Rachel Maddow Takes Stephen Moore to Task Over His Praise of Reagan’s Tax Policies
January 23, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Rachel Maddow took The Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore to task over his praise of Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts and how they were supposedly so wonderful for America. As Rachel pointed out, they were great alright, if you were rich. MAHER: Here’s the part of Ronald Reagan I’m not so crazy about. There’s a few things I’m not so crazy about. He introduced the religious right into politics… MOORE: And turned around the US economy. MAHER: Uh… okay. Well you know what, David Stockman says this: The debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the Democrats, but instead the Republican Party’s embrace, about three decades ago [Ronald Reagan], of the insidious doctrine that deficits don’t matter if they result from tax cuts. Which George Bush the first called “Voodoo Economics”. It’s still with us. Now what do you say to your fellow Republicans here… MOORE: I’d say the Reagan tax cuts were the greatest economic policy of the last fifty years. They caused about a twenty year expansion… MAHER: Okay but what (crosstalk). How could we afford the tax cuts that Obama and the Republicans just agreed on in December? How is that a good thing when… MOORE: It’s a good thing because we have to have the lowest tax rates in the world if we want to compete. I mean all the people in this audience will have jobs (crosstalk) if we have a pro-business, pro-competitive environment. While Stephen Moore continually talked over her, Rachel Maddow attempted to explain how the deficit skyrocketed and that we had some of the worst income inequality in decades due to Reagan’s policies. She’d finally had enough of him interrupting her and stood up to say this. MADDOW: From 1980 until 1990, the top 1% saw their income go up by roughly 80%. The median wage in the country over ten years went up 3%. That means for the people who are best off on the country, it was the Matterhorn and for everybody else in the country, it was like this. (crosstalk) So if you were rich, Reagan was awesome. And if you were anybody else, it sucked. David Stockman wrapped it up with pointing out how completely irresponsible the Republicans have been when it comes to spending. And Maher pointed out that their true strategy is to “starve the beast”. For more on just how wonderfully trickle-down economics worked for most of us, here are a few articles. Income inequality Some thoughts — and graphs — on inequality and income The United States of Inequality And there are a couple of good articles on measuring income and a break down as to what some of the charts on income out there tell us here and here .
Continue reading …China’s got a brand-new shiny stealth fighter, and it might drop Washington a thank-you note for it, reports the AP. Seems a US-made F-117 Nighthawk, the revolutionary original stealth fighter, that was shot down over Serbia in 1999 attracted some attention in Beijing. “At the time, our intelligence reports told…
Continue reading …
Podcast? On a Sunday? And they said it couldn’t be done! Join the full team of podcasters as we throw touchdown after touchdown of tech analysis down the field and through the uprights. You can intercept it all live on Ustream, which is embedded after the break. P.S. And don’t forget that Ustream has Android and iPhone clients as well, if you’re out and about and you can’t join in on the Flash-based fun below. Continue reading The Engadget Podcast, live at 12:00PM EST! The Engadget Podcast, live at 12:00PM EST! originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Jan 2011 11:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Rush Limbaugh Called a Drug Addict in NBC’s New Legal Drama ‘Harry’s Law’
January 23, 2011 No Comment
Monday's premiere episode of NBC's new legal drama “Harry's Law” took a cheap shot at conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. As the show's star Kathy Bates argued for the legalization of drugs while her client was being cross-examined by a totally hapless district attorney, she claimed the idea was first raised by Republicans, “When the party had thinkers, before it was hijacked by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, a drug addict himself” (video follows with partial transcript and commentary): KATHY BATES AS HARRIET “HARRY” KORN: It’s a billion dollar trade because it’s illegal. PAUL MCCRANE AS PROSECUTOR: Objection. BATES: Maybe we should decriminalize if your goal is… MCCRANE: Wait, did you actually just say that? Did you actually just say that? BATES: I believe I did. I believe I did. MCCRANE: What, do you want to just pass drugs out on the street? Is that… BATES: That's where they're passed out now, at a thousand times the pharmaceutical cost. MCCRANE: Move to strike. BATES: And if we legalize drugs, addicts would need less than two cents on the dollar to support their habits. They'd hardly have to break into homes or cars or… MCCRANE: We have something called “values” in this country… BATES: And they should coincide with saving the innocent lives you were carrying on about. MCCRANE: You're seriously saying we should legalize drugs is the solution? BATES: Everybody commissioned to study the problem has said it. MCCRANE: Who? Everybody who? BATES: If we legalize them, we treat the disease instead of punishing it away. MCCRANE: Great, then you want to pass out needles, too? BATES: Perhaps, if you're against the spread of AIDS. Are you? MCCRANE: If we were to legalize drugs… BATES: We could neutralize the gangs, take the drug business out of the shadows. MCCRANE: And do what? Celebrate it? BATES: How about regulate it? Tax it? MCCRANE: Yes, and then every liberal in America could just light up and say, “Hallelujah, legalize drugs!” BATES: The idea was first raised by conservative Republicans. MCCRANE: Oh please. When? BATES: When the party had thinkers, before it was hijacked by the likes of Rush Limbaugh… MCCRANE: Here we go. BATES: …a drug addict himself. MCCRANE: Ancient history. BATES: Who somehow fared much better in our justice system – I wonder why. MCCRANE: The race card. There it is. BATES: Oh, if I wanted to play the race card, I'd talk about the disparity in sentencing. MCCRANE: Objection. BATES: But I'm not doing that. I’m keeping it about one kid only. He's sitting right there, and he's getting screwed! For those unfamiliar with the writer/producer of “Harry's Law,” he is none other than David Kelley. As NewsBusters has documented , his previous show “Boston Legal” was often a vehicle for anti-Conservative rants and messages. One of our favorites was in November 2008 when lead characters called McCain/Palin supporters idiots. So it seems that right from the opening episode of Kelley's new series – which was seen by eleven million viewers – he's making it clear his pattern of injecting liberal positions will continue. Even TV critic Tim Goodman was unimpressed with the theatrics as he noted in his Tuesday review ” Harry's Law is a Crime Against Good Television “: Does this now sound utterly and ridiculously like a Kelley show? Thought so. Beyond that, “Harry's Law” is littered with bogus courtroom rambling on soap boxes so tall they are an insurance claim waiting to happen. Let's legalize drugs, Harry goes off, and the next thing you know she's talking about stupid Republicans and Rush Limbaugh. It's all cheap, easy, predictable and not very clever. And, not at all realistic. As WNYMedia.net observed : Kelley’s absurdist series ask the viewer to wildly suspend disbelief as his defense lawyers bend the legal system and debate current event issues with prosecutors while judges sit by and let the sparks fly. Harriet will
Continue reading …Wall St. Ed Board Writer: ‘You Can Do Anything You Want As Long As You’re Poor’
January 23, 2011 No CommentI had to laugh when I saw this Wall St. Journal video review. Dorothy Rabinowitz slams Kathy Bates’ new legal drama, “Harry’s Law”: “You have major criminality, excused as nothing. You can do anything you want, as long as you’re poor.” She takes great umbrage at the show and its perceived lack of moral center — I suppose because it shows the poor and disenfranchised using the spirit of the law to evade the letter of the law, achieving something more closely resembling actual justice. Do you suppose it even occurs to Dorothy that the legal deck is stacked against the poor? Now, maybe you’ll get the irony of this when you realize Dorothy is on the editorial board of the Wall St. Journal , which has never seen a corporate crime worth prosecuting.
Continue reading …
I went skiing once as a kid and it was fun, but I remember it being very tiring. If you like to ski cross-country or downhill, but want to take some of the work out of it Skizee is a new gadget that looks really cool. The Skizee is like a snowmobile with a tread Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : SlashGear Discovery Date : 23/01/2011 16:00 Number of articles : 2
Continue reading …Ivory Wave, Red Dove, Vanilla Sky—the names sound more tranquil than menacing, but authorities are calling them the latest in drugs as dangerous as crystal meth. They’re bath salts, and can be bought legally in stores, but they contain mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, which can cause hallucinations, paranoia, rapid heart…
Continue reading …
An 88-year-old Indianapolis woman refused to let go of her purse when it was grabbed by someone in an SUV. Surveillance video shows her being dragged across a parking lot by the vehicle. (Jan. 23)
Continue reading …
Marriage isn’t a God-given right and it’s not just for any schmuck, Pope Benedict said yesterday in an annual speech to the Vatican’s tribunal that rules on annulments. “No one can make a claim to the right to a nuptial ceremony,” he said. The pontiff also urged priests to provide…
Continue reading …