Click here to view this media Ed Schultz talked to former Republican Governor of Minnesota Arne Carlson about the record Tim Pawlenty actually had as the state’s governor compared to the rhetoric we’re hearing from him on the campaign trail now. You can read more in the Carlson’s op ed here — The Presidency: A Bit Short is Pawlenty : One thing is certain about Monday’s Presidential announcement by former Governor Tim Pawlenty: he will not bring up the fact that he presided over one of the larger tax increases in Minnesota’s history. Yes, that is quite correct. During his two terms as Governor, property taxes rose a stunning $2.5 billion – more than the previous 16 years combined (see note below). To further amplify this enormous growth consider this fact: in the 8 years prior to Governor Pawlenty, property taxes rose some $716 million. Compare this to the $2.5 billion increase during the Pawlenty years. That is an approximate 250 percent increase. But this data also illustrates the close relationship between state and local spending in Minnesota. All too often, state budget cuts simply translate into increased local costs. This is particularly true when considering school financing and local government aids. Further evidence of this can be seen in the fact that from 2003 to today, Minnesota has been rolling from deficit to deficit and in spite of warnings from Moody’s concerning the folly of short-term fixes, Governor Pawlenty continued to achieve budget balance by employing the following: ➢ Borrowing over $1 billion from the tobacco settlement – money designated for health care. ➢ Taking over $2 billion from the federal stimulus funds. ➢ Borrowing over $1.4 billion from K-12 education funding. ➢ Borrowing over $400 million from the Healthcare Access Fund for low-income families. ➢ Accelerating tax payments. ➢ Delaying bill payments. ➢ Engaging in accounting shifts. In the process, Moody’s lowered Minnesota’s bond rating. Go read the rest and Think Progress’ The Wonk Room has much more on Pawlenty here — FACT CHECK: Pawlenty’s ‘Truth’ Campaign Is Already Littered With Lies : This morning, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) formally announced his candidacy for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination in Des Moines, Iowa, promising Americans “ a different approach ” to his campaign and potential presidency. “I am going to tell you the truth. The truth is, Washington’s broken,” Pawlenty declared. “It’s time for new leadership. It’s time for a new approach. And, it’s time for America’s president – and anyone who wants to be president – to look you in the eye and tell you the truth.” From there, Pawlenty preceded to list various “truths” about the state of the nation, many of which appear — on closer examination — to be either completely untrue or grossly exaggerated: They’ve got a long post there I don’t want to just copy and paste, so go read the rest as well.
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Click here to view this media Ed Schultz talked to former Republican Governor of Minnesota Arne Carlson about the record Tim Pawlenty actually had as the state’s governor compared to the rhetoric we’re hearing from him on the campaign trail now. You can read more in the Carlson’s op ed here — The Presidency: A Bit Short is Pawlenty : One thing is certain about Monday’s Presidential announcement by former Governor Tim Pawlenty: he will not bring up the fact that he presided over one of the larger tax increases in Minnesota’s history. Yes, that is quite correct. During his two terms as Governor, property taxes rose a stunning $2.5 billion – more than the previous 16 years combined (see note below). To further amplify this enormous growth consider this fact: in the 8 years prior to Governor Pawlenty, property taxes rose some $716 million. Compare this to the $2.5 billion increase during the Pawlenty years. That is an approximate 250 percent increase. But this data also illustrates the close relationship between state and local spending in Minnesota. All too often, state budget cuts simply translate into increased local costs. This is particularly true when considering school financing and local government aids. Further evidence of this can be seen in the fact that from 2003 to today, Minnesota has been rolling from deficit to deficit and in spite of warnings from Moody’s concerning the folly of short-term fixes, Governor Pawlenty continued to achieve budget balance by employing the following: ➢ Borrowing over $1 billion from the tobacco settlement – money designated for health care. ➢ Taking over $2 billion from the federal stimulus funds. ➢ Borrowing over $1.4 billion from K-12 education funding. ➢ Borrowing over $400 million from the Healthcare Access Fund for low-income families. ➢ Accelerating tax payments. ➢ Delaying bill payments. ➢ Engaging in accounting shifts. In the process, Moody’s lowered Minnesota’s bond rating. Go read the rest and Think Progress’ The Wonk Room has much more on Pawlenty here — FACT CHECK: Pawlenty’s ‘Truth’ Campaign Is Already Littered With Lies : This morning, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) formally announced his candidacy for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination in Des Moines, Iowa, promising Americans “ a different approach ” to his campaign and potential presidency. “I am going to tell you the truth. The truth is, Washington’s broken,” Pawlenty declared. “It’s time for new leadership. It’s time for a new approach. And, it’s time for America’s president – and anyone who wants to be president – to look you in the eye and tell you the truth.” From there, Pawlenty preceded to list various “truths” about the state of the nation, many of which appear — on closer examination — to be either completely untrue or grossly exaggerated: They’ve got a long post there I don’t want to just copy and paste, so go read the rest as well.
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Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu is congratulating America for killing bin Laden, saying `good riddance,’ and adding the US has a permanent partner for peace in Israel. (May 24)
Continue reading …Former NYT Reporter Whines U.S. ‘Least Generous’ Industrial Nation – But He Means Social Programs
May 24, 2011 No Comment
Former New York Times economics reporter Eduardo Porter’s signed NYT editorial Monday left no doubt where his political sympathies lay: ” A Budget Without Core Purposes, Taxation Without Compassion .” President Obama trusts America’s generous and compassionate nature, that our rugged individualism is tempered by a belief that we’re all connected . In his speech on budget reform on April 13, he celebrated “our belief that those who benefited most from our way of life can afford to give back a little bit more.” The president’s faith in Americans’ sense of common purpose is uplifting. But it does not fit the history of American budgetary politics. I don’t just mean Tea Partiers’ revulsion at the government spending “our money,” or Republican Paul Ryan’s Reverse Robin Hood gambit to cut trillions from spending on social programs in order to pay for a tax cut for the rich. The budgetary policy of the United States has been the least generous in the industrial world for a very long time. Tax revenues in the United States have not reached 30 percent of gross domestic product since at least 1965. Today they amount to only 24 percent of G.D.P. In Britain, by contrast, they are 34 percent; in Sweden, 46 percent. And our government spending on social programs is equally puny. In 2007 Britain spent 25 percent more, as a share of its economy. Germany spent almost 60 percent more. Porter, now on the paper's editorial board, conflates charity, which is voluntary, with taxes, which are mandatory, as if someone's compassion should be measured based on how much money they want other people to hand over to the federal government: But perhaps he shouldn’t trust Americans’ generosity and compassion to simply carry the day on Capitol Hill. To build the America he extols he is going to have to fight for it. In October 2009, Porter wondered why life couldn’t be more like a Ralph Nader novel : “Maybe the jolt of billion-plus losses can spur plutocrats to change. Ralph Nader just wrote a novel called ‘Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!’ in which Mr. Buffett (already a major philanthropist), Ross Perot and a few other billionaires go to Maui to ‘redirect’ society onto the right path. Warren Beatty gets to run California. Wal-Mart workers unionize. Corporate greed is brought to heel. There is no sign of such enlightenment on Wall Street.”
Continue reading …Double Standard: CBS’s Schieffer Pushes Gingrich Around on Infidelity and His Big Jewelry Bill
May 24, 2011 No CommentA week after trashing the Paul Ryan plan as “right-wing social engineering” on Meet the Press, Newt Gingrich appeared on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, where host Bob Schieffer began
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Highlights of this day in history: Samuel Morse opens America’s first telegraph line; Four men sentenced for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; Britain’s Queen Victoria born; The Brooklyn Bridge opens; Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan born. (May 24)
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Judges praise first American writer to win accolade for ‘wild comedy’ of his novel Super Sad True Love Story Jeeves and Wooster may be as English as cream teas and Pimm’s, but the literary prize named after their creator, PG Wodehouse, has been swiped from under the noses of a gaggle of British writers by the American author Gary Shteyngart . The first American ever to win the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction, which goes to a book that “has captured the comic spirit of PG Wodehouse”, Shteyngart triumphed over the British novelists Sam Leith, Catherine O’Flynn and India Knight and the Indian author Manu Joseph. The author’s winning novel, Super Sad True Love Story , is set in a dystopian, near-future America, where the 39-year-old Russian-American Lenny Abramov is attempting to persuade the 24-year-old Korean-American Eunice Park to fall in love with him. It “leaves you wondering whether that dull ache in your stomach is from laughter or just plain sadness”, wrote Chris Cox in the Observer. Prize judge and Hay festival director Peter Florence called the book “great literature” and “wild comedy”. “Gary Shteyngart’s writing is thrilling. He’s a staggeringly clever satirist who manages to create worlds and people of perfect coherence and outrageous misfortune,” said Florence. Shteyngart wins a jeroboam of champagne and a set of Wodehouse books. The author will also be presented with a pig named after his novel. The Gloucestershire Old Spot Super Sad True Love Story joins a herd of bizarrely named swine, from Salmon Fishing in the Yemen to A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye. Organisers of the prize, won last year by Ian McEwan for Solar , pointed out that Wodehouse might be seen as quintessentially English, but the author actually became an American citizen in 1955 and set several of his Jeeves and Wooster titles in the US. Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize Fiction Awards and prizes United States Alison Flood guardian.co.uk
