Last Call

If you want to know what the future of one-party Republican rule of America will look like in 2012 and beyond, you have to look no further than Florida in 2011.

In the next 30 days, Florida lawmakers are poised to make it easier for insurance companies to raise rates, make it more difficult for women to receive an abortion and hand over control of prisons to private companies.

These are just a few of the proposals the Republican-led Legislature is pushing in the final weeks of their 60-day session. Others include dramatically changing the way the state handles Medicaid, state pensions, courts, growth and the environment.

The proposals are detailed, sweeping, and encompass many conservative issues that legislators have resisted enacting in the past. And they are moving forward for one reason: They have the votes. With a veto-proof majority, a hard-right conservative governor, and a determination to seize the moment in a non-election year, legislative leaders have packed the agenda — and Democrats are powerless to stop them. 

Powerless.  Florida Republicans have a veto-proof majority in the state legislature.  They were given it by Florida voters who said "Boy, Democrats suck.  They didn't fix the economy in Florida at all.  I'm going to sit this one out."

So Gov. Rick Scott and his buddies have free reign to do whatever they want now.  And it gets worse, much worse.

“You’ve got a very conservative governor, president, and speaker, so they’ve gone down some roads that people have kind of been afraid to go down before,’’ said Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton.

The governor has already signed major legislation to change the way teachers are paid and to reduce compensation for the unemployed, and the Legislature has overridden seven vetoes of former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Next up are dozens of bills that remove government oversight, dismantle regulations, and shift state jobs to the private sector. Also on the docket are plans to ask voters to amend the state constitution to remove the ban on providing tax dollars to religious organizations, to make it easier for the Legislature to overturn rules imposed by the state Supreme Court, to ban public funding of abortions and to prohibit any laws requiring a person to buy health insurance.

Unstoppable, wingnut theocracy.   Corporate rule run amok.  Republicans looting the state and making it possible for them to loot the state for the foreseeable future.

Florida's reality now is what America will face very soon unless the Republicans are reined in.  Democrats in Florida sat out 2010.  Now they will pay for decades.  National Republicans want to go even further than where Florida is now to the right.  If given the kind of unchecked power they have in Florida, the country will be unrecognizable in a matter of months.

And all that had to happen was enough people saying "My vote doesn't matter.  Both sides are the the same.  Why should I bother?"

The lesson of Florida, 2011.  Even if you choose not to vote, you still have made a choice.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

The Wall Street Journal is the best source of unintentional comedy on Earth.  Today's laugh riot is provided by Matt Ridley, who wants to find a "market-related" solution to obesity and health care costs.  Nowhere in the article does it occur to Ridley that the wide availability of cheap, unhealthy mass-produced fast food and the multi-billion dollar agriculture giants that power it might have something to do with it.  That's not the funny part.

The last two paragraphs may be the most amazingly hysterical thing I've ever read.

In due course, the obesity problem will be solved, I suspect. The ultra-rich have already solved it. Most of them are very thin these days, quite unlike in ancient times. That's because they can afford the solutions that work for them, from low-carb diets to personal trainers. 

If economic growth continues to spread, as it has over the past two centuries, most people will be ultra-rich by today's standards within two generations, and slim figures will also spread. Still, it would be nice to find a way for people to lose weight without having to wait for them to get rich first.

If economic growth continues to spread the way it has in the last two generations, the ultra-rich are going to need those personal trainers to stay in shape in order to escape the blood mobs coming for them.

That, and for clueless hacks like Ridley here.

Bombing, Charlie Sheen Style

DETROIT – Charlie Sheen and his "goddesses" took the stage to thunderous applause Saturday night for the first leg of his "Torpedo of Truth" tour. The 70-minute show hadn't even ended when the first reviews were in, and they were brutal.

The former "Two and a Half Men" star showed that comedic success on the screen doesn't necessarily translate to the stage, and the capacity crowd at Detroit's 5,100-seat Fox Theatre rebelled before the show ended, chanting "refund!" and walking out in droves.

He's the train wreck that just keeps on giving.  Clearly, something pretty major is going on.  A lifetime of addiction can make a person snap, but it just seems like a trigger went off and he's been hell bent on destroying his career since.  The good news is, rock bottom surely isn't too far away.

Baby Steps Aren't Enough

The saga of the prematurity-prevention drug Makena and the outrage over its pricing continues: on Friday, the maker of the drug, a subsidiary of KV Pharmaceutical, announced it would reduce its price 55%, from $1,500 to $690 per dose.

