Corbett to constituents: Go frack yourselves

Posted on March 19, 2011 by oddmanout215

From the March 17 Philadelphia Daily News:

It hasn’t gone unnoticed to Pennsylvanians that the natural-gas industry is drilling the Marcellus Shale without paying taxes, while Gov. Corbett has been drilling into education and Medicaid. According to a Daily News/Franklin & Marshall College Poll, Pennsylvanians strongly oppose Corbett’s education and Medicaid cuts. Meanwhile, they favor taxing the natural-gas industry, and smokeless tobacco and cigars, and selling the state-owned liquor stores to private companies… The poll may fall on deaf ears, though. “While he was running for governor, Tom Corbett did not comment on polls,” said Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley. “As governor, he will be governing on policy, not polls.”

I believe Harley. The new crop of Republican governors aren’t looking at polls or listening to constituents. They’ll worry about that stuff a few years from now at election time. For now they’ll remain on their knees, servicing their corporate johns, coming up for air only long enough to announce the appointment of another corrupt hack to further undermine public safety.

PA’s governor, who accepted about $1 million in campaign contributions from drilling interests, made it clear from the get-go that it’s open season on the environment — most alarmingly, on PA’s fresh water supply, which is being polluted by fracking, the process through which drillers get to natural gas.

Corbett defends his blatantly submissive relationship with big business by claiming his goal is to create jobs, as if jobs creation and environmental protection are mutually exclusive.

When labor union-hating Republicans talk about creating jobs, they always mean creating tax breaks for their corporate masters, and more opportunities to overturn laws that were drafted to protect us from these people.

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Autoworkers to Friedman: The world is round

Posted on March 19, 2011 by oddmanout215

From the March 17 New York Times:

General Motors said Thursday that it would temporarily shut a truck plant in Louisiana because it could not get enough Japanese-made parts, the first in what analysts say could be widespread disruptions at auto plants in North America because of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis half a world away. That it was G.M. — rather than one of the Japanese automakers, which depend on many parts from their home country — that succumbed first to the shortage shows how much the industry depends on far-flung suppliers.

Here, Tom Friedman. Stick this news item up your flat, transnational ass then write another utopian bestseller about globalization.

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Arianna & the Koch bros, perfect together

Posted on March 19, 2011 by oddmanout215

From The Raw Story:

The Huffington Post rebuffed a union boycott call over its practice of using unpaid bloggers, saying most of them are “thrilled to contribute” despite not being paid. The Newspaper Guild, a union of US media workers with 26,000 members, urged contributors to The Huffington Post earlier this week to stop providing free content to the news and opinion website.

Looks like Arianna’s never going to get back to me regarding my request to discuss money she owes to writers who, over the years, helped make HuffPo the commodity she recently sold to AOL for $315 million. She was a no-show for our date at Craft in NYC and hasn’t responded to any of my tweets. Oh, the pain of being rebuffed!

Her mouthpiece Mario Ruiz said there’s a big difference between paid staffers and writers who didn’t get paid but were “thrilled” to contribute articles. Well, obviously. Staffers are on salary and presumably enjoy a benefits package, but how does that disqualify non-staffers from payment? Even the humblest newspapers — I’ve worked for a few of them — usually pay contributors a nominal amount, if only to acknowledge we’re all in the same trade.

Wait, I think I know… Ruiz made sure he referred to the unpaid writers as bloggers. His implicit point was there is something less legitimate about an article written as an online post, even if it’s used by a for-profit online publication. Which implies online news publications are still, in some ways, less legitimate than print publications. Ain’t it ironic.

There is a name for people who write pieces for publication and don’t expect payment in return. Online or off, these people are called letter writers. There’s a name for people who work on- or off-site for a business, for free. They’re called interns.

And there’s a name for Arianna Huffington and business owners like her –several names, in fact. I’m trying to be polite, so I’ll use Chris Hedges’ term — “charter members of the exploitative class.” These are people in privileged positions who have enough capital to start a business with good prospects to succeed. They tend to build their businesses with non-union and underpaid — sometimes unpaid — workers, then sell them at huge profits.

Sometimes these business owners call themselves liberals or progressives, but they often have more in common with people who have nothing but contempt for unions and working people in general.

Arianna, meet the Koch brothers. Or maybe you guys already are acquainted.

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Unemployment? Fuggedaboutit!

Posted on March 18, 2011 by oddmanout215

Politicians take care of their benefactors. No other men or women need apply.

