Where's the Outrage?

Sometimes it helps to state the obvious. Remember that dude from lore, Robin Hood? He took from the rich and gave to the poor. He was loved by the masses. Well, today, in America, we have the reverse. We have folks taking from the masses and giving that money to the rich.

From EPI:

So, we have the tax cuts which were passed last December. They weren’t paid for. We simply took money our of the government’s accounts and gave the money to the top 1 – 2% in America. Now. that’s really cool. And to make matters worse the Republicans don’t think that giving money to the rich is bad policy. They want to double down on that policy by making it harder to be poor in this country. They want to cut services (which disproportionately benefit the poor) by billions of dollars.

Update: the attack on middle-class America should be obvious to anyone making less than $250,000 a year. Republicans have said very clearly that the reason that you are stuck in the middle class and sliding quickly into the lower class is because that you’re lazy. You simply aren’t working hard enough. This is the take-home message. Republicans are stated they want to reward those who are “working hard” which seems to be the large corporations and CEOs. Just look at the news lately, GE and Exxon Mobil, two large multinational corporations with billions of dollars in profits, are paying nothing in taxes this year. Exxon Mobil’s gross profit, according to MorningStar, is well over $100 billion for 2010. General Electric’s gross profit, again, according to MorningStar, is just under $81 billion. The fact that these two corporate giants are paying zero in federal taxes is obscene.

This is the system that we have designed. We, the American people, have signed onto tax cuts for the rich and a lump of coal for the poor. We, through our representatives, have designed a tax system that is so complex and riddled with so many loopholes that multibillion dollar corporations campaign nothing in federal taxes and it can be legal.

The middle class feels that they’re drowning in debt and taxes because their wages are stagnant. There’s no extra money. There is no savings. We need to make our system work for us. It used to work for us. We need to make it work for middle-class America, working America, again.

Update 2: Did you see this freshman congressman complaining that he is having trouble getting by on $174,000/year? I’m having trouble typing this because I’m crying for this poor freshman Congressman. The average American family is taking home approximate $42,000 per year. He is making four times what the average American is making and he is complaining about it. C&L has more.

Tags: Budget, Economy, Taxes by ecthompson md
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Good morning!

• Interesting study by the conservative American Enterprise Institute reveals that Medicaid spent more money than it should have on brand-name prescription drugs. Over $300 million was “wasted.” This is a significant sum of money. In my opinion, the conclusions of the study are somewhat misguided. It is true that Medicare and Medicaid need to save money wherever possible. They need to figure out how to do this in a safe and cost-effective manner. On the other hand, I’m not sure that forcing generic drugs on patients is the right way to go. Instead, negotiate for fair and lower prescription drug prices. Use the power of the government, the power of the big purchaser (like Walmart) to push prices lower.
• NPR has begun a multipart series on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The first installment is well worth a listen. (I talk about Fannie and Freddie, here and here.)
• Is Greece the Argentina of this decade? The financial troubles of the Greek government continue to plague the European Union.
• Weak home sales are an ominous sign for the economy.
• I’m not sure what we were expecting in Libya. It seemed to me that the press was playing up some advances that the rebels made along with the “success” of our airstrikes. It appears that the rebels have taken some losses over the last 24-48 hours. Look for the United States to begin to supply the rebels with better weaponry. (Man, am I getting multiple different flashbacks – Somalia, Afghanistan of the 1980s. This is not good.)
• Please correct me if I’m wrong but it is my understanding that a recession occurs when there is an overall lack of spending. There’s plentiful supply but nobody’s buying. How do you fix this problem by shrinking the size of government? The Republicans have never answered this question adequately; at least, I don’t think so. They continue to argue that we can cut our way to prosperity. Watch the video:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tags: Economy, Foreign Affairs by ecthompson md
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I was on call last night and somewhat busy. Because of a boatload paperwork in my office, I did not get an afternoon nap, so I have been up for more than 24 hours. I hope I can make some sense. If my post is completely thoughtless, let me know, I’ll fix it when I get up this afternoon.

About a year ago, I picked up the game of golf. My wife and I have been taking lessons. We play and practice together often. Because I’ve taken up golf, I have discovered the Golf Channel. Never really looked at the Golf Channel before. I guess I had no reason to. There is now a show on the Golf Channel that really is dedicated to the “greatness” of Donald Trump. The show revolves around Donald Trump opening new golf courses in Florida and Pennsylvania and somewhere in Scotland. Now, I am not a Donald Trump fan. I think that he is an egotistical knucklehead. He will do whatever is necessary to seek the limelight which is probably why he is now dabbling in politics.

Trump may be a disciplined investor, but he doesn’t seem to be all that disciplined with what comes out of his mouth. Just last month, he informed the conservatives at the CPAC convention that Rand Paul was not electable. While that may be true, I’m not sure it’s the best strategy to use in a room full of young Republicans who were drifting to Doctor Paul’s message of libertarianism.

Ever the publicity hound, Donald Trump, yesterday, released his birth certificate. Or, well, it sort of looks like a birth certificate. He released it to the conservative news outlet Newsmax. Unfortunately, that was not Donald Trump’s “official” birth certificate. Several news outlets have contacted the Trump empire and have yet to get a decent response. I find this whole incident amusing. Donald Trump’s purpose for releasing his “official” birth certificate was to try to whip up some support from the birthers. It didn’t work. Like much of Donald Trump and his persona, he tries too hard to make a splash. Unless Donald Trump can turn himself into George W. Bush, he is not a viable candidate. He flies off the handle too much and too often. He’s also ridiculously rich and flaunts it. It’s okay to be rich, but Americans don’t want you to flaunt it; at least they don’t want their president to flaunt his own personal wealth.

Tags: Elections, Media, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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I think that speech was very predictable. President Obama was going to make the moral argument. I think that he did a very solid job.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tags: Foreign Affairs, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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Massive protests in Wisconsin are entering their third week. In my opinion, unions are in a battle with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for the future of the middle class. On one hand, Governor Scott Walker states that the state of Wisconsin is broke. In order to get their fiscal house in order, they must balance the budget and cut the size of government. Among the budget-cutting proposals, and the most controversial, is Governor Walker’s proposal to end collective bargaining among public workers.

On the other side of this titanic argument sit the Wisconsin unions. The unions have unequivocally stated that they’re willing to take salary cuts but are not willing to give up their right to collective bargain. So the unions have met Governor Scott Walker more than halfway and yet we still have an impasse. Who’s right?

The governor claims that the great state of Wisconsin has a $137 billion shortfall. As it turns out, the governor passed an approximately $140 million tax giveaway to special interest groups. This should sound familiar. Republicans like to cut taxes but they don’t pay for themselves. The Bush tax cuts did not pay for themselves. Reagan’s tax cuts did not pay for themselves. Why should Governor Walker’s tax cuts pay for themselves? The real crime appears to lie in the fact that Governor Walker wants to pay for his tax cuts by asking workers to sacrifice more. As I’ve chronicled, time and time again, the middle class is been squeezed like never before. The middle class continues to face increasing expenses (utilities, housing and education costs) and stagnant or decreasing wages.

This is part of a conservative agenda which started decades ago. Conservatives use the government to enrich their friends (tax cuts to the rich). Conservatives have never liked unions because unions support, for the most part, Democrats. So, Governor Scott Walker is only following the conservative playbook, which advocates enriching your friends and punishing your enemies.

Wisconsin is simply a microcosm of what’s happening on the national level. Currently, the House Republicans are insisting on somewhere around a $60 billion budget cut because “America is broke.” I don’t understand. How is it that we can be broke when we just gave the rich tax cuts in December? These tax cuts were not paid for. How can we afford tax cuts when we’re broke? Remember that Republicans successfully argued that we were in the middle of a recession and increasing taxes would slow economic growth. Using the same logic, spending would spur economic growth. Then wouldn’t cutting $60 billion slow economic growth? Of course it will. (Slowing the economic recovery also has the side effect of making Democrats look ineffectual and therefore decreasing the chance of Obama’s reelection.) Government spending equals approximately 25% of our GDP. Economists estimate somewhere between 200,000 and 700,000 jobs will be lost by $60 billion in discretionary spending.

America is looking at a $1.25 trillion deficit. Republicans continually point to this number and hope that Americans will reel at its size. The conservatives want you to be flabbergasted. But when you look at the number in its proper context it is not as large as it seems. We are a country of over 300 million people. Therefore, if every man, woman and child forks over $4000, the budget deficit is solved. $4000. That’s it. Not $40,000 or $4 million, we are talking about $4000 per person to prevent cutting programs that help the poor, like the low-income heating energy assistance program (LIHEAP) and Head Start. If we just look at those tax cuts, which were passed in December, the average millionaire is reaping over $100,000 in tax cuts. If we just require those who have benefited the most from our stable economic environment to simply pay their fair share, we could fix the budget in no time.

Conservatives are using a ginned up “financial crisis” in order to push through their agenda, which is destroying unions and killing government spending on social programs. This is a full-blown attack on the American Way of Life. We should and must take to the streets like they are in Madison, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Democratic Party has started a petition to recall eight of Wisconsin’s Senators in accordance with the Wisconsin Constitution. If the Democrats win three of these eight seats, the balance of power shifts in the Senate. This is direct democracy. This is the way that we take back our government from corporate special interests who have the undivided attention of our politicians.

Tags: Economy, Newsletter by ecthompson md
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I’ve been staring at the computer trying to get motivated for the last couple of hours. I need some more caffeine.

Bill Maher on Anti-Obama. Watch the Video –

So, what’s on your mind?

Tags: Environment, Foreign Affairs, Obama administration, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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Nobody could swing like Count Basie. He could simply play a middle C and make it swing. Great drum solo by the way!!

Artist: Count Basie
Tune: I Don’t Know

Tags: Music by ecthompson md
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Many of us are wondering if what we are seeing in Japan could happen here. I think that the answer is yes, it could could happen here.

From CP:

While new plants are unlikely to be built in the United States over the next 25 years, nuclear power provides 20 percent of our electrical power and is climate friendly. We therefore must make existing reactors safer, develop a new generation of safer designs and prevent nuclear power from facilitating nuclear proliferation. As tragic as the Fukushima disaster has been, it has provided a rare opportunity to advance those goals.

Nuclear physicist Frank von Hippel has a good op-ed today, which the NYT gave the provocative headline, “It Could Happen Here.”  The Princeton professor is co-chairman of the International Panel on Fissile Materials. From 1993 to 1994 he was responsible for national security issues in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Here’s more:

From one perspective, nuclear power has been remarkably safe. The 1986 Chernobyl accident will ultimately kill about 10,000 people, mostly from cancer. Coal plants are much deadlier: the fine-particulate air pollution they produce kills about 10,000 people each year in the United States alone.

Of course, for most people this kind of accounting is beside the point. Their horror over even the possibility of a meltdown means that the nuclear-power industry needs constant and aggressive regulation for the public to allow it to stay in business.

Yet despite the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has often been too timid in ensuring that America’s 104 commercial reactors are operated safely. Nuclear power is a textbook example of the problem of “regulatory capture” — in which an industry gains control of an agency meant to regulate it. Regulatory capture can be countered only by vigorous public scrutiny and Congressional oversight, but in the 32 years since Three Mile Island, interest in nuclear regulation has declined precipitously.

In 2002, after the commission retreated from demanding an early inspection of a reactor, Davis-Besse in Ohio, that it suspected was operating in a dangerous condition, its own inspector general concluded that it “appears to have informally established an unreasonably high burden of requiring absolute proof of a safety problem, versus lack of a reasonable assurance of maintaining public health and safety.” (more…)

Update:

Looks like Japan was warned about a surge of water but they appear not to have listened.

The lack of attention may help explain how, on an island nation surrounded by clashing tectonic plates that commonly produce tsunamis, the protections were so tragically minuscule compared with the nearly 46-foot tsunami that overwhelmed the Fukushima plant on March 11. Offshore breakwaters, designed to guard against typhoons but not tsunamis, succumbed quickly as a first line of defense. The wave grew three times as tall as the bluff on which the plant had been built.

Japanese government and utility officials have repeatedly said that engineers could never have anticipated the magnitude 9.0 earthquake — by far the largest in Japanese history — that caused the sea bottom to shudder and generated the huge tsunami. Even so, seismologists and tsunami experts say that according to readily available data, an earthquake with a magnitude as low as 7.5 — almost garden variety around the Pacific Rim — could have created a tsunami large enough to top the bluff at Fukushima.

After an advisory group issued nonbinding recommendations in 2002, Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant owner and Japan’s biggest utility, raised its maximum projected tsunami at Fukushima Daiichi to between 17.7 and 18.7 feet — considerably higher than the 13-foot-high bluff. Yet the company appeared to respond only by raising the level of an electric pump near the coast by 8 inches, presumably to protect it from high water, regulators said. (more…)

Tags: Energy by ecthompson md
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I love me some Count Basie.

Artist: Count Basie
Tune: Swingin’ the Blues

Tags: Music by ecthompson md
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It was many years ago when I read about the triangle fire. It was this tragedy that really led to a lot of the workplace safety rules that we have in place now. Because we Americans have the collective memory of a gnat, we have to learn these lessons over and over again.

From CNN.com:

The 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire this Friday should throw into sharp relief recent efforts by lawmakers in Wisconsin and other states in the industrial heartland to curtail collective-bargaining rights for state employees.

The Triangle fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, killed 146 people, mainly women, mainly young immigrant women. Some were girls of 14 and 15. The fire broke out on the upper floors of the factory, too high for fire department ladders of those days to reach. People gathered on the street below watched in horror as women and men jumped to their deaths to avoid the enveloping flames. Observers talked of the sky raining flaming bodies. Many of the workers trapped inside were burned beyond recognition.

It was all over in half an hour. But the events of that day were permanently burned into the collective memory of the city and the nation. New Yorkers were shocked and grief-stricken. Some 100,000 people filed by the makeshift coffins gathered on the 26th Street Pier, which became known as “Misery Lane.” A few days later, 350,000 people turned out for a march through through Lower Manhattan, many to vent their anger and express their determination that tragedies such as this should never be allowed to happen again.

After all, the tragedy was not a natural disaster but a man-made one, too, frighteningly typical of this age of laissez-faire capitalism. The technology to prevent or confine such fires — sprinkler systems, fire walls, secure and ample fire escapes — all had been available for years. Moreover, fires had broken out at Triangle before, as they had in many other industrial workplaces. But no local, state or federal law required that these safety devices be installed or that safety protocols be followed. And manufacturers like the owners of the Triangle Co. didn’t want to spend the money.

Tags: Civil Rights by ecthompson md
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Okay, we are gonna form two lines – the first line is for all those who want big government. The second line is for all those that want smaller government. Which line are you going to get into? As usual, I can’t go along to get along. I think the question is a false dichotomy. What is a small government going to do? Can a small government pay out adequate Medicare and Medicaid benefits? Can a small government make sure that the children’s health insurance programs cover all kids in need? Can only big government do that? If I get arrested for “eyeballing” in the Deep South can small government protect me? Is it possible to get any liberal or any conservative to define how much smaller government has to be before it can be defined as small government? When did our government become big government? What did the government start doing in the late 50′s or early 60′s which allowed folks to define it as big government?

It seems to me that it is incredibly subjective to try to define these terms, yet conservatives will argue that the government is too big. When Reagan escalated the arms race by pouring billions of dollars into Star Wars and growing the size of government, was the government too big then? Most conservatives would say no. Most would argue that Reagan’s escalation of the size of government resulted in the collapse of the Soviet Union and therefore this was a great outcome for the United States. Okay, but was that big government? You can’t get a straight answer from conservatives on this point. If you delve further into the question by looking at the presidency of George W. Bush and ask about the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the unchecked spending that was associated with this, was this big government? You get a sheepish look from conservatives, but again you can’t get a straight answer. When the Patriot Act was passed and we found out that the government obtained new powers, was this big government? Some conservatives may say yes. When the FISA law was rewritten to include wiretaps of overseas e-mail and telephone conversations, was this big government? Some conservatives would say yes. Neither one of these last two actions really grew the size of government, but all the sudden the definition changed from size to scope.

If we ask conservatives about George W. Bush’s bailout of Wall Street when we threw trillions of dollars at just a handful of companies and asked them to stabilize the economy, was this big government? Again, many conservatives would say yes. So, this is the root of the problem. This is the root of the angst. It has to do with breaking free market principles, which to some conservatives are sacrosanct. Let’s not pretend that it’s more than it is. It is conservatives’ unhappiness about the fact that free-market principles were not followed. Okay. I’m sorry you’re not happy.

I need a government that’s big enough and bold enough to stimulate the economy and get us out of this recession (see the above graph). I need a government that’s going to be able to protect my rights whether I’m white, black, Indian-American or whatever. I need a government that can help protect my food supply. I shouldn’t have to be wary of every hamburger and every leaf of spinach that I eat. I need the government to keep a manufacturing line so that my food supply is safe. I should be able to swim in a local stream without worrying about its spontaneously catching on fire. I should be able to breathe the air in cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver and New York without worrying about flareups of asthma and other respiratory diseases because of smog and other pollutants in the atmosphere. I need my government to be big enough and bold enough to prevent a national Ponzi scheme with home mortgages. I need my government to be big enough and bold enough to insist that companies pay a living wage. I need my government big, bold and efficient. Cut waste. Don’t cut effectiveness.

If you’d like to see what small government looks like, think about what we’ve seen in Colorado.

Below is a graph of government consumption and investment as a percentage of potential GDP. This graph really makes it look like Reagan ushered in the era of big government. It also makes it look like a Democrat, President Bill Clinton, shrank the size of government. Wow.

Paul Krugman has more.

Tags: Bush Administration, Congress, Economy, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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I must admit that conservatives have done an absolutely fantastic job at selling their agenda. Over the last 30-40 years they have been extremely consistent. We’ve heard it over and over again. The problem with America is “big government.” This can be used for anything. It’s nonspecific, which is part of its beauty. Big government can be a euphemism for city government, state government or the federal government. It can stand for all three. It doesn’t really matter. One of the overarching, big goals of conservatism has been to defund the government (everything from Planned Parenthood to NPR). If you can reduce the amount of money that the government has, all the programs that they hate (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare and the like) must also be decreased in size or even eliminated. So, now, after Wall Street bailouts and the Great Recession, we are looking at large deficits. Republicans are using this opportunity to push their agenda to reduce the size of government. The Republicans are proposing large spending cuts. These are cuts in discretionary spending. These are cuts in programs that actually help lower and middle income Americans.

If the goal is reducing our deficits then we need to realistically look at their fiscal solutions. (I don’t think that Republicans really intend to reduce the deficit. Their focus is on reducing the size of government and eliminating programs that they hate.) The quickest way to reduce the deficit is to look at both sides of the equation. First, increase revenue. Second, decrease expenses. This simple graph shows how much we can close the gap by reversing the Bush tax cuts. Until we talk about increasing taxes on those who can afford it, we are not seriously talking about deficit reduction.

Tags: Budget, Congress by ecthompson md
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Tags: Books, General by Neil Aquino
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Several months ago I wrote:

Now the deficit guys (cleverly described as “deficit peacocks,” since they’re really not hawks) are out in force. They have America worried about how to pay for all of this red ink. Remember when President Clinton handed over the keys to the White House to President Bush? He handed Bush a budget surplus that was projected to be approximately $800 billion per year from 2009 to 2012. Instead, it looks as if we’re spending $1.2 trillion more than we’re taking in during this same time frame. What happened? About 33% of this $2 trillion deficit (the difference between $800 billion in the black and $1.2 trillion in the red) comes from George Bush’s tax cuts and his Medicare prescription benefit. About 20% of the deficit comes from Obama’s extension of Bush policies like the war in Iraq and tax cuts for households making less than $250,000. Only 7% comes from the stimulus bill passed in February 2009. The downturn in the business cycle accounts for approximately 37%.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has noticed that conservatives continue to harp on the deficit. Even the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation has been screaming about the deficit. In my opinion, screaming about the deficit now is like trying to fix faulty wiring while the house is on fire. We need to put out the fire first then fix the wiring. This should be obvious to any congressperson on Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, it is not. These same deficit peacocks are trying to point to Obama and his policies as if they were the problem. It’s almost laughable. From CBPP:

Some commentators blame recent legislation — the stimulus bill and the financial rescues — for today’s record deficits. Yet those costs pale next to other policies enacted since 2001 that have swollen the deficit. Those other policies may be less conspicuous now, because many were enacted years ago and they have long since been absorbed into CBO’s and other organizations’ budget projections.

Just two policies dating from the Bush Administration — tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — accounted for over $500 billion of the deficit in 2009 and will account for almost $7 trillion in deficits in 2009 through 2019, including the associated debt-service costs. (The prescription drug benefit enacted in 2003 accounts for further substantial increases in deficits and debt, which we are unable to quantify due to data limitations.) These impacts easily dwarf the stimulus and financial rescues. Furthermore, unlike those temporary costs, these inherited policies (especially the tax cuts and the drug benefit) do not fade away as the economy recovers (see Figure 1).

Without the economic downturn and the fiscal policies of the previous Administration, the budget would be roughly in balance over the next decade. That would have put the nation on a much sounder footing to address the demographic challenges and the cost pressures in health care that darken the long-run fiscal outlook.

Fix the economy first then fix the deficits. We need a strong jobs package now. Failure is not an option. At least, it is not an option that most Americans would want to live through. Economist Paul Krugman follows up on a point that is all too simple.

In 2008 and 2009, it seemed as if we might have learned from history. Unlike their predecessors, who raised interest rates in the face of financial crisis, the current leaders of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank slashed rates and moved to support credit markets. Unlike governments of the past, which tried to balance budgets in the face of a plunging economy, today’s governments allowed deficits to rise. And better policies helped the world avoid complete collapse: the recession brought on by the financial crisis arguably ended last summer.

But future historians will tell us that this wasn’t the end of the third depression, just as the business upturn that began in 1933 wasn’t the end of the Great Depression. After all, unemployment — especially long-term unemployment — remains at levels that would have been considered catastrophic not long ago, and shows no sign of coming down rapidly. And both the United States and Europe are well on their way toward Japan-style deflationary traps.

In the face of this grim picture, you might have expected policy makers to realize that they haven’t yet done enough to promote recovery. But no: over the last few months there has been a stunning resurgence of hard-money and balanced-budget orthodoxy.

As far as rhetoric is concerned, the revival of the old-time religion is most evident in Europe, where officials seem to be getting their talking points from the collected speeches of Herbert Hoover, up to and including the claim that raising taxes and cutting spending will actually expand the economy, by improving business confidence. As a practical matter, however, America isn’t doing much better. The Fed seems aware of the deflationary risks — but what it proposes to do about these risks is, well, nothing. The Obama administration understands the dangers of premature fiscal austerity — but because Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress won’t authorize additional aid to state governments, that austerity is coming anyway, in the form of budget cuts at the state and local levels.

Why are our politicians so tone deaf? Could it be that conservative Republicans just don’t want a Democratic administration to turn around the economy?

Tags: Economy by ecthompson md
1 Comment »

• I have tried to ignore the story about Senator Claire McCaskill charging the taxpayers for her to fly around her state on campaign visits. First of all, Senator McCaskill has the distinction of being one of the few senators who has ever been on my radio show. Because of this, I have a soft spot for her. I think she’s a good Senator for the state of Missouri. On the other hand, you have to get your act together. If you are Senator you know that people are going to scrutinize your expenses. Were there a school for being a senator this would be in Senate 101. There’s no excuse. Then, we just found out that she did not pay taxes on the plane for the last four years. Seriously? “But I didn’t know!” is an excellent excuse if you’re in the third grade. If you’re in the Senate is kind of lame.
• Glenn Beck with his ratings plummeting has to do something. He has to find something spectacular to get him back into the limelight. How about declare that a major network is “anti-God.” Maybe, just maybe, this will propel him back to his number one status.
• According to the New York Times, the United States and their coalition partners appear to be nearing their goals. At the same time, an F-15 E fighter jet crashed in Libya. One crew member was saved and the other is in the process of being rescued. The US military states that the plane was not shot down but had mechanical failure.
• The president of Yemen has offered to step down earlier than 2013. It is unclear whether his earlier departure, by the end of the year, will appease the massive protests that are going on in that small country.
• Chinese officials must be sweating bullets. All the unrest in the Middle East seems to have been started through the Internet. The Internet is something that the Chinese have tried to keep an incredibly tight lid on. They try to monitor and censor the Internet, but signals and information seems to get into the country. Google is accusing the the Chinese government of censoring e-mail. I guarantee you that they’re censoring e-mail. These guys are desperate.
• Paul Krugman, in his Sunday column, pointed out that the GOP is completely, 100% focused on Elizabeth Warren. They want to discredit her so badly that they can taste it. She, more than any other economist, has boiled down the complex foreclosures and mortgage meltdown and do something simple that any American can understand. Her logic is impeccable. Her reputation is impeccable. The Republicans can’t stand it.
• Whatever was ailing former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi it seems to be gone now. She checked into a hospital yesterday and now she’s resuming a regular schedule. I hope she’s really feeling better.

So, what’s on your mind?

Tags: Domestic Issues, Foreign Affairs by ecthompson md
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How are you this evening?

• Several years ago, as I was searching for a theme for my blog, I started watching the O’Reilly factor. I would listen to his rant and then I would post the rant plus whatever I thought he got wrong or distorted. I got tired of documenting the egregious errors of Fox news. I just figured that Fox doesn’t care. They are going to say what they want to say regardless of the facts. (watch the video)

• Libya confuses me. Libya’s dictator Muammar Gaddafi appears to be a repugnant dictator with little or no redeeming qualities. If he gets overthrown, ousted or otherwise booted out of power… This would be a good thing for the United States and for the world. It would be a great thing for the Libyan people. This thing is very complex. So, after a series of moves, a ragtag coalition has come together to enforce “no-fly zones” over Libya. On one hand, I think this is a good thing. I think that letting Gaddafi indiscriminately kill his own people is simply wrong. Does this riddle have a military solution? I think we all remember the genocide that went on in Rwanda in the mid-1990s. We should not let that kind of killing go on again, ever. On the other hand, what is our goal? Is our goal to destroy every airplane and helicopter that Colonel Gaddafi owns? Is that enough? As I see it, there are many pitfalls to this strategy. Remember Somalia? We were just delivering humanitarian aid. Then we were going to stop folks for stealing the aid. Then there is this serviceman being drug threw the streets.  Finally, if the former Russian president, Vladimir Putin, opposes this action, I’m thinking this action is a good thing.
• A federal appeals court has reinstated a case against the government which was filed by the ACLU and multiple other groups. The case contends that it is unconstitutional for the executive branch to vacuum up all this information found in e-mails and international phone calls.
• I find it interesting that the Obama administration is not going to ask for any funding for this Libya campaign. By the way, how much military action can a president engage our troops in without Congressional approval?
• Former Minnesota governor has made it official, sort of. Tim Pawlenty has formed an exploratory committee. He has really been running for president for the last 2 years. I’m not sure what this committee is for. He knows where he stands with the American public. He has been monitoring his status for the last 24 months.
• ATT is going to buy T-Mobile. Is this good for you and I? I can’t think of a single merger that has happened in the last 10 – 15 years that has benefited the American consumer. Watch Morningstar’s thoughts on this takeover.

• BTW, if the Tea Party throws a convention and nobody shows up (about 300), does that mean that the Tea Party was just a fad?

Tags: Congress, Foreign Affairs, Media, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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Tags: Foreign Affairs, Military, Obama administration, Other Political Thoughts, Security by Neil Aquino
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Work isn’t valued. Making money is valued but work isn’t. If work were valued, then workers would be paid more. No one would ever think about cutting wages or killing pensions if work were valued.

From EPI:

Over the last 30 years there has been very modest wage growth for the typical worker. This is not because the economy was weak and employers were strapped for cash or profits. The economy enjoyed soaring productivity between 1980 and 2009. The Figure compares median wage growth over that period to average gross domestic product growth per worker, a measure of what each individual worker, on average, contributed to the overall economy. This is equivalent to the growth of income per worker as well. While average income per worker grew 59.0%, median wages grew by just 11.2%. Over this same period the amount of wealth (household assets less liabilities) per worker grew by 63.7%.

This modest wage growth was not the result of a broken economy: rather, modest wage growth is the result of the way the economy has been designed to work.  Essentially, economic policy of the last three decades has not supported good jobs. The focus instead has been on policies that claimed to make consumers better off through lower prices: deregulation of industries, privatization of public services, the weakening of labor standards such as the minimum wage, erosion of the social safety net, expanding globalization, and the move toward fewer and weaker unions. These policies have served to undercut the bargaining power of most workers, widen wage inequality, and deplete access to good jobs. In the last 10 years, even workers with a college degree have failed to see any real wage growth.

Tags: Business, Economy by ecthompson md
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Amidst all the bad news coming out of Japan I thought this was a nice piece of good news.

From CP:

Despite assertions by its detractors that wind energy would not survive an earthquake or tsunami the Japanese wind industry is still functioning and helping to keep the lights on during the Fuksuhima crisis.

Colleagues and I have been directly corresponding with Yoshinori Ueda leader of the International Committee of the Japan Wind Power Association & Japan Wind Energy Association, and according to Ueda there has been no wind facility damage reported by any association members, from either the earthquake or the tsunami. Even the Kamisu semi-offshore wind farm, located about 300km from the epicenter of the quake, survived. Its anti-earthquake “battle proof design” came through with flying colors.

Mr. Ueda confirms that most Japanese wind turbines are fully operational. Indeed, he says that electric companies have asked wind farm owners to step up operations as much as possible in order to make up for shortages in the eastern part of the country:

“Eurus Energy Japan says that 174.9MW with eight wind farms (64% of their total capacity with 11 wind farms in eastern part of Japan) are in operation now. The residual three wind farms (Kamaishi 42.9MW, Takinekoshirai 46MW, Satomi 10.02MW) are stopped due to the grid failure caused by the earthquake and Tsunami. Satomi is to re-start operations in a few days. Kamaishi is notorious for tsunami disaster, but this wind farm is safe because it is locate in the mountains about 900m high from sea level.” (more…)

Tags: Environment by ecthompson md
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Really running late this morning. Sick patient on the way to the ER.

From Political Animal:

• Japan: “Amid widening alarm in the United States and elsewhere about Japan’s nuclear crisis, military fire trucks began spraying cooling water on spent fuel rods at the country’s stricken nuclear power station late Thursday after earlier efforts to cool the rods failed, Japanese officials said. The United States’ top nuclear official followed up his bleak appraisal of the grave situation at the plant the day before with a caution that it would ‘take some time, possibly weeks,’ to resolve.”
• President Obama offered an update this afternoon: “The White House sought Thursday to show it is on top of the Japanese nuclear crisis with a Rose Garden statement and a presidential-ordered review to ensure nothing like the Fukushima Daiichi disaster happens here at home.” He also urged an evacuation for Americans living within 50 miles of the facility.
• Libya: “Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi warned Benghazi residents on Thursday that an attack was imminent, as the United Nations Security Council seemed headed for a vote Thursday on a resolution authorizing not just a no-flight zone but additional steps to halt the movement of Colonel Qaddafi’s forces.”
• The Senate approved the House-passed budget extension this afternoon, with an 87-to-13 vote. It will soon receive the president’s signature, and impose a new, April 8 deadline. (Ed note: I’m not sure that we needed a new extension. We need our lawmakers to do what we hired them to do which is compromise and get something done.)
• Getting better: “The number of people who filed applications for jobless benefits fell by 16,000 last week to 385,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.”
• Of the funds lent to banks through TARP, 99% of the money has been paid back. At the time, it was widely assumed we’d never see that money again.
• James O’Keefe thought he had another big scoop today. As it turns out, his “story” was not only dull, it was common knowledge months ago. (Ed note: I’m going to try to put together a post on this guy who the right continually listens to like he has earned someone’s trust.)
• Those who thought applying to law school would be a great idea are starting to think otherwise.
• In an interesting video, which you’ll probably be seeing again, Ronald Reagan proclaimed, “Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost!” It’s a reminder of how little Reagan-lovers have in common with Reagan, and if Democrats today said the same thing Reagan said 30 years ago, Tea Partiers would condemn the sentiments as radical liberalism.

What’s on your mind? What stories are you following?

Tags: Budget, Domestic Issues by ecthompson md
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