Wolfrum's morning has been spent running errands and not perusing current events. Thus, today's post is dedicated to allowing you - the discernible reader - to do what Tim Pawlenty just didn't have the courage to do at the GOP Debate - say what you think right to Mitt Romney's face.
The job figures for May were truly ghastly. In a month in which the economy needed to add 150,000 jobs simply to keep pace with the growth in the labor force, the private sector created 83,000 jobs and the public sector actually lost 29,000. Nearly 14 million Americans remain involuntarily unemployed.
American businesses are breaking up with the middle class. This won't be news around here, though it might stir up some controversy over at The Daily today. In my column this week I looked into some of the potential implications of two big changes in American business. They used to rely largely on domestic middle class consumers to make their profits. This was true even in the 1990s, when the main effect of globalization was overseas exploitation in order to sell cheap goods ba
On June 11, 2011 Norm Dicks (D) Washington State's 6th district told constituents through reporters at his local paper The Kitsap Sun, that it is time for Afghanistan to "take care of herself". So the question becomes this, is Norm Dick signaling this administrations willingness to move up the timeline for removing troops from Afghanistan.
By Michael Wolraich on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 12:37pm | Politics, Humor & Satire
Herman Cain discusses Islam
Political experts across the nation burbled approvingly after Monday's Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire. The candidates surpassed expectations by maintaining human form and refraining from howling, salivating excessively, or biting moderator John King on the leg.
As the clock struck zero and the NBA Finals ended, the national sports media found itself forced to focus solely on the Dallas Mavericks. The time for analyzing and re-analyzing Lebron James and the star-studded Miami Heat had come to an end. There was a new champion in town, and the time had come to praise the victors.
It's been six months now since Rick Snyder tied himself to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's purse strings, letting the largest right-wing think tank in the country aid him in becoming the puppet-governor of Michigan, my Michigan. If my beautiful state has any claim to fame these days, it's in the streaming melodrama of a calculated, very public disintegration of the rights and liberties of its people.
By Donal on Sun, 06/12/2011 - 10:11pm | Technology
The Mazda 2 now for sale in the US is already one of the two most affordable green cars on the ACEEE list, but Green Car Congress talks about an advanced evolution of the Mazda Demio with, "hybrid-like fuel consumption at a lower price."
There has been quite a bit of discussion lately on what is wrong with the system and what needs to be changed. Liz Berry has suggested in her current blog that the problem is political, that both political parties are indistinguishable and that a third party would fix this. I agree with her assessment but have serious doubts about the cure. Jeffroby has suggested organization of the poor and middle class for some political muscle. And I agree with the organization part though I do not agree with the political part. And OhioGringo sites Robert Reich on the WPA and CCC - government spending.
The other day, a top American political consultant, Matthew Dowd, was visiting Madrid and was interviewed by the local "newspaper of reference", El País. When he was asked his opinion about Spain's "15th of May" citizen's movement, AKA, "The Spanish Revolution" or "Los Indignados", he dismissed them saying, "If they want to influence the system they must work from within, supporting a leader." In so saying, I think this consummate insider has revealed one of the keys to a political system which today seems much more in tune with lobbies and special interest groups than with the lives and concerns of its citizens and voters: a "caste apart"... precisely what los indignados are indignant about.
The blurring of CIA and military By David Ignatius, Washington Post, June 1, 2011 One consequence of the early “war on terror” years was that the lines between CIA and military activities got blurred. ...The Obama administration is finishing an effort to redraw those lines more carefully....
Let's be clear on this. Your blogger has a strong connection to the district Congressman Weiner represents, but he does not live or vote there. The Congressman's value to those who see the New Deal as an irrevocable compact between the government and the citizenry, has been long apparent, but his interminable press conference on Monday and its shocking revelations about him, led to this post on Daily Kos:
Unfortunately, the corporatocracy seems to understand Black people much better than we understand ourselves. But that’s fully understandable, since they’ve had centuries of experience in observing our behavior. They understand that since Black people are the product of the very same racist environment as White people, we tend to be just as racist toward other Blacks as any Hillbilly. That explains why we never see a drive-by committed by a person wearing a sheet. The Klan has learned, just like the powers that be, that we’re much more efficient at destroying one another than they could ever be.
That’s what makes the phrase “airing our dirty laundry” such a joke. Everyone else in the world seems to see the skid marks in our dirty drawers but us. Take the matter of Barack Obama , for example. Those who specialize in manipulating the American people clearly understand that his rapid rise to become President of the United States tends to diminish the accomplishments of Black leaders and intellectuals all over the country. Thus, many of these leaders have become ripe, willing, and enthusiastic accomplices in the effort to drag this president down, regardless of the negative consequences to Black people, or America as a whole. So the manipulators know that all they have to do is suggest reasonable sounding grounds to criticize Obama, then sit back and wait for the envious Black aristocracy to till the fields and pluck the cotton.
