 weeks.
The watered down bill by Stabenow that excludes millions was due to finally break the Republican filibuster on the 12th of July with the help of 2 Republican votes and the vote from recently passed Democratic Byrd’s seat replacement in the Senate. That hopeful yet inadequate bill is yet again under jeopardy due to West Virgina’s Governor Joe Manchin political aspirations. He was given the duty by the Senate and the Secretary of State to quickly appoint a replacement for BYRD’s Seat in order to pass unemployment Insurance among other important legislation before the Senate.
Governor Manchin announced on MSNBC that he instead of appointing the seat he has decided to have the West Virginia Attorney General decide on whether they should hold an early election for Byrd’s seat in November 2010. Thus depending on whether they decide on a temporary replacement for Byrd’s seat or leaving the seat empty until November it will delay the legislation on the floor from a week to several months. Manchin does this action because although he said he would not appoint himself to the empty seat, he has announced several times that he would like to run for the empty seat in November 2010. West Virginia is using a rarely used local law to try and accomplish this political move at the expense of Millions of Americans.
The latest released info links from West Virginia Attorney General and Governor Manchin are at the end of this article.
De Walker
M.C.A.
Middle Class Americans-Facebook
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38138942#38138942
http://www.wvgov.org/sec.aspx?id=32&articleid=2064
http://www.wvgov.org/uploads/WVAGopinion.pdf
http://www.facebook.com/?page=1&sk=messages&tid=1150745905141#!/group.php?gid=135166673173979

msnbc.com Video Player

www.msnbc.msn.com

She may be an Angle, but she's not right.

Sharron Angle sues to suppress her primary campaign website

 Republicans face an inconvenient truth.  The winner of the Nevada  primary, who will oppose  hated Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid in November,  holds some way outside the mainstream political views.   Hard to believe that the woman who would represent Nevada, land of legalized prostitution and 24/7 bars with no "last-call" seeks a return to Prohibition (of alcohol). Nevada seniors will be heartened to know she would privatize Social Security and Medicare, since investing in the stock market has been such a fruitful way to secure their retirement dollars.  She has linked increase ammunition sales to a coming revolt against our duly elected "tyrannical government" through "second amendment remedies."  Not surprising that she received a perfect score from the NRA.  She will foster savings on government spending by eliminating wasteful and unnecessary institutions like the Departments of Energy and Education.

To the rescue, handlers from the Republican National Committee.  They took down her primary website and replaced it with a sanitized, rational sounding general election site.  When Harry Reid supporters attempted to keep the earlier site online, her lawyers tried to force its removal from the internet on the grounds of copyright infringement.  To keep her unguarded views available, the Reid supporters launched sharronsundergroundbunker.    The official Sharron Angle site paints quite a different portrait.

Players (Financial Regulatory All-Star Game)

The Urban Dictionary defines a player as "A man or woman that hooks up with many diffent persons but commits to none and in that process ends up hurting some of those invovled. " sic

Two rookie players on the Financial Regulatory All-Star Teams are Barack Obama and Scott Brown. Each has displayed a remarkable trajectory from populist champion to big money booster. Brown, number 41, won a senate seat in a special election last January promising “no more closed-door meetings or back-room deals by an out-of-touch party leadership.” He learned the fine points of the game among the pros in Washington, quickly evolving into a real power player. Ever the consumate athlete, he negotiated recently for 20 hours, holding on throughout the grueling financial regulatory reform reconciliation committee meeting. In the end, he won an exception to the Volcker rule for banks including hometown State Street Corp. and Mass Mutual. They will now be free to invest as much as three percent of their capital in hedge funds and private equity firms yet still continue to manage those funds. These risky investments necessitated the bank bailout that Tea Party candidates like Scott Brown have campaigned so vigorously against. In a further show of his rapid maturation as a player, Brown then threatened to vote against the bill if the banks were taxed to cover the cost of the law's implementation. He is shown here in a green Celtics jersey contrasting nicely with his trademark pink leather shorts, but his fundraising motto is "What can Brown do for you?"

The coaching staff at the White House is deservedly proud of their rookie, Barack Obama. In a January photo-op with Paul Volker, Obama called for reforms to "ensure that the failure of any large firm does not take the entire economy down with it." Elite coaches Lawrence H. Summers, head of the National Economic Council for the Obama administration and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have brought about Barack's new attitude. Summers earned nearly $5.2 million in just the last of his two years at one of the world’s largest funds in a position he describes as merely a part time job. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is a former president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In the late 1990s they worked to block the efforts of top regulators to regulate the same financial derivatives market that resulted in the current global financial crisis. No surprise then that Wall Street banks and the derivatives industry are considered to be big winners in the new financial reform legislation. Distracted by the Gulf Oil spill, Republican obstruction, Iran, Stanley McChrystal, and the Gaza flotilla, number 44 failed to make a critical slam-dunk with the big money donors from the banking industry.

Scott and Barry both live by the cardinal rule of all great players when it come to money or principles, "love em and leave em."

John, Take the Shot (The Republican War on the Middle Class)

How a Bill Doesn't Become a Law

Reading the Fortune Cookies at the Nihilist Restaurant on K Street

Fifth Highest Standard of Living in the World

Just in time for Independence Day holiday, the Republicans stuck it to the 1.3 million people with yet another threat of filibuster on extension of jobless benefits. While the senators are at home in their districts cooling off with beer at poolside fundraisers, the unemployed will sweat out another week of worry about foreclosure and feeding their children. With an average of six job seekers for each opening, the odds of securing employment are slim. Legions of job seekers are visible through the limo's windows.


Ben Nelson, Democratic senator from Nebraska, joined the Republicans in blocking the much needed relief. In my homage to Margaret Bourke-White, I depict him seated beside one of the architects of the the Republican senatorial strategy. By preventing government from performing its critical functions, Mitch McConnell hopes to return his party to power in the 2010 elections. Republicans rationalize this cynical approach to reclaiming ascendancy by claiming to be deficit hawks. Yet our fiscal decline began when they approved fighting two wars off the books while passing a tax cut for the rich.


Generous donations from industries that should be regulated keep senators living in luxury and out of touch with ordinary Americans. In 1937 when Bourke-White photographed the Bread Line, America boasted having the highest standard of living in the world. However, we have fallen to fifth place overall, with 37th place ranking among health care systems.

Piñata Party

All Wrapped Up

Our Endless War

 October 7, 2001 to present, still singing the same song.

Corporatist States of America

The Supreme Court finding for Citizen's United equates the freedom to spend of a giant corporation with the free speech rights of the individual.

Too big to fail banks pay enormous bonuses after the government bailout,  while the middle-class taxpayers face foreclosure and unemployment with meaningful relief. 

The oil addiction of America continues unabated, saving the petroleum and automotive industry from adapting to the realities of the 21st century

"We can have democracy in this country,
or we can have great wealth
concentrated in the hands of a few,
but we can’t have both."  

           Justice Louis D. Brandeis 

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