Month: December 2010

Got Love A Simpleton!

Some people just do NOT know when to keep their mouth shut…now do they?

Michigan’s Rep. Miller Rails Against “WikiLinks”

December 07, 2010 3:49 pm ET
 

shar.es/X2QvB.  Warning:  clear any substance from your airways….could potential be a choking hazard…..

REP. MILLER: Mr. Speaker, since WikiLinks has begun releasing American top-secret information that it obtained illegally, there has been a debate about how our nation should respond to this. I believe the actions of WikiLinks provide material support to our terrorist enemies, so it should be treated as a terrorist organization. Others have argued that WikiLinks is simply a media organization and th— therefore it is protected under the first amendment. Well consider for a moment the most recent statements by Julian Assage [sic] the founder of WikiLinks, which I believe show exactly what he is: a terrorist. Assage [sic] has spread across the world an encrypted document which he claims has even more vital national secrets that he’s going to release. And Assage [sic] calls these files his insurance file, and he’s threatened to release this information if he is captured or if he is charged with any violation of law. Those, Mr. Speaker, are not the actions of a journalist; those are the actions of a terrorist. Even President Clinton recently said that lives will be lost because of the release of this information. But still, Mr. Speaker, we still have not heard anything on this issue from our current Commander in Chief, President Obama.  It is absolutely baffling.  I yield back.

Once again, I suggest that the GOP keep the less knowledgeable people from being in front of a microphone…..Stuff like this does NOT improve the case that you guys are competent representatives…..

We Are In Debt Now!–Part Deux

The thing to remember is that politicians seldom do as they say…..I have been harping on this point for years and few listen…..it is always about the election never the action with these political types……the last election was all about the size of government and the federal spending frenzy that the Dems are accused of having started…..all that is a steaming pile of chicken crap (to use a term uttered by the GOP statesman, John  Boehner)….

Come on people…politicians have always been liars and thieves…look at the hero of the small government Right, Thomas Jefferson….he had written much about the limited size of government and the ails it would beget if it got too big….but yet once he was elected president…he over saw an increase in the size of the government with the Louisiana Purchase which was to be governed by an extensive system of military governors and their administrations……yes it did increase the size of the country, but it also increased the size of government and government spending…..so if the lies have been uttered since the early 1800’s what makes you think that they will be truthful 200 years later?

There are those amongst us that do not feel that the deficit is the huge problem that the Right wants it to be……read what James Galbraith has to say about the deficit….

The starting point of the deficit contrarians’ argument is that the deficit was caused not by over-spending and under-taxation, as the current debate would have it, but by the collapse in tax revenues that resulted from the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent economic slump.

In prepared testimony before the presidential debt commission this summer, James Galbraith, a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, argued that this means the only way to reduce the deficit is to reduce unemployment, not to cut spending or raise taxes. Galbraith (pictured above) argued that the only way to reduce unemployment without adding to the deficit through more government spending is to get banks lending again, by fixing the root problems in the financial sector that caused the financial crisis in the first place.

Galbraith — a former director of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, and the son of the renowned liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith — went on to address the idea that cutting Social Security benefits can help close the deficit. That’s been a mainstay of the debate, and it’s a notion that the commission’s co-chairs appear to subscribe to, judging from their recent proposal, which recommends significant cuts to the program. But Social Security, Galbraith noted, isn’t  a spending program at all. It simply transfers wealth from today’s taxpayers to low-income elderly people in the future. “One can favor or oppose [cutting benefits] on its own merits as social policy,” Galbraith said. “But one cannot argue that it would save real resources that are otherwise being ‘consumed’ by the government sector.”

Next, Galbraith took on the argument that deficits will produce higher long-term interest rates, making it prohibitively expensive for the government to borrow in the future.  That’s not true, he countered, because the government doesn’t spend in the same way that private individuals or companies do. “So long as U.S. banks are required to accept U.S. government checks — which is to say so long as the Republic exists — then the government can and does spend without borrowing, if it chooses to do so,” he declared.

All in all, Galbraith said, the current mania for deficit reduction is disastrously misplaced. “The right economic objectives are to meet real problems, not those conjured from thin air by economists,” he concluded. “Bringing about a rapid end to unemployment, caring properly for an aging population, cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico, coping with our energy insecurity and with climate change are all far more important objectives than reducing a projection of future budget deficits.”

This is all smoke and mirrors….and remember nothing being said about future deficits is written in stone….they are ALL projections….they are NOT gospel…and to try and sell them as such is just another trick of the political parasites…..

