Egyptians are witnessing the winds of change, as tens of thousands continue to rally against poverty and corruption on Cairo’s streets in defiance of a nationwide curfew imposed on the capital. Earlier, in a desperate attempt to restore a sense of normality, an army commander addressed a crowd of protesters.
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Progressive economist Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and he keeps pointing something out that seems to slip past the tiny minds of the corporate media: This would have been an appropriate headline for an AP article which included a quote from North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad implying that it would be reasonable to default on the government bonds held by the Social Security trust fund: “I’ve received the lash from those who say, ‘Well, you shouldn’t have to cut Social Security because there are trillions of dollars of assets.’ It is true there are trillions of dollars of assets. It is true that they’re backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. It is also true that the only way those bonds get redeemed is out of the current income of the United States.” This assertion is true of all government bonds, however Mr. Conrad is clearly suggesting that it would for some reason be appropriate not to honor the bonds held by the Social Security trust fund. It is unusual for a prominent senator to suggest defaulting on the national debt. This fact should have been the central focus of the article. Yep. If we’re in such bad shape that we default on our debts, we have much bigger problems than paying for Social Security.
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http://www.youtube.com/v/1P_0igbWTE4?f=user_uploads&app=youtube_gdata Go here to see the original: baradei1
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Hundreds of mourners and protesters gathered in Cairo on Saturday for the funeral of those killed in recent violence in the Egyptian capital. The bereaved families were joined by throngs of demonstrators calling for an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule. Al Jazeera’s Dan Nolan reports from Cairo. Viewer discretion advised: This package contains images that may disturb or offend some.
Continue reading …Tea Party politician Edward Mangano’s actions fuel Nassau County’s takeover of state-appointed fiscal overseer
January 29, 2011 No CommentHere’s your Tea Party in action. Mangano was actually the first Tea Partier elected to office, and he opposed an extra $7.27 monthly tax that was needed to sustain the budget. This meant the state had to step in and take over the county. At his January 2010 inauguration, Tea Party-backed Republican Edward Mangano marched up to the podium, pen in hand. Even before being officially declared Nassau County Executive, he signed a repeal of an unpopular home energy tax. The move elicited chants of “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie” from supporters assembled in the auditorium of Mangano’s alma mater, Bethpage High School, 30 miles east of New York City. “This is very cool and quite an honor,” Mangano said as he gave his admirers a thumbs-up. The fiscal consequences, however, were anything but cool. The repeal set Mangano on an immediate collision course with the state-appointed fiscal overseer, the Nassau County Interim Financial Authority, or NIFA. It culminated in NIFA seizing control of the wealthy New York county’s finances on Wednesday. Nassau’s ills exemplify the growing tension across the country as dozens of freshly-elected Tea Party lawmakers, many of whom promised to cut taxes, must find ways to slash record budget gaps as revenues dwindle. “A lot of people who got elected on this type of anti-tax platform are running into the brick wall of fiscal reality,” said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington. Steve Benen adds : Mangano stressed a “tax revolt” platform as a candidate, but few bothered to notice that his numbers just didn’t — indeed, couldn’t — add up. He ran against an incumbent who felt like he had no choice but to tell voters the truth — he’d have to raise taxes to prevent a disaster — and the public didn’t care for it. Mangano didn’t quite understand the county’s fiscal problems, but proceeded with his agenda anyway. And now we see the consequences. Tea Party economics always sound nice, right up until these ridiculous ideas are actually implemented. Reuters has the full story in a great piece that you should read: “Special Report: A Long Island tax cut backfires on the Tea Party.” As we keep hearing from Conservatives, nothing in life is free. Michael Tomasky explains: I hope that things like this will make people think long and hard about these issues. If you want well-paid cops and nice parks and good schools and upgraded county roadways that can handle the traffic, you have to pay for them. I’m well aware that paying taxes isn’t fun. I pay high ones in Montgomery County. But things work there, generally speaking, and life is good there, and I’m happy to pay ‘em. People have to learn these things in their own time, I guess. Edward Mangano isn’t solely responsible for the budget problems of Nassau County, obviously, but the Tea Party mantra of cutting taxes isn’t the answer to all our problems. Real leadership means making grown-up choices because those choices have an impact on REAL people. Think Progress has more.