There is just one problem.  That is not enough.

This is a drug that was recently only ten dollars per dose. There is no explanation for this decision.  No sound need or reasoning has been given.  Don't want Obamacare?  Groovy, baby.  Protect the consumer and make sure drug companies don't do this.  And while you're at it, make sure health insurance companies can't do this.  Or this.  Or even though it's old news, this.

Aldi Darned

The New York Times ran an article showing that Wal-Mart and Target may have a surprising competitor: Aldi.

Aldi first came to the United States in 1976, but it opened a relatively small number of stores a year — 25 or so on average. Within the last few years, it has accelerated its expansion by adding more than 250 stores, with plans for 80 more both in 2011 and 2012, said Jason Hart, co-president of Aldi’s United States division, in a recent interview.

The company capitalizes on the bargain hunter, who is not embarrassed to choose frugality over name brands. Aldi’s mainly sells its own private-label items at cheap prices — a five-ounce bacon-wrapped beef filet costs $1.79 at the Queens store.

“It’s the one format that seems to have increased the most, and has sustained a number of new stores,” during and after the recession, said Jonathan P. Feeney, a grocery analyst with Janney Capital Markets. As “prices are going to go up, it’s going to be a growing opportunity.”

Wal-Mart and Target are behind in the small market scene, and belatedly they have realized they overlooked a real opportunity.  In exchange for value customers don't have as much choice, but for bargain hunters it is a good way to extend their grocery budget.  I can say from experience some of their products are  actually better than what I purchase at a Kroger or Wal-Mart.  It also teaches a lesson to consumers and sets more realistic expectations.  Sometimes you have to shop around for savings.  Sometimes you don't always get what you want, and stores aren't obligated to beg you to come in.  The savings for advertising and other expenses have allowed an underdog to be competitive against the likes of Wal-Mart.  Or in shopper lingo, that's like a BOGO neener-neener.

In The Worst Of Times, The Best In Us Shows Through

This is what bravery looks like.  Doomed to die, some brave workers are spending their last days alive trying to save the people who have a chance.

"My son and his colleagues have discussed it at length and they have committed themselves to die if necessary to save the nation," she said. Fox News said she was tearful as she spoke.

"He told me they have accepted they will all probably die from radiation sickness in the short term or cancer in the long-term," she added.

Dubbed the Fukushima 50 (actually around 300 people who work in shifts of 50), the workers know they have surely been exposed to lethal levels of radiation.  It's likely most if not all will die within weeks.  Yet these people are staying and doing their best to protect their families.

Earlier this week, a Japanese minister conceded there was no end in sight to the crisis, although some of the world's largest cement pumps are being sent to Japan, initially to pump water but then to possibly entomb the site as was done in Chernobyl.

The Main Event

Because Democrats have basically folded on the 2011 budget, and are going to ultimately fold on the debt ceiling fight, the real issue is going to be the future.  And Republicans are betting they can force Democrats to go along with massive, draconian cuts to Medicare and Medicaid in order to make permanent the Bush tax cuts.

The main event is the 2012 budget battle.  And Republicans like Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin are opening with every gun they have and daring the Democrats to do anything about it other than to cower and capitulate.

While Mr. Ryan and top Republican aides would not discuss specifics, there are strong indications that the proposal will draw on deficit reduction plans that Mr. Ryan laid out in his 2010 “roadmap plan” and a second proposal he wrote with Alice M. Rivlin, a director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration.

In that plan, Ms. Rivlin and Mr. Ryan proposed that Medicaid financing be converted into a block grant program, with states given a set allotment of money and new discretion to shape health coverage programs for the poor. Their Medicare proposal would allow those nearing eligibility to remain with the current system, and it would create a program that would provide payments to Medicare enrollees to buy private health insurance.

Top Republicans have been divided on how much to tinker with Social Security, given strong Democratic opposition, its less significant contribution to the budget deficit and the political explosiveness of making any changes to the program. Officials say the budget will probably provide guidance on how to shape Social Security based on recommendations from last year’s presidential deficit-reduction committee.

Republican leaders have not previously embraced Mr. Ryan’s proposals on Medicare and Social Security, but Mr. Boehner said he had tired of watching Congress avoid difficult decisions on entitlement programs.

