Author's posts
Apr 08 2011
Glitter and Unicorns
Ludicrous and Cruel
By PAUL KRUGMAN, The New York Times
Published: April 7, 2011
(T)he Ryan proposal trumpets the results of an economic projection from the Heritage Foundation, which claims that the plan’s tax cuts would set off a gigantic boom. Indeed, the foundation initially predicted that the G.O.P. plan would bring the unemployment rate down to 2.8 percent – a number we haven’t achieved since the Korean War. After widespread jeering, the unemployment projection vanished from the Heritage Foundation’s Web site, but voodoo still permeates the rest of the analysis.
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A more sober assessment from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office tells a different story. It finds that a large part of the supposed savings from spending cuts would go, not to reduce the deficit, but to pay for tax cuts. In fact, the budget office finds that over the next decade the plan would lead to bigger deficits and more debt than current law.
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According to the budget office, which analyzed the plan using assumptions dictated by House Republicans, the proposal calls for spending on items other than Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – but including defense – to fall from 12 percent of G.D.P. last year to 6 percent of G.D.P. in 2022, and just 3.5 percent of G.D.P. in the long run.That last number is less than we currently spend on defense alone; it’s not much bigger than federal spending when Calvin Coolidge was president, and the United States, among other things, had only a tiny military establishment. How could such a drastic shrinking of government take place without crippling essential public functions? The plan doesn’t say.
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(P)rivatizing Medicare does nothing, in itself, to limit health-care costs. In fact, it almost surely raises them by adding a layer of middlemen. Yet the House plan assumes that we can cut health-care spending as a percentage of G.D.P. despite an aging population and rising health care costs.The only way that can happen is if those vouchers are worth much less than the cost of health insurance. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2030 the value of a voucher would cover only a third of the cost of a private insurance policy equivalent to Medicare as we know it.
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In the past, Mr. Ryan has talked a good game about taking care of those in need. But as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, of the $4 trillion in spending cuts he proposes over the next decade, two-thirds involve cutting programs that mainly serve low-income Americans.
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The G.O.P. budget plan isn’t a good-faith effort to put America’s fiscal house in order; it’s voodoo economics, with an extra dose of fantasy, and a large helping of mean-spiritedness.
A little bit more-
Ryan and Taxes
By PAUL KRUGMAN, The New York Times
April 8, 2011, 9:48 am
The Ryan plan calls for cutting the top marginal rate to 25 percent – lower than it has been at any time in the past 80 years. That in itself should tell you that this is a deeply unserious proposal: anyone who tells you that we have to face hard truths, that everyone must sacrifice, and by the way, rich people will pay lower taxes than they have at any time since the 1930s, is just engaged in a power grab.
Apr 08 2011
DocuDharma Digest
Regular Features-
- Late Night Karaoke by mishima
- Muse in the Morning by Robyn
- Six In The Morning by mishima
Featured Essays for April 7, 2011-
- Kicked Once Too Often: I’m Out, Barack by TheMomCat
- On Reincarnation, Or, Was Glenn Beck Just Promoted? by fake consultant
- Cartnoon by ek hornbeck
- Drifting Over the Edge by banger
- Herr Doktor Professor by ek hornbeck
Apr 07 2011
Evening Edition
Evening Edition is an Open Thread
Now with 40 Top Stories.
From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Japan disaster zone hit by new powerful quake
by Hiroshi Hiyama, AFP
2 hrs 47 mins ago
TOKYO (AFP) – A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake late on Thursday hit the same area of Japan that was ravaged by disaster a month ago, seismologists said, prompting a local tsunami alert.
Power was cut to parts of the northeast of the country, much of which is still struggling with the effects of the monster tsunami that roared ashore four weeks ago. The new quake caused a handful of injuries, national broadcaster NHK said, but there were no reported deaths. The tsunami alert was later cancelled after no deadly wave materialised. |
Apr 07 2011
Another Elite Failure
I can’t emphasize enough how fundamentally stupid, greedy, and vain our Versailles Aristocrats are.
Blame Mayor Bloomberg for Cathie Black Fiasco
Dan Collins, Huffington Post
Posted: 04/ 7/11 12:18 PM ET
Cathie Black was Mayor Bloomberg’s disaster – one of a long line he’s perpetrated since being elected to a third term. The fact that the mayor picked someone to run the schools who had no experience in education or, perhaps more critically, New York politics, was astonishing. The mayor is genuinely devoted to the public schools. He built his political career around improving them.