About the only thing that these people are serious about is to make the Middle Class pay for the crimes and misjudgments of the upper class….and you still do NOT believe there is a class war?  (tune in tomorrow for the post on that very subject)

The Death Of Earmarks?

Conservs and small government politicians had a victory recently with the limiting of earmarks…the Congress smiled and the peasants danced……but wait!  Could this been a bit premature?

Killing earmarks in an era of big government and bigger deficits sure sounded like great conservative politics at the party last night, but none other than the House GOP is waking up with a hangover, wondering “What were we thinking?” As Politico reports, it turns out that ix-naying porky projects like the bridge to nowhere also meant defunding a lot of legitimate bridges to somewhere. And it has the likes of Michele Bachmann and Steve King now scrambling to get cash for transportation projects in their districts.
Potential workarounds include revising the definition of earmark, lobbying executive agencies for cash (dubbed “phone marking” and “letter marking”), and sneaking funding through the back door of the Senate, which has no such ban. “This isn’t trying to be too cute by half of what is an earmark and what isn’t,” says Bachmann….

Too cute for their own good………I thought this would come back to bite them in the butt…….change the definition?  An earmark is an earmark…..they want to have their cake and eat the cash……and keep their lobbyists buds in caviar……

Can You Hear Me Now?

Warning:  This post may be offensive to seniors and retirees…..all I can say is….GET OVER IT!  The truth hurts!

Hey Seniors, you wanna a good chuckle?

The seniors go to the polls in a mid-term election and you guys voted overwhelmingly for the Repubs or those Tea Party idiots that promise and promise and deliver nothing but hollow words…..give yourself a big hand for your insightful use of the ballot……

The Obama group wanted to send all SS retirees a one time check for $250 to help in lieu of a COLA….well that fell short today by a vote of 53-45….so your check is NOT in the post….and why?

Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas), top Republican on the Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee, said “increasing our nation’s crushing deficit on the backs of our children by an additional $14 billion is wrong.”

Read that again!  And again!  Now think back to the first of the week…when Obama and the Repubs came to a tenative deal on tax cuts…..

This from CNNMoney…….

The compromise on the Bush tax cuts announced Monday night between President Obama and Republicans could cost between $800 billion and $900 billion if ultimately signed into law as is — no sure thing given opposition from many Democrats.

So seniors you do the math…….it is acceptable to add $800 million to the debt…..but somehow unacceptable to add $14 billion…is that what you people voted for?

You were HAD in the last election….you were played like a cheap drum…..now we see why scam artists target the elderly….they are MORONS!  NO?  Check your last choices in the election….you guys are MORONS!  Voting against your best interests is not the way to change that……

Your interests are NOT being served in Washington…the sooner you realize it the quicker you can find a solution to your ailment….IGNORANCE!  This is best done by pushing away from Dancing with the stars, wheel of fortune and the price is right….a little effort and your problem can be fixed……..

Can you hear me now!

We Are In Debt Now!–Part One

So you think that this is a problem for the next generation, do you?

This could very well be a post on the problems that average Americans are facing because of their addiction to deficit spending known as CREDIT….but ….Not now……this is about something that every politician has on his lips these days…..both Dem as well as repub….it is the National Debt…..the bane of the country…..

The Federal deficit is NOT necessarily the same thing as the National debt……I know…I know…according to the windbags on the tube and radio…it is the same thing……if you believe that…YOU ARE WRONG!

That is another post…..let us talk about the debt……and we all know what the Repubs think about the debt and who put us in the shape we are in….it is those despicable Dems that are at fault…..right?

This phenom is NOT something new…as a matter of fact it began with Alexander Hamilton from the very beginning of the country and it has NOT slowed down since…just an occasional hiccup now and then….

To answer that question let us look at a little history of the US debt……..this from the cedarcomm.com website…….

Since 1938 the Democrats have held the White house for 35 years, the Republicans for 36.  Over that time the national debt has increased at an average annual rate of 8.5%.  In years Democrats were in the White House there was an average increase of 8.3%.  In years the Republicans ran the White House the debt increased an average 9.2% per year.  Those averages aren’t that far apart, but they do show a bias toward more borrowing by Republicans than Democrats even including World War II.

