February 2011
36 posts
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“I’m not optimistic about [Wyden-Brown] going anywhere. The Affordable Care...”
– Adam Serwer is mostly right here, but the fact is that anything Obama wants has automatically “taken on too much symbolism” for the GOP to allow it to happen. By taking up a position as anything but against Wyden-Brown, Obama has absolutely doomed it.
Obama and his staff are still...
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“If you’re going to a gala for some kind of disease and then you go to a...”
– Christine Chiu, describing the difficulties inherent in being very rich in our socialist hellscape circa 2011.
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“An interesting idea that was brought up to me by my chief of staff, we won’t do...”
– Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, revealing his plan to end the stalemate by doing what Republicans always do: pretend to talk and be a sober representative of the people while using that opening to end the standoff in a typically underhanded fashion.
But, yeah, Obama: acting like and adult and...
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Gimme! Gimme! (Oh, and fuck unions) →
The fine print in Wisconsin is all too familiar:
The state’s entire budget shortfall for this year — the reason that Walker has said he must push through immediate cuts — would be covered by the governor’s relatively uncontroversial proposal to restructure the state’s debt.
By contrast, the proposals that have kicked up a firestorm, especially his call to curtail the...
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Social Security Pays for Itself →
OMB director Jacob Lew, from the turnstile:
Social Security benefits are entirely self-financing. They are paid for with payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers throughout their careers. These taxes are placed in a trust fund dedicated to paying benefits owed to current and future beneficiaries.
[…]
For years, the surpluses in the Social Security trust fund...
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Shared Sacrifice →
Just in case you thought the Social Security stinger on this post was unsupported, EJ Dionne provides:
Lori Montgomery reported in The Post last week that a bipartisan group of senators thinks a sensible deficit reduction package would involve lifting the Social Security retirement age to 69 and reforming taxes, purportedly to raise revenue, in a way that would cut the top income tax rate for...
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Newsflash: Democrats Help Conservatives →
George Lakoff represents:
Democrats help conservatives when they function as policy wonks — talking policy without communicating the moral values behind the policies. They help conservatives when they neglect to remind us that pensions are deferred payments for work done. “Benefits” are pay for work, not a handout. Pensions and benefits are arranged by contract. If there is...
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“It had never occurred to me that Atlas Shrugged was actually about the dire need...”
– John Hodgman tweets all things Ayn Rand.
Rest assured, John, based on the trailer, they’ve converted the Taggart Transcontinental into a massive freight train operation. Though I do seem to recall seeing a bullet train zip by, presumably it was built with government stimulus funds atop cheap...
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I'm as Liberal as they come...
jasencomstock:
danielholter:
evangotlib:
But when you see what Unions have done to America…it’s hard to feel for the folks in Wisconsin. Have you been to Detroit? Have you really dug into the US Public School system? Utter disasters.
Detroit will come back. The school will be saved. But unions need to go in order for this to happen.
Agreed… neither side in this current Wisconsin...
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Ezra Explains Wisconsin →
The best way to understand Walker’s proposal is as a multi-part attack on the state’s labor unions. In part one, their ability to bargain benefits for their members is reduced. In part two, their ability to collect dues, and thus spend money organizing members or lobbying the legislature, is undercut. And in part three, workers have to vote the union back into existence every single...
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“There are three things you need to know about the current budget debate. First,...”
– Paul Krugman, reminding us how to start a column. Later, he offers a solution in seven words: “health care, health care, health care, revenue.”
Yep.
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Social Security →
The size of that fix [required to keep Social Security fully funded] is significant, but not astonishing. Over the next 75 years, the shortfall will be equal to about 0.7 percent of gross domestic product. How much is 0.7 percent of GDP? To put that in perspective, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calculates that it’s about as much as George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the rich...
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“Watson has lots in common with a top-ranked human Jeopardy! player: It’s...”
– Ken Jennings, reporting on his failed battle against our new robotic overlords.
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Four Memes that Need to DIE
1: Just like any family sitting at their kitchen table does...
2: Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill workin' nights an' evenin's together to find the best...
3: Tighten our belts...
4: Social Security will be "broke" in...
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“Social Security isn’t even hard to understand. Taxes go in, benefits go...”