“You can’t continue to whistle past the graveyard,” he said. “We are imprisoning the future for our kids and our grandkids if we do not act, and it’s time to act.”

Democrats said they intended to draw sharp distinctions between their approach and that of Republicans. 

Sure they will.  Let's review the Ryan-Rivlin plan, shall we?

The plan, to be released Tuesday, calls for a controversial overhaul of Medicare, the health care program for seniors, and imposes deep cuts in Medicaid, which provides health benefits to low-income Americans, according to House Republican sources with knowledge of the proposal.

Starting 10 years from now, in 2021, Americans would no longer enroll in the Medicare program, but instead receive vouchers for private insurance, according to the GOP sources, who stressed anyone 55 or older now would not be affected by the change.

The plan is modeled after one Ryan proposed last year with Alice Rivlin, budget director under President Bill Clinton.

Details of how Ryan's Medicare voucher program would work are still unclear, but the Ryan-Rivlin plan said the amount of the voucher -- a lump sum payment from the government -- would be calculated in part by taking the average federal cost per Medicare enrollee.

The GOP aims to save billions of dollars in revamping Medicare, a large contributor to the massive federal deficit and debt.

Sources said they did not yet know how much savings Ryan would project by drastically changing the Medicare program.

On Medicaid, Ryan's plan calls for deep cuts, as much as $1 trillion. The program would also fundamentally change -- the federal share of the Medicaid system would become block grants to the states.

Privatize Medicare, make massive cuts to Medicaid, make the Bush cuts permanent.  Take money from America's poor, and from anyone 45 and under right now.  Give it to America's top 1%.  I can't wait to see the devil in these details, because I bet it's going to make a lot of assumptions when it comes to deficit reduction.

The question is simply how many Democrats will go along with the plan, and will they force the President to join them.  And when the horrible truth dawns on America, Obama will be blamed.

The GOP is going for the whole shooting match.  I doubt enough Dems will stand fast against them.

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter Part 67

I've got your Sunday morning movie right here, folks.

You can now watch the Oscar-winning documentary on the financial crisis, Charles Ferguson's brilliant Inside Job, at Open Culture, for free.  It's worth picking up the DVD version at Amazon absolutely, but if you haven't yet seen this film, set aside two hours and do so today as a public service to yourself as an informed consumer.  It will explain the financial crisis to you in stunning clarity and rich detail, and features very candid interviews with some of the major players:  Obama economic advisor Paul Volcker, Rep. Barney Frank, IMF chief Dominique Straus-Kahn, billionaire George Soros, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, New York state AG and Gov. Elliot Spitzer, economist Nouriel Roubini as well as people from all over the financial industry.

These are the folks I've been quoting and following in this blog for close to three years now, guys.  The film, narrated by Matt Damon, is must-watch stuff for anyone who is even remotely interested in how the bottom fell out of our economy:  the bottom was cut out on purpose.

It was, after all, an inside job.

Go watch.

Last Call

Contracting note:  concrete does not set very well when you're trying to use it say, plug a radioactive water leak.

A first attempt to plug a cracked concrete shaft that is leaking highly radioactive water into the ocean off Japan failed Saturday, so officials are now exploring alternatives, spokesmen for Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.


Power plant workers had been trying to fill the shaft with fresh concrete, but that did not change the amount of water coming out of the crack, the spokesmen said at a news conference that ran late into the night Saturday.

Their "plan B" is to use polymers to stop the leak, the spokesmen said. A Tokyo Electric expert will visit the site Sunday morning and decide what polymer to use before the work begins.

Workers will then break the shaft's ceiling and insert the polymer in a different spot from where they tried to place the concrete, they said.

Yeah, I could have told you that might have been a problem, guys.  I really am hoping the polymer trick works (then maybe a lot of concrete over it) but the bigger problem is all this radioactive water still means the Fukushima Daiichi plant is going to be dangerous for years.

Nullification And Void, Part 2

TPM's Jillian Rayfield has an excellent article on the nullification movement -- the notion that individual states can simply ignore federal laws they don't agree with -- considered clearly unconstitutional, silly, and pigheadedly fringe.

Until we got a black President, that is.

For most of the last century, talk of secession, nullification and the rest of the extreme states-rights lexicon were relegated to the fringiest parts of the political fringe. But since Barack Obama entered the White House in January 2009, mainstream Republican rhetoric and proposed legislation at the state level have both warmed to the hoary idea that state governments can take their relationship with the federal government on what amounts to an a la carte basis or perhaps abandon it altogether.

