IS THIS MEDIA BIAS?

This post by Steve Benen reminded me that I haven't heard much about the budget proposal by the Congressional Progressive Caucus other than a few places online.  I used LexisNexis to search in U.S. newspapers and wires for "Congressional Progressive Caucus" AND "budget" for the last month and all I got was 5 hits, 2 of them negative:

1. Redefining chutzpah
The Washington Post, April 22, 2011 Friday, EDITORIAL COPY; Pg. A19, 731 words, ;Matt Miller
2. Soak Rich, Bust The Budget
Investor's Business Daily, April 18, 2011 Monday, ISSUES & INSIGHTS; Pg. A17, 731 words
3. House factions plan to offer budget alternatives
The Washington Times, April 15, 2011 Friday, A, POLITICS; Pg. 5, 651 words, By Sean Lengell THE WASHINGTON TIMES
4. Plenty of rain on progressives' budget parade
The Washington Post, April 14, 2011 Thursday, A-SECTION; Pg. A06, 761 words, Dana Milbank
5. The Progressives' Pap
Investor's Business Daily, April 8, 2011 Friday, ISSUES & INSIGHTS; EDITORIALS; Pg. A12, 587 words

I searched for the same terms in TV and Radio Transcripts over the last month and there were 8 hits but the reporting was all MSNBC:

1. MSNBC INTERVIEW WITH REPRESENTATIVE RAUL GRIJALVA (D-AZ); INTERVIEWER: CHRIS JANSING; SUBJECT: CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS BUDGET PROPOSAL
Federal News Service, April 14, 2011 Thursday, 745 words
2. CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS PRESS CONFERENCE; SUBJECT: INTRODUCING THE "PEOPLE'S BUDGET"; PARTICIPANTS: REPRESENTATIVE SHEILA JACKSON-LEE (D-TX); REPRESENTATIVE RAUL GRIJALVA (D-AZ); REPRESENTATIVE MICHAEL HONDA (D-CA); REPRESENTATIVE LYNN WOOLSEY (D-CA); REPRESENTATIVE KEITH ELLISON (D-MN); JEFFREY SACHS, DIRECTOR, EARTH INSTITUTE; LOCATION: HOUSE TRIANGLE, THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Federal News Service, April 13, 2011 Wednesday, PRESS CONFERENCE OR SPEECH, 6554 words
3. THE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS HOLDS A NEWS CONFERENCE INTRODUCING "THE PEOPLE'S BUDGET", Financial Markets Regulatory Wire , April 13, 2011 Wednesday, LOAD-DATE: April 14, 2011
4. CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS (CAP) ACTION FUND MEETING; SUBJECT: INVESTING IN OUR NATION: THE FUTURE OF FEDERAL BUDGETING; SPEAKER: REPRESENTATIVE CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD) MODERATOR: JOHN PODESTA, PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS; LOCATION: WASHINGTON, D.C.
Federal News Service, April 12, 2011 Tuesday, PRESS CONFERENCE OR SPEECH, 6528 words
5. The Last Word for April 12, 2011
MSNBC, April 12, 2011 Tuesday, NEWS; Domestic, 7618 words, Chris Hayes
6. MSNBC LIVE WITH CENK UYGUR for April 12, 2011
MSNBC, April 12, 2011 Tuesday, NEWS; Domestic, 7869 words, Cenk Uygur
7. MEMBERS OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS HOLD A NEWS CONFERENCE TO DISCUSS THE REPUBLICAN F.Y. 2012 BUDGET PROPOSAL, CQ Transcriptions , April 6, 2011 Wednesday, LOAD-DATE: April 7, 2011
8. MEMBERS OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS HOLD A NEWS CONFERENCE TO DISCUSS THE REPUBLICAN F.Y. 2012 BUDGET PROPOSAL, Financial Markets Regulatory Wire , April 6, 2011 Wednesday, LOAD-DATE: April 7, 2011

I would think that any plan that looked something like this -

Our Budget’s Bottom Line
• Deficit reduction of $5.6 trillion
• Primary spending cuts of $869 billion
• Net interest savings of $856 billion
• Total spending cuts of $1.7 trillion
• Revenue increase of $3.9 trillion
• Public investment of $1.7 trillion
• Budget surplus of $30.7 billion in 2021, debt at 64.1% of GDP.

would deserve a LOT more attention.

UPDATE:  An editorial in The Economist thinks the Caucus plan is much more serious than Ryan's plan.

THEY ALSO USE "RULES FOR RADICALS"

(h/t Lee Fang at Think Progress)

For all the grief the radio gasbags like Fats, Hannity & Glenda give liberals for supposedly using Saul Alinsky's book, you'd never know that some major players in the Noise Machine, like James O'Keefe, also use Alinsky's tactics.

David Weigel writes that this isn't merely a case of a few conservatives taking lessons from Alinsky:

How did Republicans get so much better at this stuff? In 2009, after all, they were basically copying the Democrats—or what they thought were Democratic tactics. That was the year when sales of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals surged. FreedomWorks, Dick Armey's Tea Party group, handed out the book to new employees, who went on to train activists.

UPCOMING BAGGER FESTIVAL

Tucson will have some big name krazies in town for a Bagger rally in Reid Park at the end of this month.

ANOTHER BAPTIST WITH SEX "ISSUES"

According to the Arizona Republic, Nicholas William Minerva, 52, of Tempe, the minister of the Trinity Baptist Fellowship Church, killed himself after the police showed up with a search warrant because he was " was trying to lure a teenage girl via a chat room".

8 YEARS LATER, HE'S STILL CONSIDERED A PUNDIT

Charles Krauthammer is another high-IQ wingnut hack and today is the 8th anniversary of one of his least known statements:

Hans Blix had five months to find weapons. He found nothing. We’ve had five weeks. Come back to me in five months. If we haven’t found any, we will have a credibility problem.

At this point, Krauthammer also has a credibility problem.

YOU CAN'T FIGHT TEH STUPID

UPDATE: NBC News also reported on how Hawaiian law prohibits release of the so-called "long form."
POLITICO has a nice article about the Birther nonsense but the idiots just can't be bother to read. Here's an excerpt:

In addition to declaring the document a forgery, the birther movement’s main response – echoed by the ill-informed Trump - has been to claim that only a “long form” birth certificate can be valid. But the document shown by Obama is the only one the State of Hawaii is permitted, by law, to release. It is accepted as valid by the government entities like the State Department.

Hawaii law prevents the long-form record from being photocopied or released to anyone — including Obama. Obama himself would only be permitted to inspect it – not copy it or post it online.

This rube just can't be corrected:

DumpDems Member Since: Aug. 9, 2010 Party: NA	#29 Apr. 22, 2011 - 6:51 AM EST It could all be put to rest very easily by Obama presenting his long form birth certificate. Why doesn't he want to provide it??
	Reply     Quote     Report Abuse

ANOTHER BECK RIP-OFF

On the 3rd hour of his radio show, he re-retold the Passion Story and used lengthy excerpts from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon without attribution.

UPDATE: In his e-mail newsletter and on his web site, Beck admits to using Pink Floyd's music.  This is from the newsletter:

Classic Beck radio: Glenn's unforgettable Easter Essay set to Pink Floyd...

So Earth Day is being widely celebrated, but what about the Creator of Earth? It would seem like a logical conclusion to give Him a little credit as well - but since that probably won't happen, Glenn's got it covered. On radio today, the story of Easter told only like Glenn Beck can tell it - and it’s all backdropped by the music of Pink Floyd. Let Glenn take you on a journey in time all the way back to Biblical days, and hear the story of redemption in a way you will never forget. The most incredible moment in all of human history -- relive it HERE.

SEN. KYL USES THE "MEMORY HOLE" TECHNIQUE

I've heard of this being done before and I didn't like it at all.  Sen. Kyl has backed so far away from his blatant lie about Planned Parenthood that he's changed the Congressional Record.

OVERPAID U.S. EXECUTIVES

Now that the wingnuts are so worried about restoring the Clinton era tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, it's time to do a little cross-cultural comparison.   According to this 6/30/2010 article in The Economist, Japanese executives have the lowest pay in the developed world:

For companies with sales over $11 billion, American bosses earn nines times more, and European ones four times more, according to Towers Watson, a human-resources consultancy.

This Bloomberg/Business Week article from 2/10/2009 put some numbers to these ratios:

CEOs at Japan's top 100 companies by market capitalization earned an average of around $1.5 million, compared with $13.3 million for American CEOs and $6.6 million for European chief execs at companies with revenues of higher than $10 billion, according to an analysis of 2004-06 data by Towers Perrin, a Stamford (Conn.) human resources firm.

A little closer to my point is the pay differential between American and Japanese auto company CEOs. This 10/10/2007 article from USA Today has some amazing numbers:

GM CEO Rick Wagoner earned $9.3 million in salary and bonus in 2006, nearly double what he earned in 2005.

Ford's new CEO, Alan Mulally, got $27.8 million in salary and bonus in his first few months on the job, including an $18.5 million signing bonus.

The Japanese CEOs get just a fraction of the pay and certainly their companies do at least as well:

Last year, Toyota's top 37 executives earned a combined $21.6 million in salary and bonuses, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. U.K. firm Manifest Information Services, which analyzes proxy information, estimates Toyota's top executive, Hiroshi Okuda, earned $903,000 in 2006.

At Honda, the top 21 earned $11.1 million, combined, in salary and bonuses, SEC filings show.

NOT BUYING THE FREE MARKET FAIRY BS

Rep. Paul "Rand is my Heroine" Ryan was roundly booed at one town hall for claiming that we do tax the wealthy and Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) was criticized by a senior for trying to privatize Medicare.  Huffpo reports that two other GOP congressmen received complaints about the GOP approach to taxes and Medicare.

Let's hope the national media picks up on this as it was so eager to do for the Bagger protests.

HOW WEALTHY IS MARK LEVIN?

Today he said he "paid millions" in taxes and I'm amazed that his taxes amounted to so much.  I also wonder why no one points out that many of the radio gasbags have a conflict of interest about raising taxes?

MORE WINGNUT MYTH BUSTING

(h/t Hamilton Nolan at Gawker)

Hannity and Limbaugh have repeatedly claimed that higher taxes on the very wealthiest will cause them to leave high tax states but Robert Frank in the WSJ finds that ain't necessarily true.

Millionaire Tax Didn’t Chase the Rich From New Jersey, Study Says
April 20, 2011, 10:59 AM ET
By Robert Frank

The study, by sociologists Cristobal Young at Stanford and Charles Varner at Princeton, studied the migration patterns of New Jersey’s millionaires before and after 2004, when the state imposed a “millionaire’s tax” that raised rates on those earning $500,000 or more to 8.97% from 6.37%.

The study found that the overall population of millionaires increased during the tax period. Some millionaires moved out, of course. But they were more than offset by the creation of new millionaires.

The study dug deeper to figure out whether the millionaires who were moving out did so because of the tax. As a control group, they used New Jersey residents who earned $200,000 to $500,000–in other words, high-earners who weren’t subject to the tax. They found that the rate of out-migration among millionaires was in line with and rate of out-migration of submillionaires. The tax rate, they concluded, had no measurable impact.

“This suggests that the policy effect is close to zero,” the study says.

More devastating to the wingnut meme is the fact that the real job creators among the wealthy were LESS likely to leave than the rentiers:

The study found that New Jersey millionaires over the age of 65 and who live off their investments are the most likely to leave. Among those who earned their money from investments, the tax raised migration rates by 27 people per thousand among the top 0.1% of earners.

Yet those who own their own businesses or earn their money in New York–groups that account for a large share of millionaires in New Jersey–are less likely to leave.

I THINK THESE ARE A FEW OF THE PEOPLE JOE BAGEANT WROTE ABOUT

(h/t Wonkette)

Economically, they are mostly at the bottom of the ladder and they like FAUX News, talk radio and especially Glenda Beck.  Video from Bob Cesca:

LEAVING ASIDE THE CRIMINAL ECONOMY

(h/t  Morgan Housel at The Motley Fool)

The IRS estimates that is lost about $300 billion a year over the last decade to "people deliberately cheating on their taxes every year. This includes underreporting income, hidden offshore bank accounts, sham trusts, and other ways to illegally stiff the IRS."

If we could reduce this evasion by just 33%, we'd take in at least an additional $1 Trillion in the coming decade.

NEW SITE FOR PRINCELING'S INCOME

(h/t Zachary Roth at The Lookout)

The AFL-CIO has a new website, Executive Paywatch, to let us know what an important segment of America's ruling class is making.  The guys in Big Oil appear to do VERY well.

RADIO TIDBITS

Fats Limbaugh continues to pander to the Fundies despite once claiming that Huckabee was a Christian but NOT a conservative.  Mark "Foamer" Levin continued his saturation bombing of Donald Trump but Newsmax is on Trump's side.

THE GREAT BIRTHER RIFT?

