GOP reveals its Master Plan: return to Bush years

Despite Obama's fall in the polls he is much more popular than Bush was and the lastest survey even shows people still much prefer him to Bush. So why is the GOP new "Pledge For America" a return to the Bush year policies?

The pledge, their master plan for America, does not reduce the deficit and is mostly pages of platitudes.

It said it was developed from ideas posted on a website set up this Summer for citizens yet they have explicitly rejected the most popular idea - quit providing tax breaks to companies that outsource jobs and promote jobs in America. Nope, no way say Republican leaders.

The most detailed proposals are on health care where they vow to repeal the Democrats health care plan and replace it with - the Democratic health care plan. The proposals they list are already in the existing plan. If they do repeal the health care plan they don't explain how they replace the $140 billion in deficit reduction the plan provides.

They vow to cut taxes, while ignoring the rise in the deficit that will cause.

They have learned to even avoid talking about Medicare and Social Security which are left out of the pledge entirely, with a later admission they want to have frank talks with the American people later about how those are problems.

They vow to cut the deficit, with no serious proposals to cut the deficit and several proposals like tax cuts and repeal of Obamacare that increase the deficit.

No wonder even the Republicans are backing away from this plan when they are not outright condemning it.

It is also no surprise that the "Pledge to America" was put together by a major business lobbyist temporarily working for the Republicans.

Republicans can't govern, they just have experts in marketing from Wall Street. Eventually their empty promises will catch up with them. To answer the question poised at the beginning, they want to return to Bush policies despite their unpopularity and the economic collapse they caused because they have no new ideas.

What Bills Have Republicans Attempted To Block?

Here's just a short list of some of the bills that Republicans have blocked, or attempted to block, since Obama became President:

* Senator Franken’s Anti-Rape Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill - Makes it so that women raped overseas while working for foreign contractors have the right to have their case heard in an American court instead of having their case mediated by the company they work for. Only Republican men voted against this, but it passed.

* Benefits for Homeless Veterans - Would have expanded benefits to homeless veterans and homeless veterans with children. Republicans blocked this.

* Health Care - Prevents insurance companies from discriminating against you on the basis of "pre-existing conditions". Requires that insurance companies spend 85 cents of every dollar that you pay on your actual health care. Limits health insurance companies profit margins. Republicans blocked this for months before it finally passed.

* Health Care for the 9/11 First Responders who got sick from being at Ground Zero- Would provide billions of dollars in health care to help the 9/11 First Responders who were at Ground Zero on 9/11 and are now sick because of it. Republicans blocked this.

* The Jobs Bill- Offsets the payroll tax for 1 year for companies that hire new employees, or people receiving unemployment insurance. Also gives other tax incentives to companies hiring new employees. Republicans attempted to block this. Small business lending bill- would give LOCAL, community banks access to billions of dollars to loan to small businesses. Republicans blocked this.

* Financial reform - Puts stricter regulations on the banks, preventing them from becoming "too big to fail". Curbs reckless spending practices that caused the banking crisis. Republicans attempted to block this.

* Stimulus Bill - Pumped billions of dollars into state and local governments to prevent us from sinking into a second Great Depression. Republicans opposed this but now want to take credit for the parts of it that we know are successful or the spending in their districts.

* Oil Spill Liability - Raises the liability on what companies can be made to pay to clean up after an oil spill. Republicans blocked this. Political Ad disclosure bill- Would have required all donors to political campaigns to reveal themselves. Republicans blocked this.

* Immigration - Republican suggested comprehensive immigration reform until Obama supported it. Now they're rabidly opposed to it and even voted against their own legislation. Republicans blocked this.

* Unemployment Extension - Would provide additional aid to the millions of Americans still on unemployment who are just trying to support themselves and their familes. Republicans blocked this bill for 8 weeks before it finally passed. Republicans blocked this for 8 weeks before it finally passed.

* Fair Pay Act of 2009 - Also called the Lily Ledbetter bill. Requires that women receive equal compensation to men for doing the same work. Republicans attempted to block this.

**** The next time someone tells you that the Republicans care about the American people just give them this list of all the bills Republicans wanted to fail. ****

Republicans bad for your income

This is a newer edition of something that has been out there for years.

You usually see charts analyzing income growth under Democratic Presidents versus Republican Presidents and conservatives always respond it is Congress that passes economic and tax policies. This chart does two things, it splits it up by income category and by what branches the parties control.

Click for larger image.


It is obvious the GOP governs to benefit the rich either not caring or mistakenly thinking that benefits everyone. That is wrong. They don't even do as good a job benefiting the rich.

The second response I always get from conservatives is it is a coincidence because government doesn't affect income growth. LOL!!! Remember that when they say Democrats are bad for your pocket book and show them this chart.

There are other charts out there with analysis of other parts of the economy and even government job growth and debt levels and pretty much anything you can shake a stick at. The bottom line is that Republicans don't govern well when they are in control, they don't even meet their stated goals of reducing debt and the size of government. The best thing they do is direct government money to their cronies and tax cuts for the rich, who save it instead of creating jobs. Savings does not create job, creating demand does.

RADICAL RIGHT - Hate Takes Center Stage

This has been an unfortunate Summer of Hate stirred up by the party of FEAR! and NO!

Looking back, I see these hate and fear campaigns have a long history in America and the haters lose, eventually.

Very little difference between the law and order campaigns, the anti-civil rights campaigns, and the communist hysteria last century and today's summer of hate.

This too shall pass, but we should oppose this fear, hate, and hysteria to remain true to America's best ideals.

RADICAL RIGHT - Hate Takes Center Stage

You can't just blame government

You can't just blame government which is what Republicans want you to do.

The corruption in offshore drilling regulations were practices put in place by the Bush/Cheney regime and their appointees.

This was similar to how they gutted FEMA and replaced the experienced people with political hacks.

This was also similar to them insisting that Homeland Security be removed from government services guidelines and reinstating the political patronage system.

Again, this is similar to how they staffed Iraq reconstruction making it purely political how appointees were chosen and wasting tens and hundreds of billions of dollars as children of political friends and people active in the right Republican causes were chosen to run projects with no experience.

Government run by the spoils system is spoiled, not government regulations.

Another analysis of the Democratic judicial primaries

Another analysis of the Democratic judicial primaries

In summing up the results, endorsements were important, but some endorsements mattered than others, and campaign funds raised mattered very little. The Houston Black American Democrats endorsement seemed to be the most influential in terms of prospects for victory. Their organizational push to get the vote out seems to have paid off. In addition, being a female candidate was a good predictor of victory, suggesting that Democratic primary voters were more interested in electing women to the bench than men. This could be the result of a concerted effort by organizations devoted to making the judiciary more diverse, or this could be a demographic effect where more women voting in the primary translated into more votes for female candidates.

Generally, all things being equal or being equally ignorant about the candidates, I know many Democrats who vote for the female candidate. There is a perception of less corruption and also the feeling of making up for past under representation.

Play Ball - Texas Round-up of Progressive News

The Texas Progressive Alliance welcomes the start of the new baseball season with another highlight reel of the week's political activity.

Off the Kuff looked at how voting returns changed in Texas from 2004 to 2008 in the Presidential and judicial races.

Aruba Petroleum: The Epic Fail of the Barnett Shale. Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS now brings you 55 posts to document this failure of epic proportions.

Marshmallow Peeps make sweeping endorsements of Democrats on The Texas Cloverleaf.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why Republicans and Republican suck ups act like bleeping thugs? New Perry appointee, Nueces County DA Jimenez, threw out the board certified attorneys to bring in her cronies and HD 76 rep Norma Chávez is channeling Karl Rove.

A Texas Vox, everyone is a-twitter about the upcoming appliance rebate program. Want to trade up your tired old appliances for shiny new energy-efficient ones? The guv'ment will send you a check for it...

The last chapter (?) in the sad saga of Stay Bailey Hutchison is read aloud by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Sure April Fools Day is over, but this was funny enough to share again. Sarah Palin to Replace Michael Steele as Chair of the GOP. Bay Area Houston continues to be full of wit.

