This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Interesting question
Would the John F Kennedy of 1963 have the same opinion as a JFK in 2013? I'd bet not.
If only we had a brain...
but too often we react to situations based on faith and emotion rather than intellect. God forbid someone should be allowed some pleasure in this life without some feelings of guilt (dripping with sarcasm).
More guns = more safety from guns
The NRA likes to argue that the problem with guns in the U.S. is that there aren't enough of them. More guns means greater safety for those with guns because they can shoot other people that have guns. Take the story below...
See, if his father had had another gun, the father could have shot the boy before he shot himself and thus saved the member of his family from shooting himself. Wait - what?
Maybe another choice is that just maybe, if the father had been required to have some gun safety training, he wouldn't have been so damn stupid as to leave a loaded revolver lying around within reach of a 4-year-old. Or maybe the gun safety instructor would have realized that the guy was too fucking stupid to own a gun and denied him a permit.
So tell me, dear reader, which of these choices do you think might have a greater success rate? Putting more guns in the hands of an imbecile, or requiring him to have gone through a licensing and training procedure? Hmm?
Sunday, February 24, 2013
More on the fantasy lives of Republicans
As I quoted earlier today in an essay from Chris Hedges, when people living in a fantasy world are confronted by facts their response is usually a "ferocious emotional backlash." Further proof...
Source: Think Progress
Republicans Try To Intimidate Nonpartisan Accounting Office For Debunking Their Economic Theory
By Pat Garofalo on Feb 17, 2013 at 12:00 pm
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI)
Last September, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service released a report showing that tax cuts for the rich - contrary to GOP orthodoxy - have minimal effect on economic growth or job creation. Instead, they simply increase income inequality. Republicans pressured the CRS to pull the report down; it was eventually re-posted with the same conclusions.
Last month, another non-partisan agency, the Congressional Budget Office, released an analysis showing that one of the GOP's favorite corporate tax ideas would end up pushing jobs overseas. Again, instead of reexamining their ideas, Republicans are attacking the messenger:
The Congressional Budget Office is defending a recent report on how U.S. multinational corporations are taxed, after a top Republican criticized the analysis as biased. [...] "This report purports to provide an even-handed review of different policy issues related to the taxation of foreign source income," [House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave] Camp (R-MI) wrote to [CBO Director Doug] Elmendorf last month.
"However, a closer analysis of the report reveals that it is heavily slanted and biased in favor of one specific approach to the taxation of foreign source income - and relies heavily on sources that tend to support that conclusion while ignoring sources that support a different conclusion," he added.
Elmendorf defended the report, saying it "presents the key issues fairly and objectively and that its findings are well grounded in economic theory and are consistent with empirical studies in this area."
The GOP's idea - known as a "territorial" tax system - would permanently exempt U.S. corporations from paying taxes on profits they make overseas. CBO found such a system would result in "increasing incentives to shift business operations and reported income to countries with lower tax rates."
Source: Think Progress
Republicans Try To Intimidate Nonpartisan Accounting Office For Debunking Their Economic Theory
By Pat Garofalo on Feb 17, 2013 at 12:00 pm
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI)
Last September, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service released a report showing that tax cuts for the rich - contrary to GOP orthodoxy - have minimal effect on economic growth or job creation. Instead, they simply increase income inequality. Republicans pressured the CRS to pull the report down; it was eventually re-posted with the same conclusions.
Last month, another non-partisan agency, the Congressional Budget Office, released an analysis showing that one of the GOP's favorite corporate tax ideas would end up pushing jobs overseas. Again, instead of reexamining their ideas, Republicans are attacking the messenger:
The Congressional Budget Office is defending a recent report on how U.S. multinational corporations are taxed, after a top Republican criticized the analysis as biased. [...] "This report purports to provide an even-handed review of different policy issues related to the taxation of foreign source income," [House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave] Camp (R-MI) wrote to [CBO Director Doug] Elmendorf last month.
"However, a closer analysis of the report reveals that it is heavily slanted and biased in favor of one specific approach to the taxation of foreign source income - and relies heavily on sources that tend to support that conclusion while ignoring sources that support a different conclusion," he added.
Elmendorf defended the report, saying it "presents the key issues fairly and objectively and that its findings are well grounded in economic theory and are consistent with empirical studies in this area."
The GOP's idea - known as a "territorial" tax system - would permanently exempt U.S. corporations from paying taxes on profits they make overseas. CBO found such a system would result in "increasing incentives to shift business operations and reported income to countries with lower tax rates."
The fantasy world of the unintelligent.
"Those who retreat into fantasy cannot be engaged in rational discussion, for fantasy is all that is left of their tattered self-esteem. When their myths are attacked as untrue it triggers not a discussion of facts and evidence but a ferocious emotional backlash." ---Chris Hedges, Truthdig
Hey, Catholics
If religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church want to be exempt from government regulation, they they need to get out of the business of running organizations in the private sector that are subject to governmental oversight. Why are Catholics running hospitals anyway?
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Cheating in the private sector so as to better screw the public sector.
From Crooks and Liars...