And then, out of some whim we may never really understand, he plopped them in the lap of a publishing executive who was looking for a way to re-start a shaky career, whose only real qualification was that she hung around in the same crowd as the mayor.
I think ‘ordinary people’ understand this kind of narcissistic nepotism quite well. What qualifications does Luke Russert have? How about Brian Deschane?
Gov. Walker’s Free Market Approach to Governing
Gen. JC Christian, patriot
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Unfortunately, many working people (or, as we like to call them, “limited cost resources”) are jealous of your $81.5K salary. They’re complaining that you’re not up to the job. Citing your youth, your lack of a college education and any real-world work experience, as well as your aptitude for drunk driving, they’re suggesting that you don’t have the needed experience to serve as one of the state’s chief regulators.
Of course, they ignore your most important qualification: your father’s ability to donate to Gov. Walker’s campaigns. Given your other qualifications, that’s the best $121.7K your dad ever spent. But more important than that, its an example of how free market principles can be applied to government to make your life better–you’re living the new American dream, my friend.
That’s not to say that your other major qualification won’t serve you well. The ability to pass out, face down, on various lawns and bushes should give you an edge as an environmental regulator.
I doubt EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has ever regained consciousness with a hunk of grass stuck to her eye, a centipede crawling up her nose, and the words “pig fucker” emblazoned across her forehead in indelible ink, nor has she exterminated an invasive beetle species using a 60% alcohol solution suspended in vomit. You certainly have the edge there.
Apr 07 2011
Herr Doktor Professor
It’s not like Paul Krugman has been silent about Paul Ryan’s glitter and unicorns magical thinking budget, but it’s been spread across several blog posts and kind of hard to integrate.
Fortunately Scarecrow over at Firedog Lake has done the heavy lifting for me-
Krugman Exposes GOP Ryan’s Unicorn Budget, Catches Heritage Burying Number
By: Scarecrow, Wednesday April 6, 2011 8:26 pm
Paul Krugman spent Wednesday combing through the details of Tea-GOP genius Paul Ryan’s budget and in a series of blog posts utterly destroyed the Ryan budget’s phony math, implausible assumptions and unicorn forecasts. Kudos to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow for picking this up.
Krugman once called Ryan a “flim flam” man, a virtual con artist, and yesterday, he proved it. Let us count the ways.
Here’s the Maddow clip-
Scarecrow summarizes 8 recent posts by Krugman who is back at it again today-
- Even More Ryan Ridiculousness
Paul Krugman, The New York Times
April 7, 2011, 11:13 am
Pointing out that this is a return to Coolidge era spending.
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the racist secessionist traitors of the Republican Party are unhappy with the results of The War of Rebellion and wish to revisit it.
Apr 07 2011
DocuDharma Digest
Regular Features-
- Late Night Karaoke by mishima
- Muse in the Morning by Robyn
Featured Essays for April 6, 2011-
- Health and Fitness News by TheMomCat
- Quaker Schools: The Testimony of Cognitive Dissonance by cabaretic
- You’re Surprised, Really! by Xanthe
- I come to bury Caesar… by Edger
- Cartnoon by ek hornbeck
- RIP American Dream by Edger
- Sand Trap by ek hornbeck
- More on The Town (movie)–Claire is her own worst enemy: by mplo
Apr 06 2011
Evening Edition
Evening Edition is an Open Thread
Now with 57 Top Stories.
From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Berlusconi sex trial adjourned until May
by Mathieu Gorse, AFP
Wed Apr 6, 12:45 pm ET
MILAN (AFP) – Silvio Berlusconi’s trial on charges of sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power opened Wednesday as the storm over the 74-year-old Italian premier’s private life finally landed in court.
Berlusconi himself did not attend the hearing and the judges immediately adjourned the trial until May 31. The woman at the centre of the case, Karima El Mahroug — nicknamed “Ruby the Heart Stealer” — was not present either. The hearing at Milan’s main court building lasted just under 10 minutes and a handful of protesters rallied outside both for and against Berlusconi. |
Apr 06 2011
Sand Trap
As I’ve explained before I am not now nor have I ever been a member of any military service, my closest encounters being an notably unsuccessful stint in the Boy Scouts and a hazy night with two Navy recruiters. But I am an avid war gamer (or as the more pacifistic among us prefer to be called- ‘gamer’) and am a particular fan of Larry Bond’s Harpoon.
Now in the game it’s easy to load up your nuclear powered supercarrier task force with all the planes it will carry (more than most country’s entire airforce) and with your Alderan slagging Deathstar power roll over your opposition as if they hardly even exist, but in fact that’s not how they’re deployed. Most real life groups only have a fraction of their nominal order of battle on station and are ramped up in response to perceived threats and changes in mission. Not only that, but combat and training stress the equipment and produce maintenance failures which is probably the reason we lost that F-15E over Benghazi.
Gamers and Washington Warmongers have a tendency to ignore these inconvenient truths which is why it’s interesting and instructive to read articles like this-
Nato lacking strike aircraft for Libya campaign
US withdrawal of attack planes puts pressure on European countries, especially France, to offer more strike capability
Ian Traynor in Brussels and Richard Norton-Taylor, guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 5 April 2011 16.49 BST
Nato is running short of attack aircraft for its bombing campaign against Muammar Gaddafi only days after taking command of the Libyan mission from a coalition led by the US, France and Britain.
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Nato officials insisted the pace of the air operations was being maintained. But it has emerged that the US and the French, who have been the two biggest military players until now, are retaining national control over substantial military forces in the Mediterranean and refusing to submit them to Nato authority.The French have the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, two escorting frigates and 16 fighter aircraft, none of which are under the Nato command and control which was announced last Thursday.
Until last week, President Nicolas Sarkozy was the loudest opponent of handing over the operations to Nato control. Nonetheless, the French are not only taking part in the Nato campaign, but are the biggest non-US contributors, with 33 aircraft, double Britain’s 17. Not all of these are strike aircraft.
Until Monday, the Americans had performed most of the attacks on ground targets, with the French executing around a quarter and the British around a 10th. Given the US retreat, Nato is seeking to fill the gap, but only the British have pledged more.
(h/t Chris in Paris @ Americablog)
And this-
Libyan Rebels Demanding More NATO, US Support
By: David Dayen Wednesday April 6, 2011 6:25 am
The Libyan opposition, feeling entitled to direct military operations despite assurances that the mission would not be used in that fashion, is angrily demanding more and better airstrikes on Gadhafi’s troops.
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This is the danger of this kind of intervention. The opposition side of the civil war now relies on outside help and is demanding more and more of it. NATO actually did undertake airstrikes in the area of Brega yesterday, but the rebels still retreated under rocket fire. It won’t be too long before they say that NATO and the US must give them weapons, or provide trainers. Or maybe they’ll just want the West to enforce a partition for a binational state. Or maybe they will want special forces, and then, just ground troops. And blood will be on the hands of the international community if they hesitate.
“So what should I think about [the war in Libya]? If it had been my call, I wouldn’t have gone into Libya. But the reason I voted for Obama in 2008 is because I trust his judgment. And not in any merely abstract way, either: I mean that if he and I were in a room and disagreed about some issue on which I had any doubt at all, I’d literally trust his judgment over my own. I think he’s smarter than me, better informed, better able to understand the consequences of his actions, and more farsighted.”
—Kevin Drum, Friday, in Mother Jones
Apr 06 2011
DocuDharma Digest
Regular Features-
- Late Night Karaoke by mishima
- Muse in the Morning by Robyn
- Six In The Morning by mishima
Featured Essays for April 5, 2011-
- Vote! by ek hornbeck
- The MSM Notices Foreclosure Fraud by TheMomCat
- Where The Money Is by ek hornbeck
- Cartnoon by ek hornbeck
- Psychology of Activism: 2011 by jeffroby
- US Libya Intervention Is Aggression by Edger
- Other Thoughts about the movie "The Town" by mplo
Apr 05 2011
2011 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship
NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament 2011
Well you can hardly be more wrong than I was on Sunday. Never let it be said I’m unwilling to admit it when I am.
Seed | Team | Record | Score | Region | Seed | Team | Record | Score | Region |
1 | Stanford | 31 – 3 | 62 | West | 2 | *Texas A&M | 32 – 5 | 63 | Southwest |
1 | Connecticut | 36 – 2 | 63 | East | 2 | *Notre Dame | 30 – 7 | 72 | Southeast |
Now TheMomCat has expressed a preference for the Aggies while I am sticking with my Big East obsession.
This is the 24th and final entry in this year’s coverage, though I do have some meta points to make after I recover from the ordeal.
The Final
Seed | Team | Record | Region | Seed | Team | Record | Region |
2 | Notre Dame | 30 – 7 | Southeast | 2 | Texas A&M | 32 – 5 | Southwest |
Follow the 2011 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament on The Stars Hollow Gazette.
If you don’t like squeeky shoes you can look for alternate programming here-
If you like a more traditional bracket try this NCAA one, they also have a TV schedule.
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