Continue reading …For general discussion and debate about all things relating to politics, the economy, and sports. Possible talking point: Egypt. How serious is the situation in Egypt? Will this result in a full-scale revolution that topples Mubarak? If so, will this become religious leading to some kind of new Islamic government such as in Iran? Or will Mubarak get control of the situation? Maybe more importantly, might this spread throughout the impoverished Middle East really threatening international security while sending oil prices to all-time highs and crushing the economic recovery? Or will this be contained in Egypt?
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Coverage of the revolution in Tunisia was lapped up by Arab audiences and in Yemen, Algeria and Egypt demonstrators took to the streets. State-controlled media tried desperately to spin the coverage of the unrest, but no amount of spinning could hide the reality of the events in Egypt. On this episode of Listening Post, we look at how the events in Tunisia have had a knock-on effect that has rocked the Arab world.
Continue reading …Liberals don’t want to ‘silence’ conservatives — they’d just like to have an honest democratic debate
January 29, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Right-wingers seem to have a problem understanding how this whole free-speech thing works. They seem to believe, for instance, that it’s perfectly acceptable for them to say the most outrageous things imaginable as part of their rights to free speech — but if someone stands up and exercises their free-speech rights by criticizing what they said, then by God, they’re trying to take their rights away! Like those brilliant minds over at the Right Scoop : What is really at work here is the Left trying to control the speech of a small group of impressionable people – Republicans. They could care less about how civil the nation is but if they can keep the Republicans from name calling, they end up looking better than they would if Republicans constantly reminded America of their socialist agenda. This idea intrigues Fox’s Megyn Kelly yesterday morning, and so she invited Alan Colmes on to chew it over. She found she had more than she bargained for: COLMES: When Sarah Palin responds to the State of the Union address and uses the acronym WTF, and says it was a ‘WTF’ speech, that is really uncalled-for and over the top. That is — KELLY: Why can’t she say that? What is the problem with saying that? COLMES: I didn’t say she couldn’t say that. But I have a right to get on the air that’s absolutely absurd — let her say it! In fact, I want her to say more of that stuff! But we have the right to come on and say that’s absolutely absurd and ridiculous! I’m not saying anybody should be shut down. KELLY: Yes, but others are. You’re not. COLMES: Come on, who’s saying anybody should be shut down? KELLY: This call for civility. COLMES: Wait a minute, Megyn. Who’s trying to shut who down? Who’s trying to shut anybody down? Who? KELLY: Well, that’s the question. The theory is — the theory is that this call for civility in fact an effort to silence critics who — let me just finish the theory — this is from this article — the theory is — other conservatives have said this — that they’re trying to silence Republicans or conservatives or Tea Party people who have been — who have been successful in winning back control of the House, winning back more seats in the Senate, and they’re worried about how successful they might be in 2012. COLMES: Paul Broun of Georgia, the congressman who said that Obama was just spewing his venom, said the reason Democrats wanted to sit with Republicans was to shut them down, to shut them off, to silence them. That’s absurd! This is a crazy conspiracy right-wing theory that somehow is accusing the Left of when they call for civility, what they really want is to shut you up? No! What’s wrong with just calling for civility for its own sake? So we should be condemned because people on my side call for us to be civil? And they expand this into some kind of bad evil plot to shut you down? That’s crazy! Let’s stipulate, perhaps, that civility is a lofty but probably unreachable goal. But let’s also stipulate that democratic debate itself is impossible when one side threatens, intimidates, smears, and invokes violent eliminationist rhetoric against the other — especially if it simultaneously refuses to engage in a debate over the facts of the issues but instead devotes its energy to shrieking hysterically about false “facts” and conspiracy theories. Civility would be great. But honest, clear debate without the cloud of violence is what we desperately need.
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