For-Profit School Backed By TN GOP Caught Deleting Bad Grades
from Crooks and Liars by Susie Madrak
It never ceases to amaze me, that voters keep falling for the same old tricks. An already-expensive school system will magically perform even better when a private company slashes costs in order to skim a layer of profit off the top? It hasn't worked yet. Instead, these for-profit schools continue to manufacture scandal and fraud -- yet the Very Important People on both sides of the aisle continue to push them as a solution. Via Raw Story:
A for-profit school that was hyped by Republican lawmakers as a solution to Tennessee's education problems recently admitted deleting bad grades to "more accurately recognize students' current progress."
A December email obtained by WTVF showed that Tennessee Virtual Academy's vice principal instructed middle school teachers to delete "failing grades" from October and September.
"After … looking at so many failing grades, we need to make some changes before the holidays," the email says, adding that each teacher needed to "take out the October and September progress [reports]; delete it so that all that is showing is November progress."
"If you have given an assignment and most of your students failed that assignment, then you need to take that grade out."
Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson said she was horrified because the school's instructions amounted to cheating.
For-Profit School Backed By TN GOP Caught Deleting Bad Grades
from Crooks and Liars by Susie Madrak
It never ceases to amaze me, that voters keep falling for the same old tricks. An already-expensive school system will magically perform even better when a private company slashes costs in order to skim a layer of profit off the top? It hasn't worked yet. Instead, these for-profit schools continue to manufacture scandal and fraud -- yet the Very Important People on both sides of the aisle continue to push them as a solution. Via Raw Story:
A for-profit school that was hyped by Republican lawmakers as a solution to Tennessee's education problems recently admitted deleting bad grades to "more accurately recognize students' current progress."
A December email obtained by WTVF showed that Tennessee Virtual Academy's vice principal instructed middle school teachers to delete "failing grades" from October and September.
"After … looking at so many failing grades, we need to make some changes before the holidays," the email says, adding that each teacher needed to "take out the October and September progress [reports]; delete it so that all that is showing is November progress."
"If you have given an assignment and most of your students failed that assignment, then you need to take that grade out."
Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson said she was horrified because the school's instructions amounted to cheating.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Why is the NRA so obnoxious?
From The Political Carnival...
Rachel Maddow is bringing something very important to our attention, something that not enough of us may be aware of: Wayne LaPierre is a rodeo clown whose job it is to distract us:
"They're taking the fight to the industry. They're following the money. And if you're [Wayne LaPierre], that's very bad news indeed, right?"
"Ever wonder why everything he says seems increasingly inflammatory? It's not that he's dumb. It's not that he doesn't know what is going to upset you when you listen to a speech or a sound bite from him."
"The National Rifle Association exists to bug you. The National Rifle Association exists to make you think of him, to make you pay attention to him, and to the NRA instead of to the industry that pays the NRA to be their heat shield."
"Nobody knows the name of the CEOs of the manufacturing companies in this country that make guns. Nobody knows who runs the various gun companies and the various accessories companies."
Rachel Maddow is bringing something very important to our attention, something that not enough of us may be aware of: Wayne LaPierre is a rodeo clown whose job it is to distract us:
"They're taking the fight to the industry. They're following the money. And if you're [Wayne LaPierre], that's very bad news indeed, right?"
"Ever wonder why everything he says seems increasingly inflammatory? It's not that he's dumb. It's not that he doesn't know what is going to upset you when you listen to a speech or a sound bite from him."
"The National Rifle Association exists to bug you. The National Rifle Association exists to make you think of him, to make you pay attention to him, and to the NRA instead of to the industry that pays the NRA to be their heat shield."
"Nobody knows the name of the CEOs of the manufacturing companies in this country that make guns. Nobody knows who runs the various gun companies and the various accessories companies."
The U.S. continues to trail the rest of the world.
Our greatness is diminishing because of our growing love for money over life.
And women, too
It is why the U.S is falling so far, so fast. It's all about the "Benjamins" any more.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Our faux moral outrage is costing us.
Source...Boing-Boing
WTO gives Antigua the right to sell pirated American copyrighted goods
from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
The WTO agreement is supposed to guarantee level playing fields for its member states, allowing each to sell into the others' markets. But US law bans online gambling, which is the major export from Antigua. Antigua has been going back and forth with the USA in trade court since 2003, and now the WTO has agreed that the US has violated its treaty obligations. By way of reparations, the WTO has given Antigua permission to set up a kind of legal pirate market, where American copyrighted works can be sold without permission or royalties. The initial ruling came in 2007, and was affirmed on Monday. Antigua has announced plans for a site for downloading US software, music and movies.
Antigua's Finance Minister Harold Lovell said in a comment that the U.S. left his Government no other option than to respond in this manner. Antigua's gambling industry was devastated by the unfair practices of the U.S. and years of negotiations have offered no compromise.
"These aggressive efforts to shut down the remote gaming industry in Antigua has resulted in the loss of thousands of good paying jobs and seizure by the Americans of billions of dollars belonging to gaming operators and their customers in financial institutions across the world," Lowell says.
"If the same type of actions, by another nation, caused the people and the economy of the United States to be so significantly impacted, Antigua would without hesitation support their pursuit of justice," the Finance minister adds.
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