Obama a liability in Wisconsin recall efforts?

Posted on August 11, 2011 by oddmanout215

To establish a majority in the state Senate, Wisconsin Democrats needed to defeat three of the six Republicans challenged in recall elections held Tuesday. They defeated two. A good day but not good enough, arguably because Barack Obama and other national Dem leaders make it hard for voters to distinguish between Dem and Republican philosophies of government.

From FDL:

The consistent message from the national Democratic Party and President Obama is that “this is the era of austerity…” Although [Obama] claimed to favor worker rights, he unilaterally froze federal worker salaries. And then he told the elderly that they needed to accept “adjustments” in their pensions and health care after extending tax breaks for the wealthy… With such a profoundly misguided and destructive message coming from the president and national leaders, it must have been particularly difficult for Wisconsin citizens to explain why voters should recall Republican state senators for taking positions their president and party were embracing in Washington. To be sure, Wisconsin’s Tea-Party Governor [Scott Walker] is a fraud, and his party’s actions have been abusive and excessive in slashing state programs and benefits. But Walker’s budget goals and methods are consistent with those of his national counterparts…

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, Obama, Politics, taxes, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

SugarHouse workers to bet on unionizing

Posted on August 10, 2011 by oddmanout215

Sure, the SugarHouse Casino next to the Delaware River is an eyesore and a sick solution to the scarcity of good jobs in Philadelphia. However, casino workers deserve job security and a fairer share of the loot that’s not being sucked out of Philly by Chicago billionaire Neil Bluhm and others with large stakes in the gambling parlor.

A group of union leaders and preachers showed up in person at the casino Friday to officially inform management that a unionization effort was in progress. City Paper noted:

What will happen next isn’t clear: The workers could file for an election with the National Labor Relations Board, but that process would likely take months, if not longer. They could also ask SugarHouse to extend voluntary recognition.

Good luck, but watch out for Bluhm and the politicians in Philly and Harrisburg who used every dirty trick in the book to get SugarHouse up and running.

Posted in casinos, City Hall, City Paper, economic collapse, Great Recession, Philadelphia, Politics, taxes, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sexist-crazed NOW leader rips Newsweek

Posted on August 10, 2011 by oddmanout215

It’s “sexist,” says National Organization for Women President Terry O’Neill, in high dudgeon over Newsweek’s cover photo of crazy-eyed Michele Bachmann looking crazy-eyed. As if readers might look at the photo and suspect Bachmann is… you know, crazy. As if her on-the-record views don’t encourage this suspicion.

Bachmann said in 2004 that being gay is “personal enslavement,” and that, if same-sex marriage were legalized, “little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal and natural and that perhaps they should try it.” Speaking about gay-rights activists, that same year, she said, “It is our children that is the prize for this community.” She believes that evolution is a theory that has “never been proven,” and that intelligent design should be taught in schools.

The above quote-out is from a recent New Yorker profile of Bachmann, carefully written and free of judgmental assertions. Guess what — she still seems crazy.

O’Neill also objected to Newsweek referring to Bachmann as “the queen of rage” and declared that no man would be labeled “king of” this or that. Maybe not, but mainstream media outlets (the New Yorker aside) routinely portray public figures in ways that reflect what they imagine their audiences think of these figures.

This has nothing to do with sexism. Howard Dean was toast in 2004 after that tape of him urging supporters to keep fighting was shown. The media portrayed him as borderline crazy, though he was anything but.

Would O’Neill have objected if Newsweek ran a flattering photo of Bachmann with a text that dishonestly portrayed her as well-educated, rational and tolerant? I doubt it.

My point is that O’Neill is wedded to tired old slogans and can’t see the forest for the trees. She should choose her battles more wisely instead of saying things that end up as talking points on Fox News.

Posted in humor, mainstream media, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Toomey = tax breaks for the rich, no new jobs

Posted on August 9, 2011 by oddmanout215

Don’t forget to turn out tomorrow to ask Pat Toomey where the jobs are, but don’t expect a straight answer. This guy toes the party line, as I found out during a recent back-and-forth with him or, more likely, with his e-mail flack.

From: Sen. Pat Toomey
To: David McKenna

Thank you for contacting me about the debt limit… As you know, the debt limit is an important issue before Congress right now. The current limit, which was last raised in February 2010, is $14.3 trillion… As you may know, total federal spending has doubled since 2000. In addition, recent deficits have grossly exceeded those that we were running only a few years ago… It is clear that Washington has a serious spending problem, and the American people want Congress to make the tough choices necessary to address it… I therefore value your input as I continue working with my Senate colleagues on the debt limit and restoring fiscal responsibility. Thank you again for your correspondence. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of assistance.

From: David McKenna
To: Sen. Pat Toomey

Yes, Washington has “a serious spending problem” in that it spent vast amounts of taxpayer money to salvage banks in 2008 rather than to put back to work the millions of people left jobless by the economic collapse… Most of our debt stems from the George W. Bush years and involves massive tax breaks for the rich and spending on foreign wars. Now, with so many people jobless and tax rates for the wealthiest at record lows, it is almost impossible to generate sufficient revenues to keep the deficit from skyrocketing… Your sudden interest in the “debt limit” would seem to have less to do with “restoring fiscal responsibility” than with trying to permanently install outrageously low tax rates… Thank you for your correspondence. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of assistance.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Philly’s turf war against flash mobs

Posted on August 9, 2011 by oddmanout215

I had to laugh when I saw the Agence France-Presse story about the “flash mob curfew” now in effect in my obscenely humid hometown:

The measure was the latest effort to secure a city famous as the site of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence and drafting of the US Constitution, but which has spent years trying to overcome violent crime.