Sarah Palin defends Donald Trump's birther smack but Michele Bachmann doesn't.  Is there a cat fight in the near future?

AS ATRIOS USED TO POST...

"Teh Stupid...it burns!!!"

Conservative activist: Bible, Ben Franklin, Pilgrims all opposed to net neutrality
By Eric W. Dolan
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 -- 7:24 pm
The Raw Story

The idea that all Internet traffic should be treated equally is against the teachings of the Bible and America's Founding Fathers, according to evangelical Christian minister and political activist David Barton.

During his radio show on Tuesday, he said that net neutrality violated the Biblical principle of free markets, a principle upheld by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington.

"That is part of the reason we have prosperity," Barton said. "This is what the Pilgrims brought in, the Puritans brought in, this is free market mentality. Net neutrality sounds really good, but it is socialism on the Internet."


"This is really, I’m going to use the word wicked stuff, and I don’t use that word very often, but this is wicked stuff," he added.

ANOTHER TALK RADIO FAIL

(h/t Jennifer Epstein at POLITICO)
The last few days, I haven't listened closely to the rightwing gasbags but I have picked up on their impassioned defense of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.  They don't seem to have convinced enough people, according to this WaPo/ABC News poll.  Here's the main result in choice (d):

Also in April, a McClatchy-Marist poll found that 64% favored increasing taxes on the rich. Back in March, a WSJ/NBC poll found that 68% supported a tax increase on the rich.

BREITBART DEFENDS SARAH PALIN

He tells Mediate that she is “very intelligent, well-read lady" despite all the evidence to the contrary.  Mediate also linked to a story about Palin telling Bill O'Reilly how the U.S. was a Christian nation and I found the transcript on LexisNexis¹.

O'Reilly is his usual ignorant self:

O'REILLY: All I have to do is walk into the Supreme Court chamber, and you'll see the 10 Commandments. And so we know that you're absolutely correct. The Founding Fathers did base not only the Declaration of Independence but the constitutional protections on what they thought was right and wrong. And what they thought was right and wrong came from the 10 Commandments, which is Judeo-Christian philosophy. That is beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Declaration of Independence is based on John Locke's Second Treatise on Government, not the Bible! But O'Reilly doesn't have as much political influence as Palin, so these remarks are a bit chilling:

PALIN: Well, that new kind of world view that I think is kind of a step towards a fundamental transformation of America that some want to see today, I think, again, that it is an attempt to revisit and rewrite history.

I think we should kind of keep this clean, keep it simple, go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant. They're quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the 10 Commandments. It's pretty simple. I think what's missing in...

Palin also made an ignorant mistake:

PALIN: I have said all along that America is based on Judeo-Christian beliefs and, you know, nobody has to believe me, though. You can just go to our Founding Fathers' early documents and see how they crafted a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution that allows that Judeo- Christian belief to be the foundation of our lives.

And our Constitution, of course, essentially acknowledging that our unalienable rights don't come from man. They come from God. So this document is set up to protect us from a government that would ever infringe upon our rights to have freedom of religion and to be able to express our faith freely.

The Constitution allows the states to infringe on freedom of religion and many other freedoms.

¹Fox News Network
May 6, 2010 Thursday
SHOW: THE O'REILLY FACTOR 8:39 PM EST
Is U.S. a Christian Nation?
BYLINE: Bill O'Reilly, Sarah Palin
SECTION: NEWS; Domestic
LENGTH: 1029 words

RADIO TIDBITS

Newt Gingrich was on Hannity's show and falsely claimed that taxpayer money goes to the EX/IM Bank.  He also falsely claimed that Pres. Obama had prohibited offshore drilling in U.S. waters.

I didn't realize until I looked that wingnut fantasist Jerome Corsi has been something of a regular on Coast to Coast AM.  His first appearance was on May 4, 2005 and he's been on over 50 times since then. Tonight he was on to "pre-shill" for his upcoming Birther book.

:-) :-) :-) :-)

Another wingnut food fight!

If I didn't know better, I'd say Charles Krauthammer was a Liberal Elitist Snob.

KRAUTHAMMER: Of the sound bites you showed, Haley Barbour looked -- he is the only calm and collected one of the other three. I think he is the only one with a serious chance of winning in 2012. I think Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann in a sense are competing for the same constituency. They are wonderful Republicans but I don't think either has a chance to win the nomination.

