It's been disgusting to note the multiple double standards in full effect in America over the last two weeks as the Anthony Weiner non-sex "sex scandal" has flashed itself in front of nearly every media outlet in the nation.
It's obvious that one set of people - congresspersons, televangelists, sports and entertainment stars - can make horrible personal mistakes, and be crucified by the media in ways that make Pontius Pilate look like an amateur. These same people - who have done nothing legally wrong, by the way - can then go to resort-style "Treatment Centers" and come out a short time later "cured" of whatever personal failing they were convicted of, in the court of public opinion.
The rest of us, of course, if we find ourselves in a similar situation, merely have to face the chin music of our spouses when we get home.
It should be obvious that these actions have set up a separate and unequal system of injustice in America - both for those who are digitally tarred and feathered, as well as for the rest of us.
Now, our description of this tiered system may have brought a smile or smirk to your face - but the attitude of the entitled is nothing to laugh about.
In Wisconsin, that attitude is about to start a statewide civil war.
In case you missed it, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in a decision led by a judge who is a former head of that state's Republican Party, handed extremist right-wing Governor Scott Walker a victory on Tuesday. That happened when the court overturned the stay on the unconstitutional union-killing bill passed under shady circumstances in the Wisconsin Legislature.
If this decision stands, as it appears it will, not only will workers in Wisconsin no longer have the right to organize for fair wages and benefits. The state's GOP is also set to roll back child labor laws, wipe out protections for renters (both private and commercial), and turn the public school system into a private, voucher-based system (albeit, paid for with public tax dollars). Even small beer brewers are being attacked.
We feel the need to remind you, dear reader, that we do not support or recommend violence as a means to redress one's grievances, even with actions as heinous as those happening in Wisconsin.
That being said, the actions behind these attitudes - those of Wisconsin's extremist, regressive Republicans - are ones that will not likely end well for people on any side of this conflict.
A rash of recall elections has been scheduled for this summer and fall - and it's nearly certain that Democratic and Republican candidates will even be running in each other's primary elections. Millions of dollars is expected to flow into the state from outside sources.
The state has become a laughing stock, and we've had more than one contact tell us businesses are beginning to leave. Meanwhile the Republican Party continues to become fully engaged in an ideological war of words and legal maneuvers against their Democratic counterparts that may yet turn into actual fist fights - or worse.
As our friend and colleague John Nichols said recently, "it is not too late for responsible Republicans... to reject the crude pay-to-play politics that Walker and the Fitzgeralds have imported from outside Wisconsin."
We hope that he's right.
As a wise Republican President once said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Going For Broke On Jobs
For most of the last two-and-a-half years, since President Obama first came to office, we've been repeating the mantra of "Jobs, jobs, jobs" as the biggest single problem facing our country. While President Obama has made measurable headway in bringing the country back from the Bush recession, America still isn't back where we'd like it to be.
If you were looking to see any GOP presidential candidate seriously address the issue of how they'd bring more jobs to the U.S. economy, at the Republican Presidential Debate on CNN last night, you wouldn't have heard any answers coming from that bunch of presidential hopefuls. Complaints, yes. Criticizing, yes. Legitimate plans on how to fix the problem? No.
Meanwhile, Democrats in the U.S. Senate have been screaming at the President to focus on job creation, as we pointed out in the links section of yesterday's Daily Felltoon. Yes, the President did meet with his Jobs Council in North Carolina yesterday - and the President did present a plan for more high-tech jobs, unexpectedly calling to extend the payroll tax break for workers. But those meager measures are far from the explosive and far-reaching efforts that the top economists have been calling for. Even former White House aide Lawrence Summers, an economist who has been both revered and reviled, said this past weekend, "There is no time for fatalism or for traditional political agendas."
We're more than willing to admit our skepticism a week ago Monday, when we doubted House Democrats who claimed they were going to push for more infrastructure spending. We were even more surprised last week when Senate Democrats presented an actual plan for infrastructure investment which would create more jobs in our economy.
What truly floored us, however, was when the White House said the jobs bill that Senate Democrats were proposing was too expensive.
As writer Richard Eskow pointed out last Friday, the Senate Democrats' plan was only an additional $600M in public works spending over the next three years. In the scope of the Federal budget, a $600 million dollar investment in something we need anyway is practically small change. And as Mr. Summers pointed out, deferring infrastructure maintenance and replacement - which creates jobs - at this point is insane. We have unemployment rates in the construction field of nearly 20%, and interest rates for 10-year bonds (standard in infrastructure financing) at an insane 3 percent rate.
