No, I didn’t watch the SOTU address last night. No reason to, really, as I’ll be forced to endure endless recaps any time I get near the news. I gather it went “well,” which means it was filled with typically meaningless bullshit, and the only thing that has a prayer of actually happening is a “compromise” – and by that, I mean cuts to both social programs and taxes for rich people. Perhaps I missed it, but I didn’t catch anything about cutting the military or not engaging in war and “nation building” or whatever it is we’re up to these days.
To give you an idea of where we’re headed, you only need look at Republican Rex Paul Ryan’s “rebuttal.”
Basically, increase the national debt to upwards of 190% of GDP while raising taxes on 90% of taxpayers in order lo lower taxes for the top 10% (especially the top 1%, whose taxes will decrease by over 15%). Oh, and of course repeal even the crappy health care reform so that there are even more uninsured Americans (‘cuz, hey, if these slackers could somehow manage to afford a luxury like health insurance before, that 12% tax increase on people making an average of $13,000 a year should put an end to it).
Bootstraps, folks. Bootstraps.
Hey, it’s good to be rich. You knew that.
The only people who don’t know how good it is to be rich are the poor, downtrodden, persecuted rich people. Thank goodness they have the Republicans and the President of Wall St. to look out for them.
On the bright side, at least you’re not this guy, who found his car more or less a frozen block of ice, due, apparently to the combination of the cold and big ass pothole filled with water.
Speaking of the cold rain and snow, another winter storm is headed this way, and, once again, it looks like it’ll miss us and hit NYC with another 6″ or so of snow. Which is a bummer for them, but now that Mayor Bloomers seems to understand that when it snows you need to plow the streets, everything should be OK.
Crap, it’s a meeting day. Has it been two weeks already?
I watched SOTU. I guess I am a born masochist. Military cuts were mentioned along with a cut away shot of a stoic looking Gates. He also talked about not extending the tax cuts for the rich and not cutting social security or subjecting it to the fluctuations of the market. He also talked about cutting subsidies to big oil and using them to lower corporate taxes, though it will be pretty hard to pay less than nothing. No doubt the poor dears will want an earned income tax payment. It was not a bad speech or even a disappointing speech but, as mom always said, actions speak louder than words.
The mixed seating pleased me because I was not subjected to the spectacle of Rethugs jumping up and clapping and then Dems doing the same. In other words they behaved better.
The clatter of pundit talk is too much and too stupid. They add nothing. I did not listen to Ryan or Bachman but I’m sure I’ll read about it. I like Bachman the historian, though. Did you know that all the people who came to America were treated equally or that the saintly founding fathers eliminated slavery? The 3/5 stuff that allowed the slave holding states to qualify for more congress critters than they would have if slaves were not counted, and which gave then legislative strength that prolonged slavery, never happened. Michelle said so.
Boner wore a pink tie. Should we talk some message from that?
PJ, you did not recount the dental torture. Was it as bad or worse than it sounded?
Oh, not so bad. I got half a mouthful of Novocaine, and it didn’t take all that long, and wasn’t too awful bad after the Novocaine wore off. The most painful part was the $115 it cost. Another half a mouth (and $115) next week, and this, too, shall be behind me. Next up, replacing the two crowns I have that he says are crappy, and after that, implants or bridges for the couple that are missing. I’m fairly certain I won’t be able to afford the crowns. Not for a while. I think I saw that they’re $925 each, and I think I would have to pay half of that. So that’s not gonna happen (if I can’t afford to go see Maron in Ithaca, I sure as hell can’t afford $1,000 for crowns).
Implants are in the thousands, I think (like a couple grand each), so there’s no way that’ll happen. And everything is still present and accounted for in the front, so it’s not like it affects my appearance (and, at this stage of the game, the “good looking” ship has long since sailed).
Besides, with Governor Liberal threatening tens of thousands of State layoffs, I’m likely to be out on the street by this time next year.
Pleasant thought, that. Wish I was being melodramatic, but if the job goes away, I won’t have long. And at my age, I can’t see anybody wanting to hire me when they can get a kid out of school for a lot less.
I sure picked a lousy time to quit drinkin’.
Remember the councilman who accused sanitation workers of purposely slowing down snow removal during the first big snowstorm?
And it occurred because one man, Councilman Daniel J. Halloran, Republican of Queens, said five city workers had come to his office during the storm and told him they had been explicitly ordered to take part in a slowdown to embarrass Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
But the more that investigators look into Mr. Halloran’s story, the more mystifying it becomes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/nyregion/26snowman.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
It seems Mr. Halloran would feel right comfy with Ms. Bachmann, especially when it comes to making up stuff.
The 2008 financial crisis was an “avoidable†disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street, according to the conclusions of a federal inquiry.
The commission that investigated the crisis casts a wide net of blame, faulting two administrations, the Federal Reserve and other regulators for permitting a calamitous concoction: shoddy mortgage lending, the excessive packaging and sale of loans to investors and risky bets on securities backed by the loans.
“The greatest tragedy would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done,†the panel wrote in the report’s conclusions, which were read by The New York Times. “If we accept this notion, it will happen again.â€
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/business/economy/26inquiry.html?adxnnl=1&ref=todayspaper&adxnnlx=1296047122-e7OxwlogjsOEXUcICjZSHA
Kinda sounds like 9/11, no?
Charlie Louvin, Country Singer, Dies at 83
I guess we’ve lost that Louvin feeling.
The BLS has released its 2010 report on union membership.
Among other things:
We’re #1! By percent, anyway.
And, of course, those represented by unions make more money than those who aren’t. $917 a week vs. $717, in fact.
So suck on that, Governor Andy. About 1 in 4 of us are in unions, which means probably close to half of us live in union households.
Quit representing Wall Street as if they were the only people who lived here.
i forgot to put my name on my french test last week. so not cool. luckily my very cool teach was able to match my handwriting to the test. also, one the questions was to write out the date of your birth in french, so that was a big clue. made out with an A on that test, but next monday’s test will likely knock me out; though, i’ll remember to write my name
“Then let’s exercise the better part of valor. Get us out of here. Warp six.”
In the wake of the shootings in Tucson, the familiar questions inevitably resurfaced: Are communities where more people carry guns safer or less safe? Does the availability of high-capacity magazines increase deaths? Do more rigorous background checks make a difference?
The reality is that even these and other basic questions cannot be fully answered, because not enough research has been done. And there is a reason for that. Scientists in the field and former officials with the government agency that used to finance the great bulk of this research say the influence of the National Rife Association has all but choked off money for such work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/us/26guns.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
Greetings & news update from the state of union hating, climate change deniers, entitlement haters, gay hatin, and just where there sometimes seems to be an awful lot a hatin going on….
Mr. FK is in the country and will land in the same state as me tomorrow! :dancers: It only took him 2 1/2 weeks to get here. We see our troops come home to happy families and never know that they, the troops, are exhausted. They often come home via freaking Siberia.
Sorry i’ve been awol. There are sure a lot of disabled folks around here so I’m busy.
I thought Obama was brilliant; he said things that made the Republicans clap at their “Muslim” president. SP mom’s is right, actions speak louder than words. If only he did what he said……
XXooooo