Paul Krugman responding to my post (I’m kidding) about Obama not even pretending to care about the unemployed:

…No jobs bills have been introduced in Congress, no job-creation plans have been advanced by the White House and all the policy focus seems to be on spending cuts. So one-sixth of America’s workers — all those who can’t find any job or are stuck with part-time work when they want a full-time job — have, in effect, been abandoned.

…There are almost five times as many unemployed workers as there are job openings; the average unemployed worker has been jobless for 37 weeks, a post-World War II record. In short, we’re well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless. Why doesn’t Washington care?

Krugman notes that both major parties think they’re safe from voter backlash because people who still have jobs feel reasonably secure — at least for now. Office holders have concluded it’s politically safer to whine about the federal budget deficit than address the unemployment mess. And yet, “…polls indicate that voters still care much more about jobs than they do about the budget deficit.”

So what gives? Why are Obama and legislators of both parties, the people who gave billions to the Wall Street thieves who’d stolen billions from us, so blase about the unemployed, and about declining standards of living among those who still have jobs? The D.c. politicians seem to work harder — Republicans more than Dems, of course — at pitting various worker factions against one another than at trying to boost the overall jobs market.

Do they think most Americans are cool with rule by the corporate elite, otherwise known as oligarchy, so long as their own lifestyles don’t fall below a certain comfort level — a level that that has yet to be determined?

Not yet ready to tackle that one, Paul? I don’t blame you.

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Bernie Sanders is the real Obama, no fooling

Posted on March 17, 2011 by oddmanout215

In my view, we do need to boldly address our deficit crisis, but we need to do it in a way that is fair – that is not on the backs of the sick, the elderly, the children and the poor. In other words, we need shared sacrifice. The wealthiest people in this country, who are now doing phenomenally well, are also going to have to help us with deficit reduction. That is why I introduced legislation which would place a 5.4 percent emergency surtax on income over $1 million. The revenue would go into an Emergency Deficit Reduction Fund. Just doing that – asking millionaires to pay a little bit more in taxes after all the huge tax breaks they have received – will bring in up to $50 billion a year.

— Sen. Bernie Sanders, March 14

We won’t get fooled again.

— The Who, 1971

He’s old and doesn’t dress like a model, and he speaks too plainly, and only for people who can’t afford to make large campaign contributions. But he doesn’t associate with the likes of William Daley and Tim Geithner. He hasn’t welshed on promises to end Bush’s wars, close the Guantanamo Bay prison, make jobs creation the main goal of his stimulus program and walk with workers whose rights are being trampled. I could go on.

Bernie is the Obama most progressives voted for, as opposed to the Obama who turned out to be Bush Lite. And that assessment is too generous — Obama’s favorable treatment of corrupt Wall Street bankers and his continuation of the war on citizens’ rights in the name of anti-terrorism make him almost as heavy (oppressive) as Dubya.

You say wait a minute, Bernie Sanders is an independent — a goddamn socialist, in fact. He wants to increase taxes on the rich to help balance the budget. He wants to end corporate outsourcing of jobs, safeguard Social Security, put a stop to Republican efforts to cut aid to the poor and middle class. He really believes in this shit!

As do most progressives. If we can pretend Obama was a progressive rather than a mouthpiece for big business, then why can’t we pretend Bernie Sanders — the man who filibustered for eight hours against extended tax cuts for the rich — is the real Obama, the progressive we voted for?

I’m not saying we should join Robert Reich’s “People’s Party” or push for Bernie to run for president. There are potential opponents to Obama who are younger, more polished and just as progressive. What we should do is stop waiting for Obama to start acting like a real Democrat, especially now that he’s focused on re-election.

We should look to Bernie Sanders, at least for the time being, to articulate our determination to stop the Republicans from turning the entire country into Mississippi. This would make more sense than looking for leadership from the empty suit who currently occupies the White House.

Besides, it’s a lot harder to get fooled by someone when you know you’re only pretending.

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The end is near, Philly! For you too, NYC.

Posted on March 16, 2011 by oddmanout215

From The Raw Story:

In the documentary Urban Danger, 84-year-old Republican Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, who is serving his tenth term as the representative of Maryland’s Sixth District, explains why US citizens should avoid living in cities. “There are a number of events that could create a situation in our cities where civil unrest could be a very high probability,” Bartlett said in the film. “And I think that those who can and those who understand need to take advantage of this opportunity when the winds of strife are not blowing to move their families out of the city.”

My man Roscoe sounds like a real estate agent 40 years ago in Philadelphia: “Run for your lives, you fools, or drown in the encroaching black tide. I can offer you a great deal on a two-story, semi-detached dump in Delaware County, and so what if you have to drive ten miles to buy a loaf of bread? This is your life we’re talking about, man… your children’s lives!