If you look at the 60+ year record of debt since the end of WWII, starting with Truman’s term, the difference between the two parties’ contributions to our national debt level change considerably.  Since 1946, Democratic presidents increased the national debt an average of only 3.2% per year.  The Republican presidents stay at an average increase of 9.2% per year. Republican Presidents out borrowed and spent Democratic presidents by a three to one ratio.  Putting that in very real terms; for every dollar a Democratic president has raised the national debt in the past 63 years Republican presidents have raised the debt by $2.84Prior to the Neo-Conservative takeover of the Republican Party there was not much difference between the two parties’ debt philosophy.  They both worked together to minimize it.  However the debt has been on a steady incline ever since the Reagan presidency.  The only exception to the steep increase over the last 30 years was during the Clinton presidency, when he brought spending under control and the debt growth down to almost zero.

Comparing the borrowing habits of the two parties since 1981, when the Neo-Conservative movement really took hold and government spending raced out of control, it is extremely obvious that the big spenders in Washington are Republicans and their party’s presidents.  The only Democratic president since then, Mr. Clinton raised the national debt an average of 4.3% per year.  The Republican presidents (Reagan, Bush, and Bush II) raised the debt an average of 10.8% per year.  That is, for every dollar a Democratic President has raised the national debt in the past 30 years, Republican presidents have raised the debt by $2.52.  Any way you look at it Neo-Conservative Republican presidents cannot or will not control government spending.

The fact is that Reagan was able to push his tax cuts through both Houses of Congress, but he never pushed through any reduced spending programs.  His weak leadership in this area makes him directly responsible for the unprecedented rise in borrowing during his time in office, an average of 13.8% per year.  The increase in total debt during Reagan’s two terms was larger than all the debt accumulated by all the presidents before him combined.  From 1983 through 1985, with a Republican Senate, the debt was increasing at over 17% per year.  While Mr. Reagan was in office this nation’s debt went from just under 1 trillion dollars to over 2.6 trillion dollars, a 200% increase.  The sad part about this increase is that it was not to educate our children, or to improve our infrastructure, or to help the poor, or even to finance a war.  Reagan’s enormous increase in the national debt was not to pay for any noble cause at all; his primary unapologetic goal was to pad the pockets of the rich.  The huge national debt we have today is a living legacy to his failed Neo-Conservative economic policies.  Reagan’s legacy is a heavy financial weight that continues to apply an unrelenting drag on this nation’s economic resources.

So now you see where the yelling and screaming about the deficit came from and where it has gone and who is more responsible for the problems than others……but they have seen the light….they will work hard to bring done the deficit and control spending….and you believe these notorious liars?  Why would you…this has all been said before and look what they have accomplished after promising different….Why would you believe them again and again and again…..and re-elect them again and again…..and have their promises broken again and again?

Where have we gone wrong?

You first mistake is putting your trust in a group of people that could care less about your future or your family….regardless of the smoke they blow up your ass…..second…you are just plain lazy, if not stupid, and cannot be bothered with issues….and thirdly…nothing will get better or different as long as you walk around with your head shoved up your ass……

To Be Continued………

Party Like It Is 1999!

Yes, I know…you can hear Prince spouting and strutting his stuff……get over it!

We are in the midst of a crushing economic crisis….well crushing if you work for a living…not so much if you are one of the hotshots on Wall Street……the news is great….well the news is skewed to appear great…..

You tell me…the wealthy are buying diamonds, luxury cars and organic dog food……Main Street is buying second hand clothes, taking the bus and eating dog food….yeah…things are truly looking up for us stiffs….

Real unemployment is sitting at about 15%….some unemployment benefits will be lost……wages are being driven down……benefits are being lost……homes are underwater……and Xmas is gonna be a bit thin for most of America…especially on Main Street……but there is good news….

well only if you are wealthy you have this to look forward to…..

Wall Street reforms were supposed to force financial firms to better align pay with performance. That doesn’t seem to be happening this year. Profit-wise the second quarter was a disappointing one for many of the large banks. After what was by all measures an amazing profit rebound in 2009, this year has been a dud. For most firms, Wall Street bottom lines are supposed to be about what they were a year ago. Some firms may even see profit drops. Not much to reward workers for, at least not a record levels as the Journal predicts, you would think. To be sure, banks have yet to make their final decisions on what they will pay in year-end checks. But the early indication is the firms plan on paying their employees well despite their ho-hum bottom line performance. A recent survey of financial firm professionals said they expect higher pay in 2010 than they received a year ago. “If the object of Wall Street pay reform was to make bonus payouts less risky, then I think that has been achieved,” says Johnson, who cites clawbacks and other pay provisions that have sought to remove the incentive for deals that create short-term profits, but can leave the firms open to much bigger losses in the future. “But if the object was to reduce the absolute level of pay on Wall Street, then I think reform has been much less successful.”Read more: http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2010/10/12/wall-street-deja-vu-lackluster-profits-equals-record-bonuses/#ixzz173cHRlME 

Wait! There is more……

Despite lingering concerns about the economy, a new report from American Express Business Insights says luxury sales are up, gaining 9% in the second quarter.