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Judges praise first American writer to win accolade for ‘wild comedy’ of his novel Super Sad True Love Story Jeeves and Wooster may be as English as cream teas and Pimm’s, but the literary prize named after their creator, PG Wodehouse, has been swiped from under the noses of a gaggle of British writers by the American author Gary Shteyngart . The first American ever to win the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction, which goes to a book that “has captured the comic spirit of PG Wodehouse”, Shteyngart triumphed over the British novelists Sam Leith, Catherine O’Flynn and India Knight and the Indian author Manu Joseph. The author’s winning novel, Super Sad True Love Story , is set in a dystopian, near-future America, where the 39-year-old Russian-American Lenny Abramov is attempting to persuade the 24-year-old Korean-American Eunice Park to fall in love with him. It “leaves you wondering whether that dull ache in your stomach is from laughter or just plain sadness”, wrote Chris Cox in the Observer. Prize judge and Hay festival director Peter Florence called the book “great literature” and “wild comedy”. “Gary Shteyngart’s writing is thrilling. He’s a staggeringly clever satirist who manages to create worlds and people of perfect coherence and outrageous misfortune,” said Florence. Shteyngart wins a jeroboam of champagne and a set of Wodehouse books. The author will also be presented with a pig named after his novel. The Gloucestershire Old Spot Super Sad True Love Story joins a herd of bizarrely named swine, from Salmon Fishing in the Yemen to A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye. Organisers of the prize, won last year by Ian McEwan for Solar , pointed out that Wodehouse might be seen as quintessentially English, but the author actually became an American citizen in 1955 and set several of his Jeeves and Wooster titles in the US. Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize Fiction Awards and prizes United States Alison Flood guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …CNN’s Sanjay Gupta Asks ‘Did Someone or Something Fail Jared Loughner?’ After Patrick Kennedy Sympathizes With Tucson Shooter
May 23, 2011 No Comment
“Did someone or something fail Jared Loughner?” CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked recovering alcoholic and former congressman Patrick Kennedy Sunday. The question came after Kennedy described his alcoholic condition as a mental disease and not a moral failure, and attributed mental illness to Loughner, the Tuscon shooter who killed six and critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in January. When Kennedy was asked about Loughner being “failed,” he issued a sweeping indictment of society. “Clearly we all failed,” he said, noting that the Giffords assassin was mentally ill and was not treated for his ailments. “We failed as society because every time we see someone who's – and we use the pejorative words 'crazy,' you know, 'psycho,' 'nuts,' we look the other way.” (Video below the break.)
Continue reading …CNN’s Sanjay Gupta Asks ‘Did Someone or Something Fail Jared Loughner?’ After Patrick Kennedy Sympathizes With Tucson Shooter
May 23, 2011 No Comment
“Did someone or something fail Jared Loughner?” CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked recovering alcoholic and former congressman Patrick Kennedy Sunday. The question came after Kennedy described his alcoholic condition as a mental disease and not a moral failure, and attributed mental illness to Loughner, the Tuscon shooter who killed six and critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in January. When Kennedy was asked about Loughner being “failed,” he issued a sweeping indictment of society. “Clearly we all failed,” he said, noting that the Giffords assassin was mentally ill and was not treated for his ailments. “We failed as society because every time we see someone who's – and we use the pejorative words 'crazy,' you know, 'psycho,' 'nuts,' we look the other way.” (Video below the break.)
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