Take the concept of Nullification -- the notion that individual states can unilaterally refuse to follow or enforce federal law they don't agree with. For the most part, it's been laughed off since the Civil War. It was brought up again by segregationists during the Civil Rights Era but more out of desperation and political theater than as a serious approach to the constitution.

But the rise of the Tea Party and its amorphous anti-federal government platform has brought these ideas closer to the mainstream than they've been in decades. So, while nullification advocates, Tenthers, secessionists, "constitutional tender" proponents, and the rest don't necessarily share the same theoretical rationales, together they've brought hostility to the federal government back into the realm of respectable political discourse.

And it's that last sentence that is the key.  There's a definite move by the Republican party in this country to consider anything the federal government does, particularly anything the federal government does proposed by Barack Obama, as inherently evil and un-American.  Anyone who is a government employee serves this evil overlord (except for brave elected Republicans, natch).

But what makes this different is the size and the scope of this hatred of government.  It's feeding into distrust and rancor towards government institutions as well.  Public education of any kind is increasingly seen as "indoctrination" and teachers, professors and educators are not respected by Republicans, but hated as government apparatchiks.  Police, firefighters and other safety officials are seen as thugs and jackbooted enforcers.  Local and state government employees are seen as leeches and moochers who should all be put out on the street.

The core of this nonsense is the increasing view from Republicans that America needs as little government as possible, and as such as few government employees as possible.  As much infrastructure, public safety, education and governance itself should be turned over to private industry, with the goal of running these services in a manner to make a profit, not to provide them to those who need them.

The most basic services, in other words, should be privatized so that the businesses who operate them can use them to make money...and if that means those who need services aren't getting them, well, you're on your own.

Increasingly, the Republicans are playing to this fringe notion that government itself is illegitimate (but only if run by Democrats.)  Taxes are illegitimate if you don't 100% agree with what they are being used for, as are laws, regulations, and codes.  It's a dangerous notion that if the minority doesn't agree with the majority, they aren't subject to the majority rule.  There are times when that should be true...but not as a result of the lawful, constitutional process of representative democracy.

These folks simply say it's not lawful or constitutional in their view.  And the fact that this view is freely being adopted by people who would be President of the United States, and in fact by a number of local, state, and national Republican candidates for office, should be extraordinarily troubling to all Americans.

Even worse, when the basic response from these Republicans is the unlawful nullification of accepted law, the solutions presented by some are quite violent as a result.  It is to these extremes that the Republican party is willing to go to in order to maintain political power, the demonize any government that isn't wholly controlled by them as illegitimate.

It's Not All About Numbers Of Jobs

It's also how we are able to work.  A recent study shows that although we may be returning to the workforce and balancing the economy, it is very likely that a single job will no longer suffice.

The study, commissioned by the nonprofit group Wider Opportunities for Women, looks at how much income it takes to support a basic standard of living for an American family--and finds that many of the jobs of the future won't pay enough to provide that.

To calculate this "economic security" income, the study's authors certainly didn't assume a lavish lifestyle. They considered basic needs--housing, food, utilities, health care, child-care, and transportation--plus the cost of modest saving for retirement and a small surplus for emergencies. (At at a time when economic "shocks" are increasingly common, that's an essential part of financial security.) They don't factor in some things many of us take for granted, like entertainment or eating out.

The result? To achieve economic security, a single parent with two children needs an income of just over $30,000 a year--nearly twice the federal minimum wage--while a two-income household needs almost $68,000.

Where is this going?  Part of it is going to CEO raises, like I've already pointed out.  The rest is paying to start our economy again.  Businesses had to raise costs to stay open, while the economy forced people to spend as little as possible.  Something has to give, and it's us.  This isn't necessarily bad, as consumers drive the market.  However, it does mean that we will be paying more than we should for a while to come, and that means we may have to work more than before.

This is what happens when greed overrides the common good.  We were able to keep an unsustainable lifestyle as a country.  Our cleverness and power let us keep it going longer, which only made for a bigger fall when it caught up to us.  These lean times aren't fun, but keep in mind that it's going to teach financial responsibility and give a reality check to several people who need it.

Don't Forget Your Place, Peasants

The heads of the nation’s top companies got the biggest raises in recent memory last year after taking a hiatus during the recession.