This week on Left of College Station, Teddy takes a first look at the Bryan mayoral candidates, and this week he will be taking a look at the candidates for College Station City Council Place 2 and Bryan City Council Single Member District 3. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the GOP's latest posturing and states that it's time for Gov. Perry and the Texas GOP to put up or shut up.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote about undersea volcanoes in the Gulf of Mexico that shoot out asphalt. Who knew?

WhosPlayin says animal welfare actvists in North Texas are claiming a victory in their fight against puppy mills: After months of weekly picketing by Texans Exposing Petland, the Lewisville, Texas Petland store is closing down.

Quote of the Day

There might have been a time when getting doctors, AARP, hospitals, labor, pharmaceutical companies, and 60 senators on the same side of a piece of legislation would have signaled that this is a moderate, consensus-oriented document that's respectful of the status quo. But in this case, the ferocious opposition of Republicans drove public perceptions about whether the legislation was moderate or not. - Ezra Klein.

No new ideas from Republicans on Health Reform

The two big health "reform" proposals from the conservatives have this much in common. They've been tried and don't work.

Tort reform, caps on medical claims in the legal system, have been in place for years in Texas and other states. There has been NO reduction in costs for patients. There is also no evidence of fewer unnecessary tests and procedures. It is now impossible to get a lawyer to bring a legal claim against a doctor in Texas no matter how badly he screwed up or how drunk he was, even pro-bono, because of the limitations in damages awarded. There has been a slight reduction in insurance premiums for doctors, but that has just increased their income because there has been no reduction in costs to patients.

What there has been is a big increase in insurance company profits, surprise, and an influx of bad doctors from other states fleeing malpractice lawsuits to Texas major metropolitan areas.

Insurance should be able to be purchased across state lines increasing competition and saving consumers money? The same arguments were made for credit card reform decades ago. Instead on increased competition you saw the opposite - rapid consolidation. Instead of more competitive rates and customer benefits all credit card companies consolidated in the states with the least oversight and fewest consumer protections. This will obviously also happen with medical insurance.

Either no ideas or bad ideas for the typical taxpayers - conservatives are all about helping their big corporate donors.

The Health Care Debate

Steve presents the Pass The Damn Bill argument. After people see what is really in the bill and not the GOP distortions support goes up.

FireDogLake has been leading the liberal opposition to the bill and is tired of the Kabuki theater. Democrats never needed to get the DINOs representing big PHARMA and the insurance insurance to sign on. They had the 51 votes for a public option and it looks like the bill they will pass will use 51 votes.

I also agree with Jon on Democratic leadership now working on suicide pact instead of making popular fixes.

The New Campaign for Health Reform

In what Alternate Universe are health reform critics living?

In what universe must someone be living to believe that the Democratic Party is controlled by "the Left," let alone "the furthest left elements" of the Party? As Ezra Klein says, the Left "ha[s] gotten exactly nothing they wanted in recent months." The Left wanted a single-payer system, then settled for a public option, then an opt-out public option, then Medicare expansion -- only to get none of it, instead being handed a bill that forces every American to buy health insurance from the private insurance industry. Nor was it "the Left" -- but rather corporatist Democrats like Evan Bayh and Lanny Davis -- who cheered for the hated Wall Street bailout; blocked drug re-importation; are stopping genuine reform of the financial industry; prevented a larger stimulus package to lower unemployment; refuse to allow programs to help Americans with foreclosures; supported escalation in Afghanistan (twice); and favor the same Bush/Cheney terrorism policies of indefinite detention, military commissions, and state secrets.

The very idea that an administration run by Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel and staffed with centrists, Wall Street mavens, and former Bush officials -- and a Congress beholden to Blue Dogs and Lieberdems -- has been captive "to the Left" is so patently false that everyone should be too embarrassed to utter it. For better or worse, the Democratic strategy has long been and still is to steer clear of their leftist base and instead govern as "pragmatists" and centrists -- which means keeping the permanent Washington factions pleased. That strategy may or not be politically shrewd, but it is just a fact that the dreaded "Left" has gotten very little of what it wanted the entire year. Is there anyone who actually believes that "The Left" is in control of anything, let alone the Democratic Party? The fact that Lanny Davis -- to prove the Left's dominance -- has to cite one provision that was jettisoned (the public option) and another which the Left hates (the mandate) reflects how false that claim is. What are all of the Far Left policies the Democrats have been enacting and Obama has been advocating? I'd honestly love to know.


