Politico reports: President Barack Obama is risking “impeachable” offenses with the way he is handling the debt limit debate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said in a post on her Facebook page Monday. “Defaulting on our national debt is an impeachable offense, and any attempt by President Obama to unilaterally raise the debt limit without Congress is also an impeachable … Read More
Government Shutdown Looming
The Dow is down 150 points already. The Republicans are going to fuck with the full faith and credit of the U.S. economy. Sloan?
US Chamber of Commerce To US House GOP
The US Chamber of Commerce is one of the most conservative, pro-business lobby groups out there. And even they can't deal with what the House GOP is proposing: "Seriously, dudes. Stop screwing around with the full faith and credit of the United States."
Too Discouraged To Blog
There's this… which is totally true. The headlines this week, buried in the back of your favorite newsite, said: Income Disparity Between Richest 1% And Rest Of US Biggest Since ’20s WASHINGTON (AP) — The gulf between the richest 1 percent and the rest of America is the widest it’s been since the Roaring ’20s. The very wealthiest Americans earned … Read More
Lack Of Sensitivity
NYC mayorial candidate Bill de Blasio is a meanie: When New York mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio first proposed taxing the rich so every child in the city could attend all-day preschool, it was October and he had support from fewer than 10 percent of Democrats in polls. Now he leads the pack. And some of the wealthy New Yorkers … Read More
12 Years Ago Today
12 years ago today was the infamous August 6 PDB (or Presidential Daily Briefing) which said, in really big letters: BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN U.S. After listening to the briefer who told him this on Bush's ranch, Bush reportedly replied, "All right. You've covered your ass, now." We know what happened a month later. Which led to a war … Read More
Four Graphs: What’s Wrong With America Today
Corporate profits and profit margins are at an all-time high. American companies are making more money and more per dollar of sales than they ever have before. Wages as a percent of the economy are at all-time low. Why are corporate profits so high? One reason is that companies are paying employees less than they ever have as a share of GDP. … Read More
Remember This Cop?
That's him pepper-spraying Occupy protesters at UC-Davis. He was fired eight months later after a review board found his actions unwarrented. He's now appealing for worker’s compensation, claiming he suffered psychiatric injury from the 2011 confrontation. Poor baby.
Detroit’s Downfall
It's kind of disturbing to see how many on the right are cheering the fact that Detroit has filed for bankruptcy. Some saw it as vindication that Obama's bailout of the auto industry was bad policy. But, of course, Detroit and the auto industry, while often linked, are not the same thing. The auto industry is doing fine, thank you … Read More
Why Is Nobody In Jail?
Read this.
Jobs Reports Is Good
Good news: Employment picked up more than forecast in April and the jobless rate unexpectedly declined to a four-year low of 7.5 percent, showing the early stages of government budget cuts failed to destabilize the U.S. labor market. Payrolls expanded by 165,000 workers last month following a revised 138,000 increase in March that was larger than first estimated, Labor Department … Read More
Congress Fixes Flight Delays
The budget sequester was designed to suck. And suck it did. But when it sucks for Congressmen and their wealthy donors, well, something has to be done: In a quick and unanticipated session on Thursday night, the U.S. Senate approved a resolution that would allow the Federal Aviation Administration budget flexibility to stop furloughing air traffic controllers. The measure, approved by unanimous … Read More
Earlier This Hour
This happened…. Then the AP quickly tweeted (on related accounts) that its Twitter account had been hacked. So the stock market did this: Yikes. It dropped 150 points in just seconds. Power of the tweet.
Report: Richest 7% Got Richer During Recovery
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new report says the richest Americans got richer during the first two years of the economic recovery while average net worth declined for the other 93 percent of the nation'shouseholds. The Pew Research Center report says wealth held by the richest 7 percent of households rose 28 percent from 2009 to 2011, while the net worth of the other 93 percent of households dropped … Read More
Obama’s Chained CPI Idea Is Bad
Obama, in attempting to show that he can "give" a little when it comes to cutting the deficits, is about to propose a thing called "chained CPI" when it comes to Social Security benefits. Basically, it sets Social Security benefits to the inflation rate. Bad. Bad. Bad. For one thing, Social Security isn't in trouble. It's well-funded for the next … Read More