A Glimpse of Wisconsin's Future under Walker

An interesting story showing what Wisconsin has to look forward to after a few more years of Scott Walker.  Some Wisconsinites talked about moving to Tennessee or other points south if Walker was recalled.  Well, they don't have to move to a poor southern state now.  Scott Walker is doing everything he can to turn Wisconsin into one.

Mike Huckabee Is Full of It

I used to regard Mike Huckabee as somewhat less strident and hateful than his Fox News brothers and sisters.  But his recent hateful harangue after the Newtown tragedy calls that judgment into question.  He basically said "serves you right" for removing God from who knows where.

My thanks to Michael Hidalgo at Sojourners (sojo.net) to set Huckabee on his ear:

...One commentator suggested that it was precisely because God was not there that this heinous act happened. Gov. Mike Huckabee claimed we should not be surprised to see this kind of violence since we have removed God from our schools and our society. His sentiment is to say, “God is NOT here.” If that is the case, then it surely can explain the existence of pure evil that we saw displayed on Friday.

However, thinking like that of Gov. Huckabee suggests that we somehow have the power to remove God from our schools and our society. This kind of God is quite small, weak, and impotent  — one that is dictated by the mere whims of humanity. This is not the God of whom Matthew spoke.

Matthew spoke of the Almighty God fully embodied and revealed in the person of Jesus. So much so that he claimed he was Immanuel: God with us. He is here not in spite of the pain, nor did he come to explain it away. God is here in the midst of our suffering....

 Nothing much to add to that.

I Share Krugman's "Sick Feeling"

Krugman's blog today talked about that "sick feeling" of a return to Obama's 2011 cave in,  It is looking like he might be doing it again.

From Daily Kos:  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/19/1172128/-Make-Boehner-own-the-horrible-stuff?detail=hide


Obama hasn't even started his second term and he seems to be caving already.  Let's hope not.

Chew on This, All You Hate Mongers

Thanks to VetGrl via Daily Kos for this blog post.  The right-wing hate mongers make great sport of slandering America's teachers.  Read this post about some of the teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Here is part of the post, at the very end:

This is Victoria Soto, and although I didn't know her, she is my hero. I don't know too much about her, but I know a lot of people who do know her and she's amazing. Victoria was a Stratford high graduate and only 27. She was killed today after she hid her first graders in closets and cabinets and told the shooter they were in the gym. He killed her and not one of her children were harmed. I have never been more proud to be from Stratford or to be a teacher. God bless Victoria, her family and friends, and all of those who were involved today in anyway. Victoria is a true hero.

The language in the blog post is pretty strong, but in this case, for the Michelle Malkins and Rush Limbaughs of this world, it's well earned.

Fiscal Cliff (Not)

I think am that I agreeing more and more with Howard Dean's assessment that the best deal we progressives will get on the fiscal non-cliff is no deal at all.  Someone said a long time ago (I'm not sure who said it first) that a bad deal is worse than no deal, and Boehner and the Republicans are demonstrating that any deal with them will be a bad deal.  In January we will get a tax increase and spending cuts with entitlements (I hate that word) basically untouched.  That's an immensely preferable deal to the Republicans' wimpy "revenue" increases and cuts that would largely hurt those that can least afford it.  I'll take my chances with the recession that might be caused by the fiscal cliff over the one caused by any deal with the Republicans.

Let's hope that Obama's new-found backbone is for real.  It seems to be so far.

Christian Life Resources Still on the Right Wing Fringe

Christian Life Resources (CLR) has repeatedly shown that it is a Republican activist organization.  It is less frequently that it exhibits its tendency toward the fringiest of the fringe of that party.  There is currently a story on its website (here's the link) opposing the UN treaty addressing the rights of the disabled.  The treaty has been ratified by 150+ nations and is supported by the likes of George H. W. Bush, John McCain, and Bob Dole.  But the CLR and its Tea Party fringe allies opposed it.

The CLR story states that the treaty "leaves open the potential for the international community to permit sterilization or abortion for the disabled".  Oh really?  Leaves open?  Potential?  Permit?  Yikes!!  These are pretty vague words to justify the leap to "pro-abortion". CLR and its cronies have shown that by assuming there's a conspiracy around every corner, and by randomly connecting the dots of enough degrees of separation, anything can be proved to be "pro-abortion".  As I said here before, by their reasoning, public roads and highways are part of that pro-abortion conspiracy because people drive on them to get to the clinic.  It's embarrassing.

A Short Message to Those Who Have Signed Petitions Asking to Secede From the Union | The Nation

Thanks to Calivin Trillin at The Nation:

A Short Message to Those Who Have Signed Petitions Asking to Secede From the Union | The Nation

Dividend Taxation

A couple days ago I caught a few minutes of Michelle Caruso-Cabrera (of CNBC) spewing the tiresome right-wing pablum about the supposed double taxation of stock dividends.  As usual, the argument centers around the idea that a stockholder in a corporation is an "owner" and therefore the "owner's" profits are being taxed twice.  This is a good example of the politics of assertion:  if you assert something over and over, you start thinking of it as a fact.

But in point of fact, a shareholder is just that: a shareholder, not an owner.  Saying they are the same thing doesn't make it so.  If you are the owner of a company--like a sole proprietorship--then you have total liability.  A shareholder in a publicly traded company has almost no liability.  Also, let's say I own stock in General Electric.  If I were truly an owner, then I should be able to call the CEO and have him tell me to which political candidates or causes GE is giving money.  I am not able to do that today.  There are a whole host of things that make an "owner" and  "shareholder" different.  (Not to mention the fact that GE routinely pays no corporate tax anyway, so the double taxation argument goes out the window.)

As to the whole idea of double taxation, it's really a superficial and flimsy concept.  If I have a job and pay taxes on my earnings and then hire a plumber and pay him out of those after-tax earnings, Ms. Caruso-Cabrera's argument is that the plumber should pay no taxes because that money has already been taxed.  In effect, almost all the dollars flowing through the economy have already been taxed many times over.

So puhlease...stop whining about taxes on dividends.  It's getting very boring.