-- Glenn Greenwald -

Facts about Bottle Water

Presented by Online Education

In Praise of Artistic Nudes

Garrison Keillor knows what he likes.

"I see no reason to paint flowers. You can buy fresh flowers. Still lifes are only an exercise. And abstract expressionism is for the lobbies of big insurance companies. The true calling of an artist is to paint women and the greatest challenge is the naked female form. That's what separates the true artists from the wallpaper-hangers."

I said this in the room that houses some rather erotic Georgia O'Keeffe flowers and "American Gothic" with its squinty lady, and I spoke on behalf of American men everywhere. At the age of 67, I have stopped apologizing for looking at naked women. I don't stand directly in front of a nude and stare at her, lest I be taken for a pervert. I stand in front of the painting next to the nude and sneak sidelong glances, but nonetheless I am moved by her. Deeply.

Humbug Moldbuggery

No, this is not about the rampaging rapist home builders in Texas and their screwing buyers over mold damage.

Moldbug, not his real name, seems to be a leading Libertarian social philosopher blogger today.

I was exposed to his ideas recently by a quasi-Libertarian friend and was puzzled because I thought the ideas and arguments just didn't make sense.

Martin Regnen provides a Condensed Moldbuggery guide and also concludes it doesn't makes sense.

One example of the limitation of Moldbug's thinking is his dividing people today into three classes or castes. (No, people who divide people into classes isn't one of the classes.) Moldbug has:

Eloi - the educated liberal artistic elites who run things,
Morlocks who do all the illegal work or collect welfare,
and Proles who do the real work.

If you are flummoxed it may be because this is an almost complete reversal of H.G. Wells creation of Eloi and Morlocks. If you are familiar with H.G. Wells you realize that this should have been:

Eloi - the beautiful people, artistic and intellectuals who have no power but live in beautiful garden surroundings.
Proles - those who do all the work and live in the dark fiery Hellish industrialized underground.
Morlocks - the powerful masters of industrialization who the proles work for. In The Time Machine proles and Morlocks are really condensed into just the Morlocks.

The Eloi always end up being eaten by the Morlocks unless an unlucky time traveller comes along.

There is much other stuff in his works like for democracies with two major political parties, the more progressive party is referred to as the Inner Party and the more conservative party is the Outer Party. His key point is that supporting the Outer Party is not an effective strategy against progressivism. In case you haven't gotten it progressives are the evil Eloi who must be destroyed.

Progressivism

Progressivism (also called Universalism) is responsible for the vast majority of the world's problems today. It is a non-theistic religion descended in a direct line from the various Dissenter sects of England. Although the belief in God was dropped during the religion's evolution in order to improve its ability to spread, the core of progressive beliefs are very similar to the Quaker beliefs of a few centuries ago. In short, progressives are dangerous and creepy religious maniacs who don't need to believe in God but that makes them no less dangerous, creepy or maniacal.

The conflict between progressivism and conservatism

Progressivism always wins in the long run. Conservatism can at most slow down the implementation of selected progressive ideas. This is because progressives dominate the universities, media and non-governmental organizations which allows them to mold public opinion. Progressives dominate those institutions because progressivism is a far more attractive ideology for people who are intelligent, ambitious and status-seeking. In the US conservatives are largely members of Protestant sects of American origin (mostly Evangelical sects) whereas progressives are the spiritual descendants of the English dissenters, so this conflict is essentially a religious one.

I won't waste more time on this unless I get interesting comments. Even despite my social and political orientation - a Universalist Progressive, I can't see how more than a few misguideds would see Moldbug's hypotheses as more than a sad waste of limited intellect not worth mining the dross for a possible few gold flakes of real useful, or at least interesting, ideas.

Still, I am happy to see this is what passes for sophistication on the Libertarian Right.

Almost unbelievable story of the new economy

And the Money Comes Rolling In
Markus Frind works one hour a day and brings in $10 million a year. How does he do it? He keeps things simple.

How PlentyofFish became the world's largest dating site - make it free and fast.