In short, it will likely never get cheaper for America to invest in itself again.
We're not sure of how else to say it to President Obama - and anyone else who wants to succeed in politics between now and November of next year. So we'll simply do in words that which they should be carrying out in action, and go a bit overboard.
Push the damn investment policies, sir. All the way, one hundred and twenty thousand percent. Quit being afraid of making moderate voters mad. Y'know what REALLY makes voters mad? Being unemployed for years at time.
Mr. President, quit worrying about what the Republicans and Tea Partiers are going to say and do. Many of them will NEVER vote for you. Quit trying to make nice with them - they can go to hell. As a recent Pew poll points out, sane Americans have begun to tune out the liars on the extremist right on the topic of Obama and Israel. If you stand up and show America you are willing to go to the mat for working people, Mr. President, it's likely more Americans will ignore the other lies those on the extremist right have also been spewing.
Who cares if you - or Democrats - put forward one proposal or one million proposals to put Americans back to work, that House Republicans will never, ever pass? The action of throwing yourselves on that sword again and again would at least make VERY clear, Mr. President, that you are on the side of Americans who want to work and can't find jobs - and those who oppose those efforts are not.
In short, Mr. President, what do you have to lose? If America doesn't have significantly more jobs by November 2012, you'll likely be joining the ranks of the unemployed, anyway.
It's time to go all out, sir.
If you were looking to see any GOP presidential candidate seriously address the issue of how they'd bring more jobs to the U.S. economy, at the Republican Presidential Debate on CNN last night, you wouldn't have heard any answers coming from that bunch of presidential hopefuls. Complaints, yes. Criticizing, yes. Legitimate plans on how to fix the problem? No.
Meanwhile, Democrats in the U.S. Senate have been screaming at the President to focus on job creation, as we pointed out in the links section of yesterday's Daily Felltoon. Yes, the President did meet with his Jobs Council in North Carolina yesterday - and the President did present a plan for more high-tech jobs, unexpectedly calling to extend the payroll tax break for workers. But those meager measures are far from the explosive and far-reaching efforts that the top economists have been calling for. Even former White House aide Lawrence Summers, an economist who has been both revered and reviled, said this past weekend, "There is no time for fatalism or for traditional political agendas."
We're more than willing to admit our skepticism a week ago Monday, when we doubted House Democrats who claimed they were going to push for more infrastructure spending. We were even more surprised last week when Senate Democrats presented an actual plan for infrastructure investment which would create more jobs in our economy.
What truly floored us, however, was when the White House said the jobs bill that Senate Democrats were proposing was too expensive.
As writer Richard Eskow pointed out last Friday, the Senate Democrats' plan was only an additional $600M in public works spending over the next three years. In the scope of the Federal budget, a $600 million dollar investment in something we need anyway is practically small change. And as Mr. Summers pointed out, deferring infrastructure maintenance and replacement - which creates jobs - at this point is insane. We have unemployment rates in the construction field of nearly 20%, and interest rates for 10-year bonds (standard in infrastructure financing) at an insane 3 percent rate.
In short, it will likely never get cheaper for America to invest in itself again.
We're not sure of how else to say it to President Obama - and anyone else who wants to succeed in politics between now and November of next year. So we'll simply do in words that which they should be carrying out in action, and go a bit overboard.
Push the damn investment policies, sir. All the way, one hundred and twenty thousand percent. Quit being afraid of making moderate voters mad. Y'know what REALLY makes voters mad? Being unemployed for years at time.
Mr. President, quit worrying about what the Republicans and Tea Partiers are going to say and do. Many of them will NEVER vote for you. Quit trying to make nice with them - they can go to hell. As a recent Pew poll points out, sane Americans have begun to tune out the liars on the extremist right on the topic of Obama and Israel. If you stand up and show America you are willing to go to the mat for working people, Mr. President, it's likely more Americans will ignore the other lies those on the extremist right have also been spewing.
Who cares if you - or Democrats - put forward one proposal or one million proposals to put Americans back to work, that House Republicans will never, ever pass? The action of throwing yourselves on that sword again and again would at least make VERY clear, Mr. President, that you are on the side of Americans who want to work and can't find jobs - and those who oppose those efforts are not.
In short, Mr. President, what do you have to lose? If America doesn't have significantly more jobs by November 2012, you'll likely be joining the ranks of the unemployed, anyway.
