we are stardust's picture

    The Shadow Budget: The Fed Enables the Biggest Gangsta-Heist Ever

                                                      

    “The truth shall set you free.  But first it’s gonna piss you off.” – Dylan Ratigan

    It’s understandable that we blog a lot about the budget fights in Congress, or the contents of Obama’s budget speech this week.  God knows it’s the only semi-serious subject on the the MSM’s radar.  Except among progressive bloggers, 'the crucial need for Deficit and Debt Control' as urgent right now has been written in stone already.  Even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has weighed in and called it ‘the most serious threat to our National Security’, though he forgets to point out that our defense budget has doubled over the past ten years.  (Hillary Clinton concurs.)

    Richard Day's picture

    DANGEROUS ATTACKS UPON SUFFRAGE

    File:Glass ballot box - Smithsonian.jpg

                    THE BALLOT BOX

    "The idea of restraining the right of suffrage to the freeholders... would create division among the people, and make enemies of all those who should be excluded."

    Krugman's view of Obama's plan

    He laterals to Bob Greenstein who doesn't reject it per se but objects to it as the starting point for a long process

    Bob Greenstein   ..........finds the Obama plan still too weighted to spending cuts and with not enough revenue increases — and I will abide by his judgment:

    coatesd's picture

    The Danger of Losing the Plot So Early in the Play

    If it is true that those whom the gods would destroy they first send mad, then currently we are in serious trouble in Washington DC. For in the political theatre we have just witnessed – around the shutdown of the federal government – there has been madness aplenty: a madness indeed which, unless quickly and effectively challenged, will inevitably rewrite the entire Obama play, to his immediate detriment and to our long-term cost.

    Richard Day's picture

    MY BACK PAGES

     

    Watt Childress's picture

    The fallout of our trickle-down economy

    Radiation leaking from American-designed reactors has made its way into Northwest milk and Northeast rain. Nowhere near enough to pose an immediate threat to Americans, say public officials. Yet the nuclear poison is wreaking havoc on Japan, and it is traveling great distances.

    Officials have repeated two messages since day one of this tragedy. First, there’s no cause for alarm. Second, this will not alter government’s plan to subsidize more nuclear reactors.

    cmaukonen's picture

    Are Americans still outraged ? Oh you betcha

    Well here is a chart that might shed some light on this subject.


    From this article in Mother Jones.

    acanuck's picture

    A CANADIAN ELECTION PRIMER

    We Canadians take our politics very seriously. Also our hockey. Hard to say which we care more about. Oh no, wait. It's not:
    http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/04/10/french-debate-rescheduled-to-avoid-habs-playoff-game/

    cmaukonen's picture

    Divisions ÷


    cmaukonen's picture

    They keep going and going and going ..........

    I really like the idea of a one world government and maybe in about 400 years humanity will have matured enough to actually get one. Donal did an excellent series on why complex societies collapse with talks by Dr. Tainter.

    jollyroger's picture

    Arise, ye (Icelandic) prisoners of starvation!

    Showing more sense then their American counterparts, the voters of Iceland, purportedly staring in the face a $6,000/person personal hit, are touted to nix the volunteer victim program.

    With Ireland roiled and the Greeks in the street, a government fallen in  Portugal, how long before the Euro explodes like Glen Beck's head when Fox fired him?

     

    Class war, y'all.

    Richard Day's picture

    WHAT DO THE TEABAGGERS REALLY WANT?

     

     

    REVOLTING PEASANT.



    What in the fuck do the Teabaggers want?

    I came across this rather fine link describing their primary wants and desires.

    Elusive Trope's picture

    What Are We Saying When We Say What We Say?

    The current cover of Time magazine depicts a modified image of Abraham Lincoln shedding a tear with the headline “Why We’re Still Fighting the Civil War: The endless battle over the war’s true cause would make Lincoln Weep.”

    Barth's picture

    Mean Girls (and Boys) and the Mean Women and Men they Have Become

    So that's how it ends. As NBC News White House correspondent Chuck Todd told Chris Hayes last night, the "price" for keeping Congress from cutting its minimal support of Planned Parenthood, was to make further cuts in other programs so that different poor and/or elderly and/or sick people get hurt.

    Politics and Poker

    Supposedly State Senator Obama passed the nights in Springfield playing poker with the Republicans. Which he just did again.

    We don't know the details and there'll be lots I will hate. That's democracy. Elections do have consequences. We lost last fall, and this is the result. The Americans who took a seat at the table, who chose to vote in November, won that hand and are now picking up the chips. That's as it should be. They're entitled to have their views reflected in what the government decides to do.

    we are stardust's picture

    Oldies Music Video Friday Date Night

    Grab your best real or imaginary sweetie, and spin us a tune.  The Big G may or may not shut down tonight; it’ll get fixed soon, and we hope no one suffers needlessly. 

     Embed hints: Grab the Old Embed code by right clicking on it.  In the comment box, either text or not, click Disable Rich Text.  Click a cursor wherever you want a smaller version of the video.  Change the values to 320 X 195 in both places.  Then click Enable Rich Text.  A pink box should be there; preview it, and it should be ready to save.

    This was one of pop's favorites:

    Exposing the lies in Wisconsin

    A note on the Journal Sentinal article numbers for those who may be swayed by the arguments performed there. First of all, that piece appeared yesterday only hours after Nickolaus started grandstanding with her 14000 vote "error". More importantly, there is a disputed figure reporte there that may not be true. The figure is that turn out was set at 37 percent which is compared to the large dropoff from the 62 percent in 2010.

    CityVille Socialism - Who Knew?

    Having spent the last year or so making fun of my Facebook friends for playing FarmVille and posting those annoying requests and “so-and-so found a lost cow” messages on my news feed, I have recently tried and become addicted to FarmVille's cousin, CityVille.

    we are stardust's picture

    SCOTUS Just Gouged the Establishment Clause; Obama Helped

                                       

    Earlier this week in a 5-4 decision the High Court refused to overturn an Arizona law that allows taxpayers to receive a dollar-for-dollar state tax credit for their contributions to school scholarships even if they are for religious schools.  The credit allowed is up to $500 per person or $1000 per couple.  It has cost Arizona approximately $350 million since the law was enacted.

    A central concern of the First Amendment was in James Madison’s word to prevent government to require taxpayers to "three pence of his property for the support of religion”.

    In Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn Geoffrey Stone says that:

    As the Supreme Court recognized more than forty years ago, as a general proposition the Establishment Clause prohibits government from using its "taxing and spending power... to favor one religion over another or to support religion in general." Thus, the Establishment Clause forbids government to fund churches to enable them to spread their religious beliefs or to award special tax credits to individuals to reimburse them for their contributions to religious organizations.”

    Ryan : Health Exchanges are bad except except when they're good.

    From the Washington Post to Brad Delong  to you

     

    Ezra Klein: Speaking of the Affordable Care Act, you’ve said before that the theory behind the exchanges in Ryan-Rivlin and the theory behind the exchanges in the Affordable Care Act are identical. That would mean Republicans who believe in Ryan’s model should be more optimistic about the Affordable Care Act. But Ryan has said the two of you simply disagree on how to build the exchanges. Can you explain to me the disagreement you have that would make Ryan-Rivlin different from the ACA?

    The Kochs take aim at academic freedom

    No sense wasting your time with my summary, read Juan Cole.

    http://www.juancole.com/

    BTW Cole's definition is not freedom to agree with him. He vigorously protested the resolution by the British academic union proposing a ban of UK entry for Israeli professors. As he said these were people he had debated in venues all over the world and it would have been particularly  craven for him to be silent. 

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