When Gay = Negro
While watching this hateful little screed, imagine that they’re talking about interracial marriage instead of gay marriage and you’ll get a true taste of the hate and fear spewing forth from the homophobic wingnut brigades. They’ve merely transferred their venom from African-Americans to another minority group they can punish for being different.
I encourage everyone to visit “No on 8″ and contribute what you can to ensure that the hate-mongers on the right don’t win.
Filed under culture, education, politics : Comments (1) : Sep 19th, 2008 by muttmutt
The new Chevy Volt - Bastard Child of a Twisted Mind?
It’s hard to believe that the Chevy Volt came from a company like GM which is led by the most unapologetic global climate change denier, Bob Lutz. Lutz appeared on The Colbert Report and not only trashed the idea of global climate change, but trashed his own product, the Volt.
ThinkProgress has a whole writeup on the odious Bob Lutz.
Filed under climate change, energy, environment, technology : Comments (0) : Sep 18th, 2008 by muttmutt
How Prescient
This movie was released in August. Maybe it’s a little too late?
Filed under Uncategorized : Comments (1) : Sep 17th, 2008 by tadfad
GOP Economic Leadership?
The ongoing deconstruction of our economy is a reflection on the policies of one party and the legislation of one man, former Republican Senator Phil “Nation of Whiners” Gramm. As Josh Marshall so eloquently put it
The man most responsible for the financial services and banking deregulation that made [Black Monday] possible, fmr. Sen. Phil Gramm, is the man John McCain wants to put in charge of the whole economy.
Let’s be clear what those policies are and what they’ve given us. Since Ronald Reagan, the Republicans have advocated a form of wealth redistribution that sends money to the top 1% of income earners and then, through their munificience, it “trickles down” upon the other 99% of the population. Hence the term “trickle down economics.” Let’s be honest, it’s a scam. It doesn’t work. It’s a way to raid the treasury and ship it up the financial ladder to the richest 1% of Americans at the expense of the rest of us.
Barrack Obama wants to change that math. His plan is a simple one and it returns us to a pre-Reagan idea of how taxation can be done fairly and equitably. He seeks to increase the tax burdon of the top 1% of earners and decrease it for the rest of us. So if you make less than $250,000 per year, you will get a tax break under Obama’s plan. The less you make, the bigger your tax cut will be.
McCain’s plan continues the failed policies of the previous Republican administrations by cutting taxes at the top 1% significantly more than the taxes of everyone else. This chart shows what this means.
So when John McCain says he’ll cut your taxes, you better hope you make enough to make it worthwhile.
Filed under Uncategorized : Comments (3) : Sep 15th, 2008 by muttmutt
Thank You, Boomers
Filed under economics, politics : Comments (0) : Sep 14th, 2008 by tadfad
U.S.S.A.
Filed under economics, politics : Comments (0) : Sep 14th, 2008 by tadfad
Drill Here Drill Now Pay Less!
The Republican energy strategy can be be summed up in one (chant-able) phrase: “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less”. Wow, that sounds like a great plan. But will it work?
Sadly, no. Even if we decided to “drill here”, there would be a minimum of 5+ years before any of that oil hit the market. Rome was not built in a day, and nor is the infrastructure required to bring new oil wells online. (Here’s a great example–there are a finite number of drilling ships capable of tapping the oil reserves off-shore. And they’re all booked for the next 3 years.)
So “drill now” doesn’t really mean “now”. Bummer.
Then there’s the question of “pay less”. Any Econ-101 student can tell you that if you increase supply and demand remains constant, prices will decrease. In the case of oil, we have a few problems that must be dealt with before we can “pay less”:
- Demand. Baring total global economic collapse, demand will continue to increase in the foreseeable future. China, India, Russia, Brazil, and a host of smaller nations are developing rapidly. They will probably want some oil as well.
- Supply. The best estimates from the Energy Information Administration put our new production at somewhere around 250,000 barrels a day. That does not represent a significant addition to the 16,000,000 barrels already being produced every day. (It’s about 1.5%) It’s unlikely that the oil markets will be significantly moved by an extra 250,000 barrels/day.
- OPEC. Just yesterday, OPEC decided that oil prices had fallen too far since their high and cut production by 500,000 barrels/day. (Stop here, read that number again, and compare it with the number from point #2 above.) If we think that domestic drilling will give us leverage over the giant oil cartel known as OPEC we are severely disillusioned.
Here’s a pretty graph that ought to put things in perspective:
So, I’ve made the case that “drilling here, drilling now” won’t result in “paying less”. What should we do instead?
Decrease demand.
That same Econ-101 student would tell you that decreasing demand with a constant supply will also lower prices. By golly, that sounds pretty good. How do we decrease supply?
- Improve automobile efficiency. The rest of the world figured out how to do it–even the American auto makers sell efficient cars in Europe! It’s just disgraceful that we’re still driving cars that get 25 mpg (the same efficiency as a Ford Model T)
- Invest in public transportation. We ship trillions of dollars to the Middle East for oil every year and get nothing but oil (and the subsequent pollution) in return. Investments in public transportation would result in local manufacturing and service jobs and would provide options for American travelers.
- Raise the gas tax. We know that demand for gas will drop as prices go up–we’ve already seen it happen. Why not help things along and recoup some of the money ourselves instead of shipping it all to foreign oil producers? The money could then be wisely invested in public transportation. Wow!
- Study the rest of the world. We seem loathe to look outside our shores for lessons on how to do just about anything. Sadly, transportation is one area that we’ve fallen far far behind the rest of the world. We need leaders who are willing to learn from our global neighbors.
The great thing about decreasing demand is that it’s compatible with all energy options. We can continue to use oil. We can start to use more natural gas. Or renewables. Or hydrogen. Or nuclear. And OPEC or China or Russia or anyone else can’t do anything to stop us.
Filed under economics, energy, environment, politics : Comments (2) : Sep 11th, 2008 by tadfad
The Fact About Fact
You have to hand it them–the Republicans have been incredibly successful in dismantling the concept of objective evidence or fact. In this campaign (just as in 2004 and 2000), it’s not facts that matter. It’s feelings. It’s emotions. It’s who would make a better drinking buddy or hockey mom.
This article from the Washington Post sums it up nicely:
As Campaign Heats Up, Untruths Can Become Facts Before They’re Undone - washingtonpost.com via kwout
This is the theme we see over and over and over again. In the unholy alliance between the big two parties and their big media friends, politics have degraded into “he said/he said” juvenile bickering with no adult supervision. No one is being held to any standard of honesty or integrity. Fact has become nothing but a four letter word.
In my mind, this election is as much a referendum on the American electorate’s ability for rational analysis as it is a contest between McCain and Obama. I really hope that fact still have a place in our Democracy. Because once we give up on that, what do we have left?
Filed under culture, education, politics : Comments (1) : Sep 10th, 2008 by tadfad
Political Cartoons
My two favorite politcal cartoons from this week:
Above really captures the way I’ve been feeling ever since McCain started on his new “change” campaign. Did we really forget that the Republicans have been in charge for the last 8 years? And for the first 6 of those years they controlled both houses of Congress as well!
Below just makes me laugh.
Filed under culture, politics : Comments (2) : Sep 8th, 2008 by tadfad
McCain vs. Obama : Taxes
Like all good Republicans, John McCain is promising to lower your taxes. Barack Obama, staging himself as a populist, also promises to lower the taxes of all but the very top income earners.
Let’s take a closer look at the details of each plan, using the analysis provided by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center.
Or, if you prefer pretty graphs, here is a comparative graph I put together using the numbers above. (Note that the scale is logarithmic for the purpose of easier comparison.)
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Both Obama and McCain will cut your taxes if you earn less than $227,000 a year.
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Obama will provide significantly higher tax relief for those earning less than $66,000 a year (i.e. the poor).
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McCain will provide significanly higher tax relief for those earning more than $227,000 (i.e. the rich).
It should be noted that during the last 8 years of the Bush administration (with Republicans controlling Congress for the first 6 of those years), taxes were cut significantly (especially for the rich) and as a consequence the defecit has soared to new heights. The national debt now stands at $9 trillion.
Republicans love to explain that cutting taxes will result in more jobs, a stronger economy, and more tax revenue. The contrast between the era of Clinton in the 1990s and the era of Bush in the 2000s should put this bogus argument to rest (but of course it won’t).
Take a look at the data above and draw your own conclusion.
Filed under economics, politics : Comments (3) : Sep 8th, 2008 by tadfad