Bachmann could do well in Iowa. She is originally from Iowa, is a heavy evangelical constituency that surprised the world the last cycle by giving Huckabee the victory, but that is possible. But it's hard to see her way after that through the thicket.

Then there is Trump. Trump is the Al Sharpton of the Republican Party, provocateur and clown, unserious. I think he will harm the party if he runs for the same reason Sharpton harmed the Democrats. I know you can see the mail coming in. Address it to me, not to Bret. He is not responsible.

(LAUGHTER)

Which means in the debate he will be up there I think he will run, and this is not just a trial run. He will be up in the debate, like Sharpton he will monopolize discussion and draw it away on issues that are irrelevant like Obama's birth. And that can only hurt the party.

BAIER: Let me counter. When you and Karl Rove and others say this, it generates a lot of attention, a lot of mail about Donald Trump. There is some kind of thing happening out there, isn't there, about a straight- talking guy? Do you think it's all about the name recognition or do you think it's a hunger for somebody cutting through the traditional politician?

KRAUTHAMMER: It's all name recognition. He is a celebrity, he is on television and a guy who talks about winners and losers. The vulgarity of him is offensive. He talked today about comparing himself with Romney, I have a bigger net worth. That's what you expect from, somebody who wants to promote himself in business and make a name. That is not what you want from a presidential candidate.

SOURCE:
Fox News Network
April 18, 2011 Monday
SHOW: FOX SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRET BAIER 6:40 PM EST
Fox News All-Stars
BYLINE: Bret Baier, Juan Williams, Fred Barnes, Charles Krauthammer
SECTION: NEWS; Domestic
LENGTH: 2385 words

EX-IM BANK PUSHES BACK

(h/t Jocelyn Fong at Media Matters)

The Export-Import Bank approved a $2 Billion preliminary commitment to Brazil's nation oil company, Petrobas BACK IN APRIL 2009. The wingers are claiming that this only helps Brazil. This is false. The Bank only makes deals to help American companies:

Charge: America is exporting jobs to Brazil as a result of the loans.

Fact: Only American made goods and services qualify for Ex-Im Bank loans or guarantees.

Ex-Im only supports U.S. jobs by providing financing to ensure that American goods and services can compete on a level playing field against foreign competition.

According to the Bank's 4/7/2011 press release, this will create or maintain 15,000 U.S. jobs over 4 years:

The Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States today voted to grant preliminary approval for a $2.84 billion direct loan/loan guarantee to Colombia's Refinería de Cartagena S.A. (Reficar). The financing, when finally approved, will support the purchases of equipment and services from over 150 large and small U.S. engineering/design, equipment supply, contracting and process license firms, including Chicago Bridge & Iron, Foster Wheeler, Exxon/Mobil and UOP.

This is part of a $5.18 billion refinery and upgrade project in Cartagena, Colombia supplying petroleum products to the domestic and export markets. About four percent of the transaction will directly benefit small businesses. The transaction will help create or sustain over 15,000 American jobs for a total of four years.

A BAGGER ON NIXON, BRADLEE & WOODWARD

This is a great example of pseudo-conservative paranoia which I found on this POLITICO thread:

#30
Apr. 19, 2011 - 9:39 AM EST

"disinterested historians" ?!?!?! Bob & Ben show ?!?!?! The only thing true was these fellows had a deep, personal hated of Nixon and the United States. They hated Nixon for his purge in the 1950's of Communists in our government, Nixons attempt to actually fight the Vietnam war, and the spy Rosenberg's executions. Well, they seem to have all won and taken over your government now, how's that working out for you?
Frederick

TAX CUTS AND THE MULTINATIONALS

David Wessel at the WSJ looked at the numbers and found that U.S. multinationals did not seem to appreciate the Bush tax cuts because throughout the 2000s, they laid off U.S. workers while hiring workers abroad.   Here's the chart Wessel provided:

The full article is behind a pay wall so all I can quote is this snippet:

Big U.S. Firms Shift Hiring Abroad
Work Forces Shrink at Home, Sharpening Debate on Economic Impact of Globalization
BY DAVID WESSEL
APRIL 19, 2011
WALL STREET JOURNAL

U.S. multinational corporations, the big brand-name companies that employ a fifth of all American workers, have been hiring abroad while cutting back at home, sharpening the debate over globalization's effect on the U.S. economy.

The companies cut their work forces in the U.S. by 2.9 million during the 2000s while increasing employment overseas by 2.4 million, new data from the U.S. Commerce Department show. That's a big switch from the 1990s, when they added jobs everywhere: 4.4 million in the U.S. and 2.7 million abroad.