I keep thinking this is much of the future of the new economy - unfortunately it does not spell much future employment. He works one hour a day and after very rapid exponential growth has two employees. A year ago his site had ten million users and was getting well over a billion page views each month. By now he should be creating a million successful relationships a year.

PlentyofFish.com is so successful now that it is doing a promotion offering dates with Lady Gaga - new single Bad Romance - to winners.

Locke seeks the homophobic vote

I am going to link to Kuff for the meetings Locke had with Harris County's nastiest political kingmaker and very political, very conservative preachers concerned about "the gay agenda." And Gene Locke's tepid response which I read as Locke saying I am not responsible for who votes for me or why.

It is disappointing but not unexpected that Locke is going that route. He already had alienated women voters with several good ol’ boy gaffes earlier in the campaign and the revelation of previous lack of respect for women.

It is significant that his political team consists of highly paid national Democratic and Republican operatives and insiders from a previous mayoral team not known for its smoothness or ethics.

So now Locke has meetings with the smear master of the far right in Houston who lead the Christian fundamentalist takeover of the Harris County GOP and the politically active anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-Democrat pastor group. How much did he pledge to support conservative causes? Then a statement that essentially says Locke is not going to be responsible for what others say about his opponent. All this is a political style we thought Houston outgrew in local races.

I hope many Republicans will stay home rather than vote for a Black Democrat angling for homophobic support.

I see even an Evangelical minister is wondering if the Houston Area Pastor Council, which is the home organization of the US Pastor Council, is crossing the line in terms of IRS regulations in mounting a campaign against gay candidates.

Obama's New Where-To-Go and What-To-Kiss Czar

More Criticism of SuperFreakonomics

I shouldn't be surprised at SuperFreakonomics. Freakonomics reminded me somewhat of early John Stossel, while not the established wisdom they were glib "common sense" economic arguments. Like Stossel, later works veer more right and less factual. This latest seems to exhibit the bias toward particular approaches they decry in others. From The New Yorker review:

Given their emphasis on cold, hard numbers, it’s noteworthy that Levitt and Dubner ignore what are, by now, whole libraries’ worth of data on global warming. Indeed, just about everything they have to say on the topic is, factually speaking, wrong. Among the many matters they misrepresent are: the significance of carbon emissions as a climate-forcing agent, the mechanics of climate modelling, the temperature record of the past decade, and the climate history of the past several hundred thousand years.

“The problem wasn’t necessarily that you talked to the wrong experts or talked to too few of them. The problem was that you failed to do the most elementary thinking.”

Pierrehumbert carefully dissects one of the arguments that Levitt and Dubner seem to subscribe to—that solar cells, because they are dark, actually contribute to global warming—and shows it to be fallacious. “Really simple arithmetic, which you could not be bothered to do, would have been enough to tell you,” he writes, that this claim “is complete and utter nonsense.”

But what’s most troubling about “SuperFreakonomics” isn’t the authors’ many blunders; it’s the whole spirit of the enterprise. Though climate change is a grave problem, Levitt and Dubner treat it mainly as an opportunity to show how clever they are.

Leaving aside the question of whether geoengineering, as it is known in scientific circles, is even possible—have you ever tried sending an eighteen-mile-long hose into the stratosphere?—their analysis is terrifyingly cavalier. A world whose atmosphere is loaded with carbon dioxide, on the one hand, and sulfur dioxide, on the other, would be a fundamentally different place from the earth as we know it. Among the many likely consequences of shooting SO2 above the clouds would be new regional weather patterns (after major volcanic eruptions, Asia and Africa have a nasty tendency to experience drought), ozone depletion, and increased acid rain. Meanwhile, as long as the concentration of atmospheric CO2 continued to rise, more and more sulfur dioxide would have to be pumped into the air to counteract it. The amount of direct sunlight reaching the earth would fall, even as the oceans became increasingly acidic. There are eminent scientists—among them the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen—who argue that geoengineering should be seriously studied, but only with the understanding that it represents a risky, last-ditch attempt to avert catastrophe.

“By far the preferred way” to confront climate change, Crutzen has written, “is to lower the emissions of greenhouse gases.”

Here is another notable review on two Vegetarian books.

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com