While spending in each of the four categories it analyzed increased, furniture and home furnishings showed the biggest improvement — up 21% — followed by sales at luxury department stores, which rose 15% in the quarter. (Women powered those department stores sales, making 69% of purchases. And 22% of all charges came from shoppers ages 36 to 45.)

While sales also rose in the apparel and accessories (up 9%) and jewelry sectors (up 12%), the report says growth slowed in each of those categories as the quarter progressed, indicating renewed fears about the fledgling recovery. Jewelry sales gained only 3% in June, for example, the smallest increase in the last eight months.

So you see…if you are wealthy all looks pretty good….if you are struggling….then the economy does not have the same appearance as it does with some others…..and then the big fight over tax cuts…..this holds NO promise for the middle class……and the jobs that are promised if the wealthy get their extension of tax cuts will not be coming any time soon…if they do…then the whole thing was just a set up to help Repubs win elections….and if that is the case then these BASTARDS need to be executed…kinda of what the Right wants to do to Assange……

Can We Be Real For A Moment?

This just in!  Retail sales were the strongest they have been in months this September….the recovery has begun!

That is what all the financial pundits want you to believe but there is more to this story than the increase in sales thanx to Black Friday and Cyber Monday….really!  There is more to it!

But now…for something completely different……..

The Middle Class will keep their tax cuts…..hooray!  But so will the wealthy……..and the promise is that they will start creating jobs because now they know they can keep their money…..think about that logic for a moment……..(pause here for reflection)….but at least the unemployed will keep some of the benefits that come with that stigma…..

By the by…..the tax cuts for the wealthy will add about #4 trillion to the debt….which apparently is NOT that important to the GOP  when it comes to aid for the wealthy…..but that is something that they will coat over with some sort of silver lining…..

The whole argument from the GOP was that if the wealthy kept their tax cuts they would start investing in the economy again and thus would start creating jobs….so the GOP held up the unemployment to get their buds more cash in their pockets….think about that for a minute……(another pause for reflection)……….

Another point and this one from the head doodah of the FED…….

The nation’s unemployment rate, which has been over 9 percent for a record 19 months, is not likely to return to “a more normal unemployment rate” of about 5 percent or 6 percent for four or five years, the Federal Reserve chairman said in an interview with the CBS News program “60 Minutes” broadcast on Sunday night.

And then there is this bit of news……

Most observers expect no signs of a turnaround anytime soon. The Federal Reserve has predicted that unemployment will be around 9 percent by the end of 2011, and around 8 percent by the end of 2012. As Dean Baker of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research wrote Friday:

Does not sound like he expects too many jobs to be created for an extended time…..and yet the idea has been sold that if the wealthy keep their cash they will start up and begin created jobs…..think about that, please…….(a pause for reflection…one more time)…..

The GOP is correct in their thinking….the jobs will start pouring in on or about 01 January 2011.   Or could it be that they will just continue buying luxury items and say “screw the jobless”?

My money (both physically and literally) is on the latter!

And guess what….if the jobs do not magical appear, then it will somehow be all Obama’s fault…….well do not hold your breath…besides there is NO proof that tax cuts create jobs….only in the lying heart of a politician…….

Hey voters!  You asked for it….you got it…..what?  A good humping!

Allow me to be blunt here……IT IS ALL A LIE!

To quote a famous pitch man…….”can you hear me NOW!?”

2010 Anal-Ocity Award Nominees

It is that time again…..we at Info Ink have spent lots of hours trying to find the 10 most anal statements made during the course of 2010…it was not easy they all were so flipping anal, but we finally came up with the top 10……which we revised to the top 8 and then a gain to the top 5….they are listed below and I ask all my readers to pick the one that they feel is the most anal…the “Assie” award is given to the person or thing that is the most anal……before the list is presented I would like to recap the past winners for you……

2009 winner was Sarah Palin and her statement after resignation as Gov. of Alaska……”I am a fighter….not a quitter”

2008 winner was Sen.  John McCain when he was talking about Russia’s invasion of Georgia…”In the 21st century nations do not invade other nations”……this from a guy that supported the invasion of Iraq…..