Has this guy never heard of urban sprawl, or of white flight?

To be fair, Roscoe is a Tea Party Caucus member and a Seventh-day Adventist, but there’s no indication he’s a racist. He seems to be saying we should flee the wicked cities because of biological warfare or some other version of the apocalypse.

Maybe Roscoe seems crazy only to those of us who would rather be in the city than in the boondocks when things fall apart in a big way.

Posted in economic collapse, enviromentalism, livable cities, Philadelphia, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

GOP on Japan nuke crisis: Shit happens

Posted on March 16, 2011 by oddmanout215

Eric Fry of The Daily Reckoning, commenting on his colleague Chris Mayer’s column, about the advisability of investing in uranium “futures” in the wake of the ongoing nuclear reactor crisis is Japan:

Uranium is “too hard” indeed. On the other hand, nothing is very easy these days. Following the Nikkei’s vertical plunge during the last two days, most stock markets around the globe also posted minus signs. From the highs of March 11 – the day the 9.0 quake struck – to the lows of today, Japan’s Nikkei Index plunged more than 20%. The would-be buyers of Japanese stocks apparently decided that widespread devastation and smoldering nuclear power plants are not bullish phenomena… Obviously, the unfolding nuclear tragedy in Japan is not a non-event… as the harrowing volatility in global stock markets attests. The uranium sector, in particular, is in full meltdown mode…

I’d been trying to think of a pure and active exponent of unregulated capitalism. The sort of person who looks 24/7 at the places where current events and investment decisions converge. Someone who can watch news footage of people rendered homeless and hungry by an earthquake-tsunami-nuclear crisis and worry more about the health of investors than hungry people.

Fry might not be my guy. Speculation is his passion and writing about money is his gig, but he possibly only appears to think of everything in terms of gold to be squirreled away. He’s not a corporate shill or an elected official (I know, there’s often no difference).

He’s less obnoxious than the first-rate jerks — Republican politicians — who’ve responded to the Japan disaster by defending nuclear power plants rather than by expressing concern for the victims. These are the same politicians who cried out against a moratorium on offshore drilling even while the catastrophic Gulf oil spill was in progress. They’re full-time climate-change deniers who never buck the interests of their corporate masters.

I found the worst apologist for free-market callousness, or at least this week’s worst, when Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander spoke:

We don’t abandon highway systems because bridges and overpasses collapse during earthquakes. The 1.6 million of us who fly daily would not stop flying after a tragic plane crash. We would find out what happened and do our best to make it safe.

Right, Lamar, except that bridges and planes aren’t nuclear reactors. One nuclear catastrophe could kill more people than all the collapsed bridges and crashed planes in history.

Alexander stood on the Senate floor and shilled for the nuclear power industry while reactors were close to meltdown. Meanwhile, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was using the disaster to warn an audience that Democrats want to “drive up the cost of energy so Americans will use less of it.”

Not even a facade of concern for the hurt and needy, just business as usual. These guys are not only free-market zealots. They are what Republicans call compassionate conservatives.

Footnote: Fox News is, of course, working hard to contaminate the discourse about the reactor(s) crisis even as it worsens.

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Frum’s right again — Dems despise their base

Posted on March 15, 2011 by oddmanout215

This on Monday from Glenn Greenwald, also quoted in Crooks and Liars:

On Friday, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley denounced the conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention as “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid,” forcing President Obama to address those comments in a press conference and defend the treatment of Manning. Today, CNN reports, Crowley has “abruptly resigned” under “pressure from White House officials because of controversial comments he made last week about the Bradley Manning case.” In other words, he was forced to “resign” — i.e., fired… As David Frum [wrote]: “Crowley firing: one more demonstration of my rule: Republican pols fear their base, Dem pols despise it.”

If there’s one thing stirs me up more than than Barack Obama’s shifty approach to governing, it’s mistreatment of prisoners by uniformed goons. That goes for common criminals and political prisoners; for those who’ve been convicted and those such as Manning, who remains in solitary confinement, awaiting trial for dozens of charges involving the passing of classified information to WikiLeaks.

And how discouraging is it that David Frum, Iraq war hawk and ex-speechwriter for George W. Bush, proudly tweets his all-purpose “rule,” which seems truer every week. Back in the summer, he tweeted the same message when the Obama administration attacked the “professional left” for complaining Obama hadn’t lived up to his campaign promise to pursue real change.

Obama apparently has an agenda he didn’t mention on the campaign trail. We can see where it’s leading us.