The story has a written-from-a-distance feel, which probably means the writer has no idea how much more violent Philly was a few years ago (in terms of fatalities) or in the early 1980s, or in the early 1970s, when gangs fought throughout the city to expand their turf, and God help you if you walked past the wrong gang’s favorite streetcorner.

The reason Philly violence is getting special attention now is because the punks in the flash mobs have been beating up people in Center City and are therefore a threat to affluent residents, tourists, big spenders from the suburbs and, in general, the city’s somewhat improved national and international image.

The curfew is to send a message: If you guys want to maim or kill people, do so in your own neighborhoods, away from the well-off sections of town.

Posted in City Hall, economic collapse, Great Recession, humor, livable cities, mainstream media, Philadelphia, Politics, unemployment | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

London calling… for more firefighters

Posted on August 9, 2011 by oddmanout215

Fans of the Clash must feel nostalgic watching events unfold in London and other English cities, where economic austerity (starve the poor) and rioting are back in style. The New Yorker quotes a Labour Party official who warned last fall that cuts to public and social services were a recipe for chaos:

These unpalatable and unnecessary cuts will be disastrous for our community. The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives risk throwing us back to the 1980s, when the frustration and anger that flowed from squandered talent and relentless poverty led to social unrest.

I guess Prime Minister David Cameron, who was vacationing at a villa in Tuscany, thought such warnings were a lot of rot.

Cameron’s counterparts in America no doubt feel the same way about warnings from those who think impending large-scale spending cuts will have dire social consequences. Riots in America? Don’t be ridiculous.

Posted in Congress, economic collapse, globalization, Great Recession, mainstream media, Politics, The New Depression, unemployment, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

A no-class-system-in-America joke

Posted on August 8, 2011 by oddmanout215

Oldie-but-goodie found on the Internet — Two English professors run into each other and start shooting the breeze:

Professor A: “B, old chap, I haven’t seen you for a long while.”
Professor B: “I’ve been away in America researching my new book.”
Professor A: “Ah, what’s the topic?”
Professor B: “The persistence of social classes in America.”
Professor A: “Why, I didn’t think they had social classes in America!”
Professor B: “Neither do they. That’s how they persist.”

For weeks blowhards from both major political parties insisted the country would implode without “across the board” sacrifices. But then both houses of Congress voted for legislation that did not include long-overdue tax increases for the wealthy. Then, after having helped seal the disastrous deficit deal, Barack Obama called for a “balanced approach” to reducing the deficit.

To do otherwise would be to risk being accused of “class warfare” by David Brooks, aka the Earnest Weasel, and other right-wing propagandists, who also like to make the contradictory claim that there are no classes in America.

But Obama doesn’t take risks and he doesn’t believe in classes, except for the elitist gang that helped bring him to power — the one that stretches from Wall Street to certain Ivy League schools to the University of Chicago.

Posted in Congress, economic collapse, Great Depression, Great Recession, humor, mainstream media, Obama, Politics, taxes, The New Depression, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Satan sandwich, or the seitan?

Posted on August 8, 2011 by oddmanout215

I needed caffeine badly, so I stopped in a vegan coffee shop — soy milk only — and ordered a macchiato. Reading the menu board, I noticed the seitan sandwich and asked the barista if this item was inspired by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s recent description of the Obama-Boehner debt-deal disaster as “a sugar-coated Satan sandwich.”

The barista gave me a blank state and said the seitan sandwich has been on the shop’s menu for quite a while. She’d never heard of Cleaver, and probably didn’t know about the debt deal either.

In case you’re wondering, seitan is wheat gluten (starch-free) and is an alternative to that other meat substitute, tofu.

Clarification: I’m not a vegan, for many reasons. One is that vegans seem to be as irony-free as Bruce Springsteen fans. The latter’s fan club is another cult I don’t like, although Springsteen himself was cool back in 1975.

Posted in Congress, economic collapse, food, Great Recession, humor, mainstream media, Philadelphia, The New Depression | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Ayn Rand would rap Ryan’s knuckles

Posted on August 7, 2011 by oddmanout215

Paul Ryan has always insisted on “revenue neutral” tax reform, but now that congressional Dems have been trounced, he’s singing a slightly different tune. The Wisconsin wing-nut said today he’d

Posted in Congress, Great Depression, Great Recession, mainstream media, Politics, taxes, The New Depression, Uncategorized, unemployment | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

What if the passion was never there?

Posted on August 7, 2011 by oddmanout215

Obama blew it. That’s the point of a long piece in today’s NYT by an exasperated academic who has stopped pretending Obama is the second coming of Martin Luther King:

…[King] preached the gospel of nonviolence, but he knew that whether a bully hid behind a club or a poll tax, the only effective response was to face the bully down, and to make the bully show his true and repugnant face in public. In contrast, when faced with the greatest economic crisis, the greatest levels of economic inequality, and the greatest levels of corporate influence on politics since the Depression, Barack Obama stared into the eyes of history and chose to avert his gaze…

The writer examines Obama’s contradictory policy decisions and asks questions even true believers can no longer avoid: What if Obama’s grandiloquence was to disguise an inability to fight when necessary, or even to acknowledge the existence of enemies? More cynically, what if his disastrous insistence on compromise merely reflects the extent to which he had “already been consciously or unconsciously corrupted” by the forces we were hoping he’d combat?

Posted in Congress, Great Depression, Great Recession, mainstream media, New York Times, Obama, Politics, taxes, The New Depression, unemployment, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment