Oh Yeah, I Remember Phil Gramm

I saw the other day that Phil Gramm said the repeal Glass-Steagall had nothing to do with the financial meltdown of 2008.  I guess the big question is whether there is anyone left in the world who cares what Phil Gramm has to say about anything?  Even conservative Time magazine gave him credit where credit is due.  We tried it your way, Phil.  Thanks for nothing.

Right On, Doonesbury

I, for one, am glad to see that Garry Trudeau isn't pulling any punches in his Doonesbury strip this week.  The voter suppression laws and efforts among the various states really are the 21st-century version of Jim Crow.

Another "Oops" from Mittens Romney and the Republicans

I came across this item on another blog that I follow.  It's a follow up to the "You didn't build that" deception from the Wingnuts.  You can see the whole article here.

Star of Romney ‘My Hands Didn’t Build This’ Ad Received Millions in Government Loans and Contracts

  ...In a new TV ad, Romney features an offended New Hampshire businessman, saying, “My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company?"

The New Hampshire Union Leader’s John DiStato today reports that in 1999 the business in question, Gilchrist Metal, “received $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds issued by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority ‘to set up a second manufacturing plant and purchase equipment to produce high definition television broadcasting equipment’…” In addition, in 2011, Gilchrist Metal “received two U.S. Navy sub-contracts totaling about $83,000 and a smaller, $5,600 Coast Guard contract in 2008…”

The businessman, Jack Gilchrist, also acknowledged that in the 1980s the company received a U.S. Small Business Administration loan totaling “somewhere south of” $500,000, and matching funds from the federally-funded New England Trade Adjustment Assistance Center.

Way to go, Jack.  Looks like you should be doing an Obama campaign ad rather than one for Romney.  It seems that you got just the kind of help that Elizabeth Warren and Obama have been talking about.

The Latest on Christian Life Resources

I still monitor Christian Life Resource's (CLR) website quite regularly.  I let a lot of their misrepresentations pass--it gets a little tiresome after a while--but they are pretty much up to the same stuff.

This week, they had another reference to the Affordable Care Act as health care rationing.  Even most right wingers have given up on this argument, but CLR continues to trot it out every now and then, just to remind us that they are in the hip pocket of the Republican (aka Tea) Party.  As I mentioned a couple times in the past, they seem okay with Arizona Governor Brewer's actual rationing health care, because they are too busy complaining about ACA's nonexistent rationing.  (Oh yeah I forgot...she's a Republican isn't she?)

We can also be reminded CLR's ill-advised entry into partisan politics after another of Michele Bachmann's crazy accusations, this time that the Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated the State Department, Congress, and other areas of the the government.  Christian Life Resources has provided quasi-endorsements of Ms. Bachmann in the past.  It should serve as a lesson to them that when you do that, you can't just endorse a small part of that politician; you are stuck with all the warts.  It makes CLR appear foolish and can't help but harm what is supposed to be its true mission.  But maybe they have become more interested in politics than in their original purpose.  It's sad.

Some Help for the Wingnuts

It's been amusing to see the posts on Facebook and other places quoting Obama as saying, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that."  I really do try to be patient with my Right-Wing friends.  After all, they do seem to have short attention spans and have trouble processing more than a sentence or two at a time.  Maybe that's the problem they are having here.  They rely on someone else to pick out one sentence for them from an entire speech.  If you get most of your information from either Fox News or chain emails--and it's debatable which of those two is more reliable--the rest of us need to make allowances for you.

But for those Right-Wingers that want to try to focus for a few additional seconds, here is the entire paragraph from which the above sentence is extracted:

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.  There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business. you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.  The Internet didn’t get invented on its own.  Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."

If you try real hard, you might be able to process the whole thing.  We will try to be patient.

For those Wingnuts who feel really adventurous, the whole speech can be found  here (and many other places).  Take your time, I'm sure you can get through it eventually.  Good luck.

CNBC Rates Texas Tops for Business

I see that CNBC has rated Texas the top state for business.  This despite the fact that it ranked very low in "quality of life" and in the bottom half of states in "education".  It's estimated that 25% of Texans are without health insurance.  (When asked about it, Gov. Perry suggested that it's simply a lifestyle choice people make to not have insurance.)

Well, anyway, it got me to thinking....  According to Wikipedia, there were 180,000 slaves in Texas by 1860, about 30% of the total population of the state.  It's probably a reasonable guess that 50% or more of the "workers" in the state were slaves.  Imagine how high a score CNBC would have given Texas back then when half the workers in the state were working for free!

I Guess Mark Neumann Is Improving

Wisconsin Senate candidate Mark Neumann has moved up on the scale.  His previous statement rated by PolitiFact got a "Pants on Fire" rating.  His most recent one

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2012/jul/08/mark-neumann/uncle-sams-borrowing-leaves-less-businesses-gop-wi/

moved up a notch to simply being "False".

Way to go Mark!

Rick Snyder's Welcome Vetoes

What a nice surprise on this Fourth of July to read that our Governor Rick Snyder has vetoed a set of voter suppression bills passed by the Republicans here in Michigan.  While us Lefties may have plenty of disagreements with Snyder, we should also acknowledge that he is not among the loony variety of governors elected in several other states (Wisconsin, Florida, et al).  He has not waged the sort of wedge politics that Walker has in Wisconsin.  It's nice to have disagreements with political opponents without that sort of divisiveness.  Despite our differences, I think Snyder (unlike Walker) wants to be governor of all the people in the state, not just the fringe on the Right.

So here's to you Governor Snyder...have a great Fourth of July.

Typical Straw Man Argument

If anyone needs an example of the kind of straw man argument used by the Right Wing, here is a quote from Thomas Sowell I saw floating around Facebook the last couple days:

“It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.”

On the contrary, the whole point is that we think we can afford it, which is why we are in favor of it.  It's the Right Wingers who say we can't afford it and aren't willing to pay for it.  It's a cute quote but it's nonsense.