– Kevin Drum: big yep. And almost a usable political slogan as well: Taxes go in, benefits come out. Got to work on something for the T-word, though.
It is, however, remarkable how the serious people in the MSM have obligingly turned Social Security into some sort of indecipherable rocket science...
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“If the deficit was actually something anybody cared about, they’d be...”
– Duncan Black aka Eschaton, on jobs, revenue, and the deficit.
As Gwen Ifill was being all serious person last night talking to and asking the tough questions of Jack Lew on why he won’t just admit that Social Security must be eliminated, preferably today if we as a nation are to survive, I...
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“PREDICTION: House GOP will almost certainly lose some seats in 2012 then dump...”
– Matt Yglesias rends the fabric of time and space via Twitter. I think he’s almost certainly right.
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“Radical as this seems to Americans, the rest of the world has figured this out...”
– Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, talking to Ezra Klein about his plans to make Vermont the first all single payer healthcare state in the Union.
I eagerly await the “why this instance isn’t actually states’ rights” argument from the GOP.
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President Trump →
For weeks, Mr. Trump has been engaged in not-so-quiet discussions about making a potential White House bid, but he has taken few visible steps, beyond television interviews, to test his support and demonstrate his seriousness. By accepting an invitation to appear at [CPAC], Mr. Trump is once again fueling speculation about his political future — and generating maximum exposure in the...
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Is It Time to Rein In the Super Bowl? →
Lots of good stuff in this article:
The last great building binge in the NFL was from 1995 through 2003, when 21 stadiums were built or refurbished in order to create more luxury boxes, at cost of $6.4 billion. Know how much of that the public paid for? $4.4 billion.
The richest people in the richest, most popular sport in America. And you and I foot the bill for almost all of it in the name of...
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“As I’ve said before, lots of Glenn Beck listeners aren’t in on the...”
– Conor Friedersdorf getting to a one-sentence sketch of Roger Ailes. Until the broader sphere progressive politicians and media in general deals with that “I’m not going to treat you like you’re a moron” part, we’ll get nowhere.
As Friedersdorf says, Ailes et al....
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“Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day; give him a religion, and he’ll...”
– Unknown Author (via girlagainstreligion)
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How not to succeed in academia →
A magnificently honest, accurate portrayal of life in science…and coming to realize it is time to walk away from same:
So, what went wrong? There are a great many alluring things about an academic scientist’s lifestyle that are simultaneously liberating and dangerous. The best of these are that you can work pretty much whenever you like, on whatever is interesting; the flip side is...
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Make it one more trenta for the road →
We already knew that Starbucks’ new 31-ounce Trenta iced coffee cup is larger than the average human stomach, but here’s something you might not know: The new cup can actually hold an entire bottle of wine.
News you can use.
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Defazio Bears Attention →
TPM reports:
Rep. Peter Defazio (D-OR) proposes that people be allowed to opt out of the insurance mandate altogether — but if they do, they will not be allowed to free-ride on the new health care system.
Under his plan, a person opting out “must file an ‘affidavit of personal responsibility’ with the state exchange. Such a filing will waive their rights to: 1)...
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“‘Now’ means now.”
– Robert Gibbs, as related by David Corn, discussing the Mubarak handover. Still too wishy-washy, tightrope-walking realpolitik for the right? I can only assume: yes.
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“Here we have the man who invented the personal computer, then the laptop. He’s...”
– Rupert Murdoch on Steve Jobs. I’d quibble with the “invented” being more of a “popularized,” but otherwise spot on.
Equally amazing (to me, anyway) is that the transition from “let’s sell everyone personal computers” to “let’s sell...
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“Some of my libertarian friends balk at what looks like an individual mandate....”
– Mitt Romney (when governor of Massachusetts) saying the sort of thing that makes him unelectable in 2012. Sad but true.
But he gets at the real “fix” for the individual mandate: simply opt out of guaranteed care for some defined period and pay a fine to get back into it with no...
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“What can we do with the idea of a “book” if we eliminate the limitations of ink...”
– John Gruber, asking a question that seems utterly obvious and yet is seldom if ever confronted. This Push Pop Press he’s talking about sounds like just the thing for a real magazine or deep-content newspaper experience on an iPad or similar device.
Well, except for the “content as...
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