Monthly Archives: November 2009

NADA

Perhaps Conservatism Really is a Mental Illness – Let’s Include Coverage Under a Public Option

From week to week, you never know which conservative is going to say the most outlandish or stupid thing – even as their numbers dwindle, the competition seems to expand. But, we have quite a WTF?! with Virginia Foxx.

Think Progress » Foxx: Republicans ‘Passed Civil Rights Bills Back In The 60s Without Very Much Help’ From Democrats

During a debate on the House floor today over designating 21 miles of the Molalla River as “wild and scenic,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who opposes the legislation, tried to claim a progressive environmental record for her party. “Actually, the GOP has been the leader in starting good environmental programs in this country,” said Foxx.

Foxx then extended her claims of the GOP’s progressive history to the issue of civil rights. “Just as we were the people who passed the civil rights bills back in the ’60s without very much help from our colleagues across the aisle,” said Fox. “They love to engage in revisionist history.”

Think Progress » Foxx: Republicans ‘Passed Civil Rights Bills Back In The 60s Without Very Much Help’ From Democrats

It is especially important to remember that the major opposition to civil rights came from southern Democrats  – the same people who now constitute the hard core of the Republican Party.

Uncategorized

WARREN BUFFETT: I’m talking about sharing the prosperity.

Warren Buffett recognized that wealth doesn’t just happen due to hard work or luck, that society – our commonwealth – provides the basis of any individual’s wealth. “Share the prosperity.” Constant bleating about unfair taxes is a fool’s game that destroys the commonwealth. TAX THE RICH! They can afford it.

http://www.charlierose.com/download/transcript/10711

WARREN BUFFETT: I think that if we’re looking for more money, we ought to look to guys like me. I mean, I am still paying a lower rate on dividends and capital gains than my cleaning lady. It’s, you know, in terms of her payroll tax, just to start with. And so, I just think that we’ve gotten so far out of whack in terms of who’s been prosperous in recent years, and most of the economy — most people have been left behind, you know. So we learn that a rising tide lifts all yachts. (LAUGHTER) …

CHARLIE ROSE: Does that mean that the American system is in a sense a bit unfair and geared to the rich?

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, I think it has become more geared to the rich as time has gone by, and I think that the rich have, you know, obviously a disproportionate impact, you know, on how Congress behaves, and… if you have a very rich country with a great number of superrich, you have to fight against a plutocracy.

WARREN BUFFETT: And you want a prosperous country so you want a whole bunch of rich people, but you also want everybody to do reasonably well in something as prosperous as we have. … but we’ve got — we’ve got almost 60 million people living in households where 20 — the top income is $21,000 or less. That’s the top of the 60 million people. So we can do better. Now, we have done better over time. I mean, we put in Social Security and we’ve done things in the country that have worked in the direction …

WARREN BUFFETT: But a prosperous country should not just be prosperous for the people like me who are wired in a particular way at birth — no credit to me ….

WARREN BUFFETT: And you don’t want to mess up the market system that works to bring out of people what their best talents are, but the market system is not perfect in any kind of distribution of wealth. And taxation is a way where you get to the excesses of what the market system produces and where you take care of the people that get the short straws. In a country as prosperous as we are, nobody should get a really short straw.

CHARLIE ROSE: You know, some people are going to hear you say that and they’ll say, "Warren is talking about sharing the wealth. There he goes .."

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, I’m talking about sharing the prosperity. I’m prosperous because of the society around me.

WARREN BUFFETT: So they benefit from society. We all do. And some like me benefit enormously from society, you know. I can’t do it by myself. Stick me on a desert island, you know, you do not want to be on the same island.

CHARLIE ROSE: So, all these people who think that somehow there’s some new idea about — they use the word "socialism," but something else in terms of …

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah, Barack Obama …

CHARLIE ROSE: You don’t buy that.

WARREN BUFFETT: Barack Obama wants a much more prosperous economy, embodying the principles that have made it prosperous, but I think he does want to make sure that the bottom 20 or 30 percent does better than it has done in the last 20 years while the top has prospered so much.

http://www.charlierose.com/download/transcript/10711

BBC NEWS | Europe | Rich Germans demand higher taxes [hattip to Jas.]

A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.

The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany’s economic recovery.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Rich Germans demand higher taxes

The Associated Press: AP POLL: How to pay for health overhaul? Tax rich 

WASHINGTON — Americans don’t want to shoulder the cost of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul themselves. They think the rich should pay for it.

