We're not sure really what more can be said about the debt ceiling and budget battle raging in Washington. Things likely have already gone past the point where real and significant damage has been done to both the credit rating and the reputation of America.
The truth is, this 'crisis' has been wholly manufactured by the extremist, regressive, far right-wing of the Republican Party - and it's being done against the will of the American people. This is absolutely NOT a "both sides" issue, something that too many media organizations have been glossing over.
More than two-thirds of the American people want REAL, true compromise right now on this issue. In poll after poll, Americans support a mixed solution of targeted tax increases on those who can afford them, smaller cuts in government spending, dumping tax cuts we can't afford, and a few other strategic moves - like bringing our troops home - to save money.
This is exactly what the President has been proposing all along - and growing numbers of Americans seem to understand that he is still on their side.
Even Wall Street, against whom we have (legitimately) railed many times over the years, is opposed to the current positions taken by House GOP members. As long as this political deadlock continues, investors cannot grow their businesses, invest, or hire more workers.
By insisting on NOT taking any of a number of deals weighted heavily in their favor, the party that has claimed for decades to be pro-business has also abdicated its responsibility to businesses, large and small.
Not surprisingly, liberals on the left have whined about the false weakness of President Obama for being willing to go as far as he has in some proposed deals that have fallen through. Yet the all-too-real lack of effectiveness of House Speaker John Boehner has become blatantly obvious as he's failed to pass even his own proposals through the House he allegedly controls.
Speaker Boehner's latest plan - a plan designed specifically to pander to the extremists in his own party - doesn't look like it will succeed as originally designed, and is being "reworked" even as you read this. Even if it would garner enough Republican votes to pass the house, the Congressional Budget Office has said it won't reduce the debt by as much as it needs to - and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised it would fail in the Senate.
In comparison, the President asked Americans on Monday night to call their elected representatives if they were angry about this issue. The American people proceeded to crash the websites and phone lines of multiple Congresspersons, primarily Republicans. If it were true that President Obama is weak, such a task should be beyond his reach. It's quite obviously not.
News organizations around the world are as focused on this issue as most American media. If the United States defaults, or even if its credit is downgraded - as appears increasingly inevitable - the resulting shock will harm people from all corners of the globe.
At this point, like some other wise folks, we're just praying that President Obama's lawyers discover legal precedent that proves the 14th Amendment is legitimate after all.
Otherwise, we could all soon be facing a return to a pre-colonial economy - which would be extremely ironic, since the Tea Party extremists are the people who've been warning us all for years about Muslim terrorists dragging the U.S. back to the 14th century.
Looks like it may be our own homegrown fanatics who drag our nation into oblivion after all.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
It's All Connected
It should be obvious that the topic of the debt ceiling and budget battle is still weighing heavily on our minds, and is being heavily covered in most other major media sources. In case you missed the President's latest address on the issue last night, you can find it at whitehouse.gov - and we do recommend watching or reading it.
Today, though, we wanted to draw some focus back to a different story we've been monitoring for a while now.
In case you missed our links yesterday, the discussion about the Keystone XL pipeline is heating back up again in the Midwest, with two public hearings scheduled in Nebraska on the pipeline matter over the next month. As we've mentioned previously, we do not trust the oil pipeline companies to make good on their claims about safety for a host of reasons, including the recent Exxon Mobil spill into the Yellowstone River in Montana.
To be honest, we recommend you see Yellowstone Park and the Yellowstone River sometime in the near future, if you'd like to see a landscape that resembles the Ansel Adams photos you've likely admired. Sadly, the forecast for the future of Yellowstone, like many other places around the world, isn't a very comfortable one.
The heat waves sweeping North America, as well as the snow and cold sweeping South America and Australia have something in common with the attempt to put a dangerous oil pipeline that stretches from the Canadian Rockies all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
They're all related to global climate change.
The latest research continues to reinforce that what climate change scientists have said for years would happen if we didn't get our bad habits under control. The latest development is that frozen toxins, trapped in Arctic ice, are now being released at rates that have never been seen. Many of these are toxins that are no longer produced, but were generated years ago, like a poisonous ghost, now come back to haunt us all.
There are still those stubborn, obtuse people who say these are just ghost stories. So we'll ask a simple question: What's a loaf of bread cost now? What did it cost ten years ago? Twenty years ago? How about forty years ago?
What did it cost ten months ago?
Food costs around the world have gone up, every month, for ten out of the last twelve months, according to the latest research data. We know we've certainly seen it around the country - and we now know it's also happening worldwide.
How about global safety and stability? Famine in Ethiopia and Somalia isn't just something that happened back in the 80s and 90s. It's going on right now, and causing even more unrest in areas of the world where we're already concerned about famine and war breeding terrorism
Don't just think we'll use new technology to get ourselves out of this problem. The Saudi Arabia of lithium - a mineral that is key to new battery technology - is located in the Chilean desert of Atacama, the driest desert on Earth, perfect for drying the soil that holds the precious mineral.