2007 winner was Paris Hilton, when she replied after her sentencing to jail….”It’s not fair!”

There are the past winners…and who will join the list of Assie winners for 2010?

The 5 nominees for the year are………

1–NATO envoy Mark Sedwell when commenting on violence in Kabul, Afghanistan

“children are probably safer here than they would be in London, New York, or Glasgow or many other cities.”

2–Columnists David Broder when writing about chance of re-election…..

Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran’s ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.

3–GOP state senator of South Carolina when talking about the election of governor Nikki Haley

“We already got one raghead in the White House, we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion,”

4–Former GOP Rep, Duncan Hunter of California when talking about children born in the US to immigrants….

“Would you support deportation of natural-born American citizens that are the children of illegal aliens,” Hunter was asked. “I would have to, yes,” Hunter said. “… We simply cannot afford what we’re doing right now,” he said. “… It takes more than just walking across the border to become an American citizen. It’s what’s in our souls. …”

5–A Muslim cleric in Iran when talking about the increase in earthquake activity….

“Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes,”

There they are the 5 that we consider the most anal statements of the past year……please take your time and read over the nominees and vote for the one that you feel is the most anal…..

Thanx for your time and assistance…….your participation is greatly appreciated…..

What is The “General Welfare”?

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  American History/US Constitution/Government

Paper #41

For weeks now I have been writing and asking questions about different concepts in the political sphere with the hopes that it will increase people’s attention and knowledge on the issues that they have to deal with daily and especially at election time…..

Recently I had a post about the common good (or in some cases “common cause) and in it I discussed what was meant when you hear pundits and speakers and campaigners use the term and they use it liberally (that is a small “l” and not the large “L”)……..

Let us talk about the Constitution, especially the 1st Amendment Section 8 which states….

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States;……

There is the term that I would like to discuss…”the general welfare”…..we hear this term all the time, well you do if you do much reading or writing on the political side of life, but what does it mean?

First of all we must remember that the days that the document was written there were many ways of saying a thing…..for instance, general welfare could be of today’s equivalent of the “common good”….great huh?  But what does that mean?

Or we could take a different tact……with all the fake concern on the rise of socialism being thrown around by the motor mouths on the Right……we could make the case that ” general welfare or common good” could be interpreted as the Founders saying that they supported a form of socialism…if you use the same vague logic of our Rightie brothers and sisters…….

I mean if you can stretch the facts in today’s world to make the Dems out as some sort of secret socialists then why not extend your thinking and go back to the Founding Fathers on what their agenda was all about?

Equality……a corner stone of socialist thought……just a thought……

Finally, An Answer!

The drama over the issue of homosexuality has been raging for as long as most of my readers can remember…..politicians have used it to get elected……preachers have used it to get their particular way…..parents have used it to scare the crap out of their kids…..so, is it hereditary or a sickness or a learned thing?

We have been exposed to every side of the argument……pros….cons…..good…the bad….the ugly…but few have any scientific proof of what “causes” homosexuality….everyone has an opinion and as we know everyone also has an a/hole…so what is the true answer to all the questions and accusations?

This from FOXnews.com………

The nature versus nurture debate just took an unexpected turn — thanks to pollution.

Increased exposure to the toxic chemical mercury can affect sexual preference in certain species of birds — inducing homosexuality, a new study has revealed.

Peter Frederick, an ecologist from the University of Florida, and Nilmini Jayasena from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka found that male American white ibises that consumed methylmercury…….the most toxic and most easily digested form of mercury, were most likely to bond with other males……

Mercury becomes methylated only when it comes in contact with bacteria in anoxic environments, those that use sulfur instead of oxygen for metabolism. And that process is common in wetlands and shallow aquatic areas….
methylmercury, a known endocrine disruptor, is affecting hormone levels in exposed birds.
That said, mercury pollution is a danger to humans for a variety of other reasons: It’s known to affect developing fetuses and has degenerative effects on many human organs. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/02/pollution-causes-homosexuality-birds-studies/#ixzz16zOD444v

Do we finally have a answer long sought?

Okay, there is your answer….pollution is causing homosexuality……will the anti-gay lobby use this info?  Will more money be spent on trying to control the amount of mercury dumped into our environment?

Does anybody even care?