Day: May 29, 2009

2009 Anal-Ocity

During the last primary season after one of the Repub debates I said that Tancredo was a bout as exciting as watching flies mate and that I thought he was a moron.  And he just keeps enforcing my belief.

Recently when talking about the supreme court nominee, Sotomayor and her association with La Raza he said:

“a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses.”

He continues the line of some conservatives that Ms. Sotomayor is a racist.  But to characterize a 40 year old civil rights organization as a “KKK” is just showing how stupid these attacks are.

Will I Pay Less?

As reported by Reuters:

“The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose last week, Labor Department data showed on Thursday, largely pushed up by auto plant shutdowns related to Chrysler’s bankruptcy.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits increased by 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 637,000 in the week ended May 9, the latest setback to hopes that the 17-month-long U.S. recession was nearing an end.”

And in the mean time auto makers will be filing for bankruptcies…that alone should send the GOP into a masterbation overload.  For years their argument against the unions has been that they workers are paid way too much and have way too many benefits.  Now the auto industry will be laying off workers, closing plants and crapping on dealers…think of the savings!  But beyond that think about the destruction of the union, now there is what the Repubs have wanted sine the days of Reagan and the air traffic controllers.

At least one of their dreams can come true….at least they can have that since the party is about as effective as tits on a boar.

For years opponents of the union have been saying that the union was destroying the industry by over paying the workers and that Japanese cars were more attractive than American because they could be built cheaper because of the lack of union workers.

Now, the auto companies are getting rid of their massive debt and best of all they are ridding the companies of a lot of the overpaid workers, but they will retasin the overpaid execs that actually caused all the problems to begin with, but beyond that the American auto will be made more cheaply than before.

Now my question is, with all these austere moves will I pay less for an American car?

It will be fun to see how cheap American cars will become now, don’t you think?  I mean for decades they have blamed the workers and their salaries for all the problems with the industry and especially the cost of the vehicles.

By using their logic, I should be paying less for a car in 2010.

I know—dream on McDuff…….

Pelosi Gets A Rest

Obama has made his choice for a judge to replace the retiring one on the Supreme Court…how fortunate for Pelosi…she now gets a temporary break from the bashing she has been taking at the hands of the conservatives, both on air personalities and the not so popular bloggers on the right.

Well at least the conservatives are consistant, they are still attacking a woman.  I asked the question about a month ago here on Info Ink.  I asked if the GOP and its lot were sexist.  I aked because of the attacks they, the GOP, have been having against women, like Pelosi, Sibelius and Napolitano.

Pelosi was in China trying to get them to cooperate on climate change and probably got very little of the cooperation she was looking for since she has been an outspoken critic of the government in China.  Her only good news for now is that Sotomayor is taking all the heat that she would be getting, at least for now.  I am sure that she is only getting a temporary lapse and the bashing will soon return.

Anyway, I digress..the conservs are taking careful aim at Sotomayor.  They have attacked her IQ, her name, her eating habits, her temperment and a racist.  All their attacks are just so damn silly……so damn lame…….and so damn predictable.

She will be confirmed……Repubs just want to have their say……it is all just a fundraising ploy….she will be confirmed.

What To Do With Social Security?

By now, I am sure that everyone has either read or heard from their favorite news source that Social Security will be dead by 2017.  But why will it be dead?

The standard argument is that it is not getting enough money incoming to meet the demand from retiring Baby Boomers.  That is a really good argument, but it is a bit of a manure spreader.  It is going bust because the government in the last decade, probably more, have been raiding it to pay for pet projects like war and such.  Why was this done?  So the cowards could continue to preach and enact tax cuts and related BS moves.

Now Repubs want to “reform” the system…that is code talk for eliminate it and let the people fend for themselves.  Even the Obama administration has shelled out hundreds of billions, no strings attached, to the biggest financial institutions, under the false rationale that this would “kick-start” lending and generate jobs. All told, between direct cash infusions, loans, and guarantees on debt, Washington has handed over around $10 trillion to Wall Street in less than a year. In comparison, Medicare would need $13 trillion and Social Security $5 trillion over the next 75 years to remain solvent, according to the report. In other words, retirement benefits and healthcare benefits for several generations of the elderly could be secured at the cost of one year’s bailout of the financial aristocracy.

Here is a couple of ideas–1)  raise the FICA and Medicare tax about 1% and 2) make ALL income subject to the tax, there would be NO cut off amout, 3) stop fighting stupid wars that we cannot afford.

Tom Eley wrote on wsws.org:

Secretary Geithner’s dual role as Wall Street frontman and “trustee” of the retirement and health care for the working class underscores the duplicitous nature of the Obama administration. Disregarding the trillions he has handed over to the banks, Geithner claimed that “there is no more important long-term fiscal measure than gaining control of the growth of Medicare costs.”

The first target for cuts will be Medicare, followed by Social Security. Geithner explained: “After we have passed health-care reform that puts our nation on a path to lower growth in health-care costs and expanded affordable coverage, this president will work to build a bipartisan consensus to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security.”

Geithner’s reference to “bipartisan consensus” is Washington code for the sort of reform that can bring the most far-right, pro-market forces aboard.

Once again, we see that Obama Boyz are not concerned with the survival of the poor and retired.  Main Street waits for the next hard screw.  What will be the next situation that will present another opportunity to stick it to the middle class?  Retirement is hard enough, especially for most of the working class and Washington continues to make it harder and harder….it is demeaning.