The last sentence indicated that the Clinton tax increases improved their U.S. business.

THE CRA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS GUY

The wingnuts have decided to blame almost anything besides the banksters for the Great Recession.  These are among their favorite targets: the CRA, ACORN, Fannie & Freddie.  The central meme for many wingers is that the government forced banks to make loans to poor people who simply could not repay them.  I shown before that the CRA had nothing to do with the Housing Bubble and Fannie and Freddie were bit players at worst.

I suspect that the wingnut media won't give much coverage to this MOTU:

Jury convicts exec in $3B mortgage fraud case
Apr 19 06:29 PM US/Eastern
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
AP Business Writer

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A jury on Tuesday convicted the majority owner of what had been one of the nation's largest mortgage companies on all 14 counts in a $3 billion fraud trial that officials have said is one of the most significant prosecutions to arise from the nation's financial crisis.

Prosecutors said Lee Farkas led a fraud scheme of staggering proportions as chairman of Florida-based Taylor Bean & Whitaker. The fraud not only caused the company's 2009 collapse and the loss of jobs for its 2,000 workers, but also contributed to the collapse of Alabama-based Colonial Bank, the sixth-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

Colonial and two other major banks—Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas—were cheated out of nearly $3 billion, prosecutors estimated.

...Taylor Bean and a handful of Colonial executives concocted a scheme in which Taylor Bean sold hundreds of millions in worthless mortgages to Colonial—mortgages that had already been sold to other investors. More than $1 billion in such phony mortgages were eventually sold to Colonial, which listed them on its books and on its quarterly reports as legitimate assets, prosecutors alleged.

In a related scheme, Taylor Bean created a subsidiary called Ocala Funding that sold commercial paper—essentially glorified IOUs—to banks including Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas. But prosecutors said the collateral that supposedly backed that commercial paper was worthless, and when Taylor Bean collapsed in 2009, the two banks lost roughly $1.5 billion.

UPDATE: Ken Hoop in comments provides a link to further discussion of how the banksters have been allowed to get away with fraud.

MORE ON SINGAPORE

For 2011, Singapore is ranked #2 among all countries by the Heritage Foundation for "economic freedom" despite the fact that it has a Western European style welfare state.  In light of all the fuss the wingnuts are making about our national debt, Singapore also has a much greater Debt to GDP ratios than the U.S.(58.9%)  and at 102.4% it ranks 9th worst in the world.

WHO HAS BENEFITTED FROM REAGANOMICS?

(h/t Susie Madrak at Crooks & Liars)

David Cay Johnston has done a lot to expose the real structure of the American economy and his latest work is as impressive as his earliest.  Here's just one juicy tidbit:

SOME GOOD NEWS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA

(h/t Political Correction at Media Matters)

No, the state hasn't decided to secede but the Bagger tidal wave seems to have vanished.  The GOP governor and Bagger Princess Michele Bachmann only managed to draw a few hundred on a nice day in Columbia, SC.

From FITNEWS.COM:

Politicians, political operatives and members of the media came close to outnumbering attendees at a much-hyped Columbia, S.C. Tea Party rally starring U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday.

Only 300 people (including a horde of Palmetto political operatives) attended the event in downtown Columbia, S.C. – which is a generous estimate in our book. That attendance figure – confirmed by other media outlets – amounts to less than one-tenth the size of multiple crowds that have gathered at the S.C. State House in recent years in support of parental choice.

It’s also roughly a tenth the size of the crowd that attended this same event in 2009.

In her remarks, Bachmann pledged that she would vote against raising the nation’s debt ceiling – an issue that other “Republicans’ in Washington, D.C. appear to be caving on in recent days.

Bachmann also referred to Obama as “Wall Street’s best friend,” a rather odd sound bite for this particular crowd.

This last highlighted statement reminds me that sometimes the Baggers appear to be economic populists but the implications of this are never followed up. At this year's CPAC conference, Bachmann explicitly stated that Pres. Obama has "ushered in socialism."

RYAN, MEDICARE AND GRANNY

The Center for American Progress uses Ryan's plan and the CBO's analysis of it to show what a frigging disaster it really is.