From Daniel Ellsberg:

…If President Obama really doesn’t yet know the actual conditions of Manning’s detention… then he’s being lied to, and he needs to get a grip on his administration. If he does know, and agrees that it’s appropriate or even legal, that doesn’t speak well for his memory of the courses he taught on constitutional law.

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Know your enemy. Keep the Brawny boys in the news.

Posted on March 14, 2011 by oddmanout215

Interesting reader’s comment on a Crooks and Liars story about the Saturday rally in Madison, WI, that drew 100,000 protesters:

I think that the Koch brothers may finally have unwittingly jumped the shark. While it may be a bit premature to sharpen the guillotines, oiling up the tumbrels seems quite in order.

Damn. I guess he was using the guillotine as a metaphor, but the fact that he knows what the tumbrels were used for is unsettling.

It’s fun to fantasize about snuffing out the let-them-eat-cake crowd, but not productive. You might end up like Jean-Paul Marat, who wrote article after article calling for the execution of more and more French aristocrats. Finally, the sensible Charlotte Corday used a sharp knife to shut him up.

There’s rhetoric, and there’s reality. The billionaire exploiters of the working class exist in a realm far more remote from the poor than that of the French monarchists who stirred up the bloodlust of starving Parisians. Our fat cats spend multimillions buying politicians, creating think tanks and hiring ad agencies to do their dirty work. They’re untouchable except, possibly, in the areas where their money is generated.

It makes more sense to look into cutting into their profits, not chopping off their heads, even though boycotts alone won’t bring down the the Koch brothers and their ilk, whose holdings are “vertically integrated” into the economy.

I’m thinking of Jane Mayer’s quick sketch of the Kochtopus:

With his brother Charles… David Koch owns virtually all of Koch Industries, a conglomerate, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, whose annual revenues are estimated to be a hundred billion dollars. The company has grown spectacularly since their father, Fred, died, in 1967, and the brothers took charge. The Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline. Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products. Forbes ranks it as the second-largest private company in the country, after Cargill, and its consistent profitability has made David and Charles Koch—who, years ago, bought out two other brothers—among the richest men in America. Their combined fortune of thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

We should stop buying Brawny, etc., and boycott banks and other businesses that aid Koch Industries and other corporations trying to re-establish the asset-grabbing Gilded Age-style of doing business — the status quo before Robert La Follette and other progressives began cleaning up Wisconsin politics in the early 20th century.

But we also should remember we have a long way to go. Wisconsin is an encouraging sign, but will workers fight back in states with puppet governors who aren’t as heavy-handed and ruthless as Scott Walker? Not unless we keep all aspects of the story in the news until it sinks in.

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Obama is mum on Wall St. & oil prices

Posted on March 12, 2011 by oddmanout215

… Barack Obama‘s number one private campaign contributor was Goldman Sachs, which is one of the two major companies that is engaged in commodity index speculation. Morgan Stanley, which is another major contributor of his, was the other. You know, both the Democrats and the Republicans receive an enormous amount of money from the industries that benefit from commodity speculation. But the flip side of it is that the public doesn‘t understand this issue, so there is really no political downside to doing the wrong thing here. There‘s a lot of political risk to reform, because they‘re going to take that hit from their campaign contributors. But there is no up-side politically because the public doesn‘t get it.

— Matt Taibbi on CSNBC, March 10

Taibbi noted that speculative activity on commodities markets — you know, where little things like food and oil are priced — was limited by government regulations until the 1990s, when Wall Street speculators began worming their way into the markets in a big way. Now the markets are like poker games. Speculation makes commodities more and more costly, driving up prices we pay at supermarkets and gas stations.

On the same program with Taibbi was Michael Greenberger, the former director of trading and markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the agency that’s supposed to oversee these matters. Greenberger, who appeared in the Academy Award-winning Inside Job, voiced a faint hope that President Obama would address the problem of excessive speculation at his press conference scheduled for the next day:

Since January 26th, oil prices have gone up almost 25 percent. There has not been a word from the White House about the input that Wall Street, the banks we saved with our tax dollars after they wrecked the economy—their influence on inflating these prices. The additional money doesn‘t go to production… It goes right into the pockets of Wall Street. No new production. I hope the president recalls his statement of June, 2008, and calls Wall Street out on this.

At the press conference, Obama said nothing about speculators driving up oil prices. To my knowledge, no one in the mainstream press asked him about the issue in the Q&A that followed. It seemed the unspoken assumption of everyone present that rising prices are, exclusively, a supply and demand problem triggered by Mideast unrest.

The president did indicate in his blase fashion that he’d be willing to tap into the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, in emergencies, as we work toward energy independence. One can only imagine James Kunstler’s apoplectic reaction to our big chief’s back-up plan.

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