The Atacama desert that just received snow this past week.
The problem of climate change, like many of the problems our society is facing, wasn't caused yesterday, and won't be solved easily or quickly anytime soon. But for our sake - and yours - we hope that governments and private businesses will continue to ramp up an even more rapid investment into green energy and green jobs.
Not only will such an investment produce more jobs NOW, which we need. Those jobs will likely pay better than many of the jobs corporate interests have left behind in America. It will also likely help make things better for all of us years down the road.
The human race simply can't stick our heads in the sandy, dry lakebeds of ignorance anymore.
Today, though, we wanted to draw some focus back to a different story we've been monitoring for a while now.
In case you missed our links yesterday, the discussion about the Keystone XL pipeline is heating back up again in the Midwest, with two public hearings scheduled in Nebraska on the pipeline matter over the next month. As we've mentioned previously, we do not trust the oil pipeline companies to make good on their claims about safety for a host of reasons, including the recent Exxon Mobil spill into the Yellowstone River in Montana.
To be honest, we recommend you see Yellowstone Park and the Yellowstone River sometime in the near future, if you'd like to see a landscape that resembles the Ansel Adams photos you've likely admired. Sadly, the forecast for the future of Yellowstone, like many other places around the world, isn't a very comfortable one.
The heat waves sweeping North America, as well as the snow and cold sweeping South America and Australia have something in common with the attempt to put a dangerous oil pipeline that stretches from the Canadian Rockies all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
They're all related to global climate change.
The latest research continues to reinforce that what climate change scientists have said for years would happen if we didn't get our bad habits under control. The latest development is that frozen toxins, trapped in Arctic ice, are now being released at rates that have never been seen. Many of these are toxins that are no longer produced, but were generated years ago, like a poisonous ghost, now come back to haunt us all.
There are still those stubborn, obtuse people who say these are just ghost stories. So we'll ask a simple question: What's a loaf of bread cost now? What did it cost ten years ago? Twenty years ago? How about forty years ago?
What did it cost ten months ago?
Food costs around the world have gone up, every month, for ten out of the last twelve months, according to the latest research data. We know we've certainly seen it around the country - and we now know it's also happening worldwide.
How about global safety and stability? Famine in Ethiopia and Somalia isn't just something that happened back in the 80s and 90s. It's going on right now, and causing even more unrest in areas of the world where we're already concerned about famine and war breeding terrorism
Don't just think we'll use new technology to get ourselves out of this problem. The Saudi Arabia of lithium - a mineral that is key to new battery technology - is located in the Chilean desert of Atacama, the driest desert on Earth, perfect for drying the soil that holds the precious mineral.
The Atacama desert that just received snow this past week.
The problem of climate change, like many of the problems our society is facing, wasn't caused yesterday, and won't be solved easily or quickly anytime soon. But for our sake - and yours - we hope that governments and private businesses will continue to ramp up an even more rapid investment into green energy and green jobs.
Not only will such an investment produce more jobs NOW, which we need. Those jobs will likely pay better than many of the jobs corporate interests have left behind in America. It will also likely help make things better for all of us years down the road.
The human race simply can't stick our heads in the sandy, dry lakebeds of ignorance anymore.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Going Overboard
The single most important story this week - and sadly, we're thinking the story won't entirely be over this week - is the insanity of the debt ceiling and budget negotiations. To say that we are concerned about the financial stability and the near-term future of both the U.S. and the world on this Monday morning is an understatement of extreme proportions.
In case you've somehow missed the entire story so far, the Washington Post's Ezra Klein and Dylan Matthews wrote a single short piece on Friday summarizing everything you need to know about the debt ceiling situation. In short, there is NO way to NOT default if we don't raise the debt ceiling, regardless of what the regressive nuts in the Tea Party say.
Who is to blame for this mess? It's obvious Americans are angry with both parties, as they should be. But don't confuse anger with blame, as far too much of the media did this past weekend. If you ignore outlying polls, most people are blaming the Republicans for the devolution of debate on this issue - and we wholeheartedly agree with that position on recent events.
Yes, both sides are responsible for accruing America's current debt level over the last ten years. On the right, they did it by advocating and passing things like unfunded wars, an unfunded Medicare Part D plan, and tax cuts that benefitted the wealthy over everyone else - and were supposed to expire in 2010. On the left, they didn't stand up to the bullies on the political right and demand more fiscal accountability. Now the bills are due, and there is no more putting off paying those bills.
The differing responses of the left and right on this simple fact have been stunning - especially as they appeared on Friday.
President Obama and Speaker Boehner had been working on a deal all last week. The President called the Speaker on Friday morning to continue the talks - and the Speaker refused to talk with the President. This insane back-and-forth went on all day, until finally, President Obama had enough of Speaker Boehner and the House GOP playing games - so the President took to the podium. Mr. Obama told the American people EXACTLY what had happened in the deals that he and the Speaker had been working on - even volunteering that yes, as Democrats and liberals had feared, the President was willing to cut Medicare, if only to get a deal. The ONE thing the President insisted on was that we PAY for some if the problem by raising taxes on the wealthiest, and getting rid of tax loopholes. The Republicans still refused. The President's response was clear - and angry about Republicans: “Can they say yes to anything?”