Seniors would pay more for two reasons. First, the Ryan plan forces future beneficiaries out of the traditional Medicare plan into a more expensive private plan. In 2022 65-year-olds would be forced to pay twice as much for care than they would under Medicare: $12,500 compared to $6,150. The same holds true for 65-year-olds in 2030. They would be forced to pay $20,713 compared to $9,138 under Medicare (see graph).

Second, the House Republican plan forces seniors to pay a larger share of their health costs over time since the value of the voucher in the House Republican budget plan increases at a slower rate than medical costs, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Ryan proposal calls for 65-year-olds to contribute $12,513 of the estimated $20,513 total cost of their health care in 2022, including premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, or 61 percent. They are expected to pay $20,713 of the $30,460 in total costs in 2030, or 68 percent .

NO COMMENT NECESSARY

From Gawker:

Finally, a Law Too Stupid for Arizona

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has finally discovered a law too stupid for her own, stupid state! Namely, the "Guns on Campus Bill," which she vetoed because it was "very sloppily written and drafted." And! » By Max Read 09:12 PM 11 comments

PS - I live in Tucson

HOW DOES THE U.S. COMPARE ON TAXES?

I found the total government revenues as a percentage of GDP for the OECD countries for 2008 and we were near the bottom:

Japan 28.1
Australia 27.1
Korea 26.5
United States 26.1
Turkey 24.2
Chile 22.5
Mexico 21.0

Paul Krugman found the 2009 figures and turned them into a nice graph:

THE GREAT 2012 REALITY SHOW

With the recent entry of Donald Trump on the political scene, we might was well admit it: Presidential elections in America have turned into nothing more than reality shows.  I personally blame John McCain for this because he's the one who chose the woman who would become the Queen of this tragicomic movement, Sarah Palin.   This was complimented by the rise of another Cracker movement, the Tea Party bozos.

OOOH! GLENDA BECK IS IN TROUBLE

(h/t Mediaite)

Andrew Breitbart, Pamela Geller, Roger L. Simon (Pajamas Media CEO) have all accused Glenda of plagiarism.  Right now I'm listening to the local delayed broadcast of Glenda's radio show and Glenda and his on-air whores are trying to rebut these claims.  Beck just said "there are no original ideas."

When will Beck admit that he doesn't write his own books?

UPDATE:  In the past, Sean Hannity has also ripped off a fellow conservative, Debbie Schlossel. I have also heard several of the radio gasbags, including Fats, read something aloud without giving any credit to the source.

UPDATE II: Here are a few more who have a gripe with Glenda:the Media Research Center; John Sexton, who blogs at VerumSerum.com; Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch; Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media; Douglas Stewart of Yahoo’s Associated Content; Andrew Marcus of FoundingBloggers.com. (h/t POLITICO)

A LITTLE FINANCIAL IRONY

Standard & Poor's, one of the ratings companies that helped create the Big Shitpile, has issued a warning about America's national debt.  S&P should donate billions to the Treasury to make up for all the lousy ratings it handed out.

S&P threatens to cut U.S. credit rating on deficit
By Steven C. Johnson

NEW YORK | Mon Apr 18, 2011 6:20pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's threatened Monday to downgrade the United States' prized AAA credit rating unless the Obama administration and Congress find a way to slash the yawning federal budget deficit within two years.

STATE OF ARIZONA BUDGET CALCULATOR

The Arizona Republic has an online state budget calculator and wants people to try their hand at fixing the state's finances.  I managed to get to a $701.4 million surplus by choosing the following:

$375 million Taxes Establish racinos -- slot machines at dog- and horse-racing tracks

$1 billion Taxes Raise the sales tax

$345 million Taxes Reverse the 10 percent cut to income tax approved in 2006

$131.4 million Taxes Tax business and personal services at 1 percent

If you don't think the state needs this money, consider these statistics, also from The Arizona Republic:

In February, there were 1.1 million food-stamp recipients, double the number in 2007. Enrollment in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicaid program, grew by roughly 30 percent to a record 1.35 million members

More than one in five Arizona residents lives in poverty, according to census data, compared with the national average of 14.3 percent.

THE BAGGERS ARE WORSE THAN I THOUGHT

(h/t Frederick Clarkson at Talk to Action)

The Baggers are mostly Fundie wackos according to this report.

New abortion laws show Christian Right's continued power

By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor
April 14th, 2011
02:09 PM ET

Despite claims by some Tea Party groups that their movement represents exclusively economic conservatives, polling research shows considerable overlap among Tea Party members and the Christian Right.