It's time to go all out, sir.
Monday, June 13, 2011
How Long Can You Tread Water?
While a stupidly large section of the media is still focused on the sexual proclivities of a Congressman, while another stupidly large section is focused on the e-mails of Sarah Palin from three years ago, a large chunk of the American people seem to be thankfully doing what they do best - ignoring the majority of the media hoopla, and focusing on what's important.
For those Americans living near near the Missouri River, that means being prepared for what appears to be a once in a millennium flood.
This isn't the only time in history that the Missouri has flooded, as our friend Jim McKee pointed out over the weekend. There have been more worrying concerns with this flood - as we mentioned last week, the nuclear power plant north of Omaha among them. Still, as natural disasters go, so far this has been a very tame one.
We don't mean to play this off as a minor event. Some of our friends have been affected, including our photographer/cartoonist friend Scott, down in Watson, Missouri. But because of the planning and infrastructure investment that was made during the 1960s, those who live along the "Mighty Mo" have had weeks, not hours, to plan and and enact their escapes, and flood preparations.
Unlike so many of the disasters Americans have faced in recent memory, because Americans worked TOGETHER, planned, prepared, and invested in the future success of their fellow citizens, a flood that might be a once-in-a-thousand year phenomenon, may end up being mostly an event that discomforts more than than it destroys.
The sad thing to note is that if the proposal to invest in the kinds of flood preparation the United States enacted during the 1960s was made today, it would never pass.
While those Midwesterners affected by the floods soldier through these next few weeks, and the cleanup continues into Husker football season and beyond (which it will), we hope that one key fact about the floods of 2011 continues to float to the top of your brains.
We were told during the 1960s we couldn't afford to spend so much government money on projects like those involved in Missouri River flood control. We had just gotten out of the Korean War when planning for these projects began. By the time these projects were primarily finished, we were involved in Vietnam, another costly venture. We also added the costs of Medicare and Medicaid to our expenses during the 1960s. Yet we Americans decided that we needed to invest in America anyway, through projects just like the flood control efforts along the Missouri.
Some state governments spent more than they had planned during those investments, and some government programs ran into cost overruns too. In short, we spent more than the immediate direct benefits we got from these projects.
Yet, as those Americans back then knew, the benefit wasn't for just them. It was for their children, their grandchildren, and people they didn't even know.
People like our friends and neighbors now.
If only Americans had that kind of vision today.
For those Americans living near near the Missouri River, that means being prepared for what appears to be a once in a millennium flood.
This isn't the only time in history that the Missouri has flooded, as our friend Jim McKee pointed out over the weekend. There have been more worrying concerns with this flood - as we mentioned last week, the nuclear power plant north of Omaha among them. Still, as natural disasters go, so far this has been a very tame one.
We don't mean to play this off as a minor event. Some of our friends have been affected, including our photographer/cartoonist friend Scott, down in Watson, Missouri. But because of the planning and infrastructure investment that was made during the 1960s, those who live along the "Mighty Mo" have had weeks, not hours, to plan and and enact their escapes, and flood preparations.
Unlike so many of the disasters Americans have faced in recent memory, because Americans worked TOGETHER, planned, prepared, and invested in the future success of their fellow citizens, a flood that might be a once-in-a-thousand year phenomenon, may end up being mostly an event that discomforts more than than it destroys.
The sad thing to note is that if the proposal to invest in the kinds of flood preparation the United States enacted during the 1960s was made today, it would never pass.
While those Midwesterners affected by the floods soldier through these next few weeks, and the cleanup continues into Husker football season and beyond (which it will), we hope that one key fact about the floods of 2011 continues to float to the top of your brains.
We were told during the 1960s we couldn't afford to spend so much government money on projects like those involved in Missouri River flood control. We had just gotten out of the Korean War when planning for these projects began. By the time these projects were primarily finished, we were involved in Vietnam, another costly venture. We also added the costs of Medicare and Medicaid to our expenses during the 1960s. Yet we Americans decided that we needed to invest in America anyway, through projects just like the flood control efforts along the Missouri.
Some state governments spent more than they had planned during those investments, and some government programs ran into cost overruns too. In short, we spent more than the immediate direct benefits we got from these projects.
Yet, as those Americans back then knew, the benefit wasn't for just them. It was for their children, their grandchildren, and people they didn't even know.
People like our friends and neighbors now.
If only Americans had that kind of vision today.
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