In short, the President gave the GOP almost everything they wanted - but as we warned last week, unless they get 100% of everything they want and everyone else gets nothing, Congressional Republicans won't be satisfied.
The key word the President used to describe their conduct was "inexcusable" - and we couldn't agree with him more, especially after the response from the other side.
Speaker Boehner's reply on Friday was to lie about the President's position, the Democrats' position, and the position of those in his own party on the debt ceiling issue. Boehner was lying so much, if we didn't know better, we might have thought he was auditioning to be a rug. We understand he's trying prevent the Tea Party members of the GOP from lynching him, but we also insist Mr. Boehner recall his Oath of Office was to the Constitution and the country - not an unelected, hyper-partisan lobbyist like Grover Norquist. Even Norquist has backed down from his extremist position in the face of worldwide economic collapse.
The response of the Tea Party has been the most insane of all - and it has quite obviously been part of the reason Mr. Boehner has been acting so stupidly. The Tea Partiers' response is simple: America doesn't need to pay its bills - and no one can make us. They're willing to blithely run the entire world off an economic cliff, because of their infantile refusal to deal with reality. It's as simple as that, sadly.
It's obvious who the liars, traitors, and incompetent frauds are in this whole charade. It's also clear who has been willing to truly negotiate with EVERYTHING on the table. Sadly, what's still unclear is how we can keep the least sane among us from dragging the whole world off the end of an extremely short economic pier.
In case you've somehow missed the entire story so far, the Washington Post's Ezra Klein and Dylan Matthews wrote a single short piece on Friday summarizing everything you need to know about the debt ceiling situation. In short, there is NO way to NOT default if we don't raise the debt ceiling, regardless of what the regressive nuts in the Tea Party say.
Who is to blame for this mess? It's obvious Americans are angry with both parties, as they should be. But don't confuse anger with blame, as far too much of the media did this past weekend. If you ignore outlying polls, most people are blaming the Republicans for the devolution of debate on this issue - and we wholeheartedly agree with that position on recent events.
Yes, both sides are responsible for accruing America's current debt level over the last ten years. On the right, they did it by advocating and passing things like unfunded wars, an unfunded Medicare Part D plan, and tax cuts that benefitted the wealthy over everyone else - and were supposed to expire in 2010. On the left, they didn't stand up to the bullies on the political right and demand more fiscal accountability. Now the bills are due, and there is no more putting off paying those bills.
The differing responses of the left and right on this simple fact have been stunning - especially as they appeared on Friday.
President Obama and Speaker Boehner had been working on a deal all last week. The President called the Speaker on Friday morning to continue the talks - and the Speaker refused to talk with the President. This insane back-and-forth went on all day, until finally, President Obama had enough of Speaker Boehner and the House GOP playing games - so the President took to the podium. Mr. Obama told the American people EXACTLY what had happened in the deals that he and the Speaker had been working on - even volunteering that yes, as Democrats and liberals had feared, the President was willing to cut Medicare, if only to get a deal. The ONE thing the President insisted on was that we PAY for some if the problem by raising taxes on the wealthiest, and getting rid of tax loopholes. The Republicans still refused. The President's response was clear - and angry about Republicans: “Can they say yes to anything?”
In short, the President gave the GOP almost everything they wanted - but as we warned last week, unless they get 100% of everything they want and everyone else gets nothing, Congressional Republicans won't be satisfied.
The key word the President used to describe their conduct was "inexcusable" - and we couldn't agree with him more, especially after the response from the other side.
Speaker Boehner's reply on Friday was to lie about the President's position, the Democrats' position, and the position of those in his own party on the debt ceiling issue. Boehner was lying so much, if we didn't know better, we might have thought he was auditioning to be a rug. We understand he's trying prevent the Tea Party members of the GOP from lynching him, but we also insist Mr. Boehner recall his Oath of Office was to the Constitution and the country - not an unelected, hyper-partisan lobbyist like Grover Norquist. Even Norquist has backed down from his extremist position in the face of worldwide economic collapse.
The response of the Tea Party has been the most insane of all - and it has quite obviously been part of the reason Mr. Boehner has been acting so stupidly. The Tea Partiers' response is simple: America doesn't need to pay its bills - and no one can make us. They're willing to blithely run the entire world off an economic cliff, because of their infantile refusal to deal with reality. It's as simple as that, sadly.
It's obvious who the liars, traitors, and incompetent frauds are in this whole charade. It's also clear who has been willing to truly negotiate with EVERYTHING on the table. Sadly, what's still unclear is how we can keep the least sane among us from dragging the whole world off the end of an extremely short economic pier.
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