About half of the Americans who identify as part of the Tea Party movement say they are also part of the religious right or conservative Christian movement, according to a survey released last year by the Public Religion Research Institute.

The survey found that most Tea Party members reflect the views of religious conservatives, as opposed to libertarians, on social issues. Nearly two-thirds of Tea Party members say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, and less than 1-in-5 support gay marriage.

And white evangelical Protestants, the base of the Christian Right, are roughly five times more likely to agree with the Tea Party movement than to disagree with it, according to a Pew survey analysis released earlier this year.

850!!!

This is the part of talk radio that I mostly don't hear even though Tucson does have a pure Fundie station, KGMS.

ON MEDIA
POLITICO
April 15, 2011
Posted by Keach Hagey 04:19 PM

Jordan Sekulow get his own radio show
Jordan Sekulow, the Christian conservative activist, lawyer and Washington Post religion blogger who has been co-hosting a radio show with his father, Jay Sekulow, is going solo.
He’ll still co-host The Jay Sekulow show, which is carried on 850 stations daily, but will also add his own longer-format interview show at 12:30 ET on satellite radio and on WAVA 780 AM, a Christian station in Washington, DC.

In comparison, Rush Limbaugh is the most popular wingnut host and he's only on about 600 stations.

TRUMP IS ON THE SAME LEVEL AS HANNITY

Back in January, Hannity suggested that we should TAKE enough of Iraq's oil to pay for "liberation" and Donald Trump now says the same thing about Libya. I suppose that explains why The Donald is doing so well among GOP voters.

THIS SUCKS

Two-thirds of Karl Rove's old voting coalition - Fundies & fiscal conservatives - is being given a second life by the Koch brothers according to Peter Montgomery at Alternet.  With these kind of numbers...

Reed, who promises to mobilize a massive conservative evangelical vote in 2012, has been organizing in Iowa, whose party caucuses mark the opening of the presidential campaign season, for more than a year. According to David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, the Faith and Freedom Coalition has a database of 20 million evangelical voters. 

we may not be able to re-elect Pres. Obama or hold on to the Senate.

BEN STEIN HAS A BOUT OF SANITY

I'm certainly no fan of Stein but he seems to have gone off the Free Market Fairy reservation:

Ben Stein: No more voodoo economics!
Says U.S. will not go broke but Americans must live within our means - and can, by raising taxes on the rich and cutting programs
April 17, 2011
Ben Stein

The Republicans - who started the problem with excessive tax cuts in the Bush years - will have to agree to raise taxes, at least upon the truly rich (of whom there are plenty). 

The Democrats will have to agree to major spending cuts. I hope these will not be at all in defense, but some probably will be. Social Security and Medicare will have to be changed ... a lot.

All in all, we Americans just promised ourselves more than we could deliver. We lived in a dream world.

No more Voodoo Economics.

The grown-ups like Bill Clinton and Robert Rubin, his Treasury Secretary (who actually balanced the budget) left the federal fiscal scene ten years ago.

UPDATE: Uncle Alan also has a change of heart...

Greenspan Steps Up Call to End Bush-Era Tax Cuts
By Luca Di Leo
April 17, 2011, 2:47 PM ET
Wall Street Journal

“This crisis is so imminent and so difficult that I think we have to allow the so-called Bush tax cuts all to expire. That is a very big number,” he said, referring to how much the U.S. government could save from letting income taxes go back up to levels last seen under former President Bill Clinton.

Mr. Greenspan was talking about re-imposing the taxes for all Americans. The Treasury has estimated that a permanent extension of all the Bush tax cuts would cost $3.6 trillion over the next decade.

REMEMBER MARK WILLIAMS?

He worked for the Koch-funded Tea Party Express and was caught being a racist pig:

The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) population in America is headed for extinction and with it our economy, well-being and survival as a uniquely America culture.

Williams "resigned" from TPE but he's still bent on destroying Pres. Obama.

Williams is far from being on the fringe. Marilyn Davenport is an elected member of the Orange County (CA) GOP central committee and she's also a racist pig.

GOP official defends Obama chimpanzee email; party leader calls it 'racist'
April 17, 2011 | 10:01 am
LA Times

An Orange County Republican Party official is defending an email she sent that portrays President Obama's face superimposed on a chimpanzee with the words: "Now you know why — No birth certificate!"

Marilyn Davenport, an elected member of the party's central committee, described the controversy as "much to do about nothing" in an email and vowed that she would not resign.