NASA has discovered the first of what will no doubt be many planets outside our solar system – they’re calling it “Kepler-22b” – that’s in the “Goldilocks Zone” (that is, not too hot and not too cold to support liquid water – a requirement to support life as we know it). It’s about two-and-a-half times larger than Earth, in a 290-day orbit (pretty close to our year) around its sun, and estimated to have a temperature of about 70 degrees (which sounds pretty good this time of year). Sadly, it’s 600 light years away, so odds are we won’t be able to winter there (until they work out this whole warp speed thing). Although there’s no guarantee that there’s liquid water on the Kepler-22b (let alone life), NASA believes it’s much more likely to contain intelligent life than the Tea Party.
Speaking of the teabaggers, they sure do love them some Newt (Democrats, too. Libertarians, not so much). Having dispatched Herman Cain for, apparently, being a serial philanderer, Republicans are embracing the Newt (because it’s OK when a white guy does it). Not only is Newt sticking it to Mittens in Iowa with his lead swollen to 33-18, but Newt is likewise engorged in South Carolina – up 38-22. Iowa and South Carolina. No reason they shouldn’t dictate who gets to President – as long as it’s OK with New Hampshire, of course.
Meanwhile, assuming you’re not a millionaire, get ready for your taxes to go up in January. Republicans apparently have no qualms about letting the payroll tax cuts for regular people expire.
You know what? While I’d just as soon not pay higher taxes, I’m willing to let my tax cut expire as long as they let the millionaire’s tax cuts expire, too. See, the average payroll tax cut saves the little people about $1,000 a year. $20 a week. Now, twenty bucks is twenty bucks, don’t get me wrong. But the average millionaire is paying $136,000 less this year thanks to the Bush tax cuts.
In other words, I’m going to work for (quite a bit) less than they’re saving in tax cuts.
For those teabaggers out there who are mathematically challenged, here’s a simple tip: 136,000 does not equal 1,000.
In fact, 136,000 is way, way, WAY more than 1,000 (about 136x more).
So, I offer two possible “compromises” for you all. The first one is that you millionaires go back to paying what you were paying before, and so do I. The second one is that I keep saving $1,000, and you rich folks can go ahead and keep a grand of that $136,000.
$1,000 = $1,000.
Cool? Cool.
The top Republican vote counter in the Senate says extending the expiring payroll tax holiday is a terrible idea and he’ll only do it if Democrats agree to major concessions — in particular, simultaneously extending all the Bush tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire just over a year from now.
On the Senate floor Monday, Sen. Jon Kyl argued that reducing the payroll tax doesn’t stimulate the economy — a claim most economists disagree with — and criticized the Democrats’ plan to offset the cost of the tax holiday with a small surtax on millionaires.
“We should therefore only do it under circumstances that in effect override these objections, one of which would be to extend all of the taxes that expire at the end of next year — at the end of 2012,†Kyl said. “That would be a good idea.â€
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/top-republican-well-extend-payroll-tax-cutif-we-extend-all-the-bush-tax-cuts-too.php
I want to apologize to President Obama. But first, some background.
We’re good people, and we work hard. But we haven’t been able to afford health insurance for more than two years. And now I have third-stage breast cancer and am facing months of expensive treatment.
snip
Fortunately for me, I’ve been saved by the federal government’s Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan, something I had never heard of before needing it. It’s part of President Obama’s healthcare plan, one of the things that has already kicked in, and it guarantees access to insurance for U.S. citizens with preexisting conditions who have been uninsured for at least six months. The application was short, the premiums are affordable, and I have found the people who work in the administration office to be quite compassionate (nothing like the people I have dealt with over the years at other insurance companies.) It’s not perfect, of course, and it still leaves many people in need out in the cold. But it’s a start, and for me it’s been a lifesaver — perhaps literally.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ward-in-praise-of-obamacare-20111206,0,6794828.story
My brother-in-law, a union carpenter who has not had union work in 2 years, got that insurance for $420 a month in NYS. My cousin, a free lance writer lost her insurance when she got cancer, got insurance in Connecticut but I don’t know what she pays and an artist friend in Washington State got insurance through that program for under $300.
DOBIE GRAY – Drift Away (OGWT, 1974) by newcanadian
🙁 :gate: :blues:
I am sorry about any adv obnoxiousness that comes with that last video. It was supposed to be a pretty good remembrance of Dobie Gray. I hope all of you in the In Crowd will understand. Yes, I may have missed Howard Tate and Hubert Sumlin.
:blues: 🙁 :gate: