Holding to the GOP principle of demanding that our children and grandchildren be burdened with the cost of the Bush tax cuts, Boehner says he will not accept any deficit reduction that asks the wealthiest of Americans to pay a few percentage points more in income tax.
....the speaker.........was encountering stiff resistance from fellow Republicans who are determined not to support any package containing proposals that could be construed as a tax increase.
It seems the Obama administration may be eager once again to 'give in' to Republican bullying, threats and demands, to 'get a deal' on the debt limit raise and the deficit. We saw it when he dropped single payer. Again with the Dec. 2010 deal on extending the Bush tax cuts. Obama now may be ready to do what George W. Bush with a Republican Congress was unable to do in 2005.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Obama administration officials believe that Pakistan’s powerful spy agency ordered the killing of a Pakistani journalist who had written scathing reports about the infiltration of militants in the country’s military, according to American officials.....
Too early, after a decade, to talk about pulling troops from Afghanistan, from the guy who believes we didn't try hard enough to win in Vietnam.
"The fact is there is no recommendation by any military person to have this early withdrawal, and it's an unnecessary risk," McCain told CNN's "State of the Union.
The NBA lockout started yesterday, and one might ask, who cares about millionaires fighting billionaires? Looking at the details, it appears that even NBA player millionaires are, like 'little people', ripe targets for scams by greedy and rich corporate run organizations. I side with the players for the reasons below. The following is my interpretation of facts presented from ESPN articles linked below..
Tax hikes destroy jobs. Even tax hikes on billionaire hedge fund managers, even when they pay the lowest taxes since there were taxes. Even when the rich use their tax savings to make more money by speculating on commodities like oil and food driving up prices, or send the funds overseas. Even tax hikes on the super rich when government is cutting health care, food assistance and unemployment aid to the poor, and even though The Decider's war/financial collapse recession hasn't ended on Main Street. Trust the Republicans:
WASHINGTON, June 27, 2011 -- The Supreme Court has struck down a provision of a campaign financing system in Arizona that gives extra cash to publicly funded candidates who face privately funded rivals and independent groups. The 5-4 ruling Monday is the latest in a series of decisions by the court's conservative majority upending campaign finance laws
Was it the plethora of gunplay, admiration for a man who 'did it his way', the fantasy to live by your own rules and go down in a hail of bullets, or the feeling that Billy was his true Soulmate that attracted industry titan, union busting, government employee belittler, and GOP supporting corporate magnate William Koch to blow $2.6 million on a fading tintype of outlaw Billy the Kid? Oh, and the 'job creating' Bush tax cuts for millionaires helped Koch afford the high price to add the item to his private collection of knick-knacks.
The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion.
That's more than NASA's budget.( $18.7 billion requested 2012) It's more than BP has paid so far for damage during the Gulf oil spill. It's what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia.
How bold will Obama be, or will he go with leaving the the big decisions to the military? General Petraeus says we have made tremendous achievements in the region, yet, our progress is 'fragile and reversible'. (Is progress ever not reversible, especially in Afghanistan?) Information on options from Yahoo link.
Doctors at University based hospitals don't see the need for it, but double chest CT scans done the same day, one with, one without, contrast media in the blood, are done and billed to the federal Medicare program with abandon in the would be secessionist, tax hating, deficit decrying, overwhelmingly Republican State of Texas.
The CIA is building a secret air base in a neighboring country to Yemen, as support for bombing Yemeni people with drones. This while the impoverished country of 23 millions falls apart. Protestors demand an end to rule by Yemen's wounded American backed leader, who is currently in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment after his compound was hit by rockets, or artillery, or possibly a suicide bomber, reports have varied. Yemen borders on the oil rich state of Saudi Arabia.
Who would have expected that the penultimate achievement of The Great Republican War President and Decider, George W. Bush, ('Getting Saddam'), would end up 8 years, a trillion dollars, and 35,000+ casualties later, with US taxpayers paying Iraqis not to kill Operation Iraqi Freedom troops on their way out of the violent mess Iraq has been turned into, as they go down the 160 mile road to Kuwait?
The 40-year-old's body was found by local residents in a canal in the Sarai Alamgir area of Mandi Baha Uddin, some 150km (93 miles) south-east of the capital. His car was found about 10km (six miles) away....Mr Hasan of Human Rights Watch said Shahzad had recently complained about being threatened by the intelligence arm of the Pakistan military, the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI).
BAGHDAD — Tens of thousands of followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al Sadr staged a military-style parade Thursday in Baghdad to demand that U.S. troops leave the country as scheduled by Dec. 31, a show of force intended to intimidate Iraqi officials who favor asking that some American troops stay on....
New and unbelievably good documentary on the Freedom Riders' of 1961. If you think you know anything about what happened that year in Alabama and Mississippi you need to see this film, because you probably don't know it all. The 120 minute production has loads of video from the period and interviews with the (formerly-interviews are recent) brave young participants.
Does anyone feel sorry for these folks, perhaps of the Republican tribe, and likely believers in the magic and morality of unfettered capitalism, for being sucked into expensive real estate deals where they lost lots of money, buying into the image inspired by the name 'Trump'?
In a relationship not unlike the Minor Leagues/Major Leagues in baseball, the Securities and Exchange Commission serves as a low paid training ground for up and coming lawyers to train for the big bucks in the big leagues on Wall Street. The only difference is the SEC is not run and funded by Wall Street, but by the taxpayers who it supposedly serves, taxpayers,who also pay to keep Wall Street afloat and billions in bonuses flowing into deep pockets when SEC regulated Wall Street free enterprise supporting tycoons crash the economy.
Like naughty kids whose rebellion and threats to 'go it on their own' ends at the front door, Obama bashing birther secessionist pandering Republicans like Gov. Rick Perry (R) believe they have been done wrong by the Obama administration in not being declared a disaster area because of the wildfires in Texas. The addition to the deficit that federal aid would create seems to not be a concern for them, as they would get the money. Republicans only want to cut the deficit by cutting aid or funds to anyone and everyone but themselves and their GOP backers.