The Associated Press: AP POLL: How to pay for health overhaul? Tax rich

loco

Water Grab in Central New Mexico – Greedy & Destructive Madness

El Defensor Chieftain: Protesters to fight ‘water grab’ 

The New York City based corporation [Augustin Plains Ranch LLC] filed an application with the state Office of the Engineer two years ago, to drill 37 wells with 20-inch casings in order to pump 54,000 acre-feet of groundwater (about 17.6 billion gallons) from the San Agustin Basin each year. The wells would be located north and south of U.S. 60 just inside Catron County’s eastern boundary, between the Very Large Array and the town of Datil.

An amended application, filed in May 2008 and approved by the State Engineer in August of that year, called for an increase in the depth of the drilling from 2,000 to 3,500 feet. It also expanded the area of proposed places of use to any areas within Socorro, Catron, Sierra, Valencia, Bernalillo, Sandoval and Santa Fe counties that are in the Rio Grande Basin.

El Defensor Chieftain: Protesters to fight ‘water grab’

Uncategorized

The Best Line of the Week: “A rising tide lifts all yachts.” — Warren Buffett

I would watch this interview if only I could stand to listen to Charlie Rose for more than a minute. Rose asks his guest convoluted questions that almost always make clear how “smart” Rose is and the answer he’s expecting from them. I wish he’d just shut up.

Excerpts: Warren Buffett on Charlie Rose – The Page by Mark Halperin – TIME.com 

"I basically don’t like it (value-added tax) because it’s somewhat akin — it’s isn’t the same — but it’s somewhat akin to a sales tax . we don’t need more regressive taxes in the United States . I think that if we’re looking for more money, we ought to look to guys like me. I mean, I am still paying a lower rate on dividends and capital gains than my cleaning lady is, in terms of her payroll tax just to start with. And so, I just think that we’ve gotten so far out of whack in terms of who’s been prosperous in recent years. And most of the economy — most people have been left behind, you know. So, we learned that a rising tide lifts all yachts."

Excerpts: Warren Buffett on Charlie Rose – The Page by Mark Halperin – TIME.com

NADA

Clueless and Paranoid Republicans

 Think Progress » Republicans Are Shocked The Public Is Mad At Them For Voting Against Franken’s Anti-Rape Amendment

Politico reports that Republicans are now scratching their heads at why the public is so incensed about their “no” votes:

Privately, GOP sources acknowledge that they failed to anticipate the political consequences of a “no” vote on the amendment. And several aides said that Republicans are engaged in an internal blame game about why they agreed to a roll-call vote on the measure, rather than a simple voice vote that would have allowed the opposing senators to duck criticism.

As BarbinMD writes, “Seriously? They voted against an amendment that was prompted by the brutal gang-rape of a young woman by her co-workers while she was working for a company under contract for the United States government, after which she was locked in a shipping container without food or water, threatened if she left to seek medical treatment, and was then prevented from bringing criminal charges against her assailants. And they failed to anticipate the political consequences?”

Thune is also claiming that Franken doesn’t really care about Jones and other rape victims whose employers have blocked them from seeking justice; he and other Democrats just wanted to “create a vote which they could use to attack Republicans.”

So basically, the only lesson they learned is that next time, they have to hide their votes when they decide to screw over women’s rights. That way, they can support their allies in the contracting business and the public will never find out.

Think Progress » Republicans Are Shocked The Public Is Mad At Them For Voting Against Franken’s Anti-Rape Amendment

NADA

Cooperation “Weakens the Republican Brand”

The purge continues. Only true believers are welcome.

Think Progress » Under Pressure From Tea Party Activists, Charleston GOP Censures Lindsey Graham For Bipartisanship 

On Monday, the Charleston County Republican Party’s executive committee “took the unusual step” of officially censuring Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The local GOP committee admonished Graham for stepping across party lines to work with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on a bipartisan clean energy bill and other pieces of legislation. The censure stated that Graham’s “bipartisanship continues to weaken the Republican brand and tarnish the ideals of freedom.”

Think Progress » Under Pressure From Tea Party Activists, Charleston GOP Censures Lindsey Graham For Bipartisanship

dreams

Leap of Faith

In the dream, I was a passenger in a vehicle on a narrow mountain road. I don’t know if it was a truck or car. I did not see the driver. The vehicle started to cross a narrow bridge consisting of a thick solid slab of concrete no wider than the vehicle and without any guardrails. I decided to get out and follow the vehicle, which soon was out of sight. I came to the end of the bridge, where there was a gap of several feet before the dirt road continued to wind along a cliff face and disappear. I had a long view out over the mountainous landscape. I wondered how the vehicle had passed this point. I studied the gap and the cliff face and whether I could jump successfully. The alarm clock solved my problem.