At a time most employees can barely remember their last substantial raise, median CEO pay jumped 27% in 2010 as the executives’ compensation started working its way back to prerecession levels, a USA TODAY analysis of data from GovernanceMetrics International found. Workers in private industry, meanwhile, saw their compensation grow just 2.1% in the 12 months ended December 2010, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The article goes on to explain that the raises come from the cuts and layoffs, not recovering from the economic downturn.  So yeah, it doesn't look like big business has learned anything.  It's still all about maximizing profit on the backs of workers.  The needs of the few outweigh the pain of the many, and the fat cats have the audacity to look puzzled when the common folk are outraged.

Minnesota Republicans In Need Of Remedial History Class

Some fifty years after the civil rights movement in this country, and we still have idiots like Minnesota Republican state Sen. Dan Hall making decisions for kid's education.

As Minnesota's state senate debates a public school funding bill that would remove funding from integration programs in the major cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Duluth and shift it to a statewide literacy drive, one freshman Republican has been particularly blunt in his opinions.

“I watched Minneapolis get destroyed,” Sen. Dan Hall stated on Thursday, "so I not only didn’t want my kids in the school system, I took them out of Minneapolis because they ruined our neighborhoods with integration and [de]segregation."

"My best friends are minority, they think integration in foolish," Hall insisted. "It’s a ploy to get more money. ... It’s disrespectful to tell my friends, my minority friends that they can’t make it without extra special help.”

Hall's statements appeared to confirm the worst fears of Democratic supporters of the integration program. “I fear what we see here the is the politics of envy and division and protecting our own,” Sen. Scott Dibblef (DFL-Minneapolis) stated, “not the ‘one Minnesota’ we hearken back to.”

"We have been doing integration aid for decades, and to say that within one year we should dismantle that for a brand-new process seems to me short-sighted," said Sen. John Harrington (DFL-St. Paul). "Have we really made the decision that desegregation and integration isn't a laudable goal for our schools?"

Sen. Hall, however, attempted to cast his position as arising out of his deep concern for literacy, "I am a product of the Minneapolis school system," he explained, "completing all of my years, all the different schools. I graduated with a 6th grade reading ability. I struggled my whole life. We need to teach kids how to read.”

At least the guy is being honest when he says he believes black and brown people are destroying his white state and doesn't want his kids or grandkids to be anywhere near them, blaming them for "destroying" Minneapolis.  I used to live in the Twin Cities area.  I can tell you that people there are very nice and most of them are not like Dan Hall at all.

But the ones that are have no intention of getting over their racism and bigotry.  Ever.  It's not just integrated schools this guy hates, it's the idea of minority people being anywhere near his lily-white ass.  It really is refreshing to see an ignorant asshole like this guy freely admit that's what his goal is, to rid the state of any minority that's not self-loathing enough to agree with him.

And yes, Republicans are more than happy to push a 50-state Southern Strategy of "White people are awesome, screw everyone else" if it keeps them in political power.  When you see Minnesota Republicans making the same kind of arguments that Republicans in states like Alabama and Mississippi made in the 60's and 70's about integration, you know there's something deeply poisonous about the party.  The election of a black President has made millions of white people lose their damn minds.

And I don't think there's a cure other than time.  Sadly, it's time that we do not have.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• TEPCO officials are finally admitting radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi plant is leaking through a cracked containment vessel and into the Pacific ocean.
• Conservative author Larry Klayman is suing Facebook for over a billion dollars for not removing a page calling for a third intifada against Israel quickly enough.
• President Obama wants to increase spending on parks and public lands, but Republicans are lining up to attack the plan.
• Wal-Mart plans to test an online grocery delivery service in San Jose, going after Safeway's online delivery market in California.
• Calling AT&T's buyout of T-Mobile "paradigm-altering", at least one FCC official is hinting he will vote against approving the mega-merger.

Last Call

Good night folks, and the last progressive out of HuffPo, please turn out the lights.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Arianna Huffington revealed a bit of news that's not likely to show up on The Huffington Post's front page any time soon: the site is no longer "lefty" in its political bent.

That will likely come as a surprise to the massive audience of Democrats and liberals The Huffington Post has attracted over the years, who've turned the site into a powerful voice for progressive values and one of the largest online publications going.

Speaking to New York Times reporter Andrew Goldman, Huffington said that for the last three years she has been walking the post-partisan talk.

"The tag line that we’ve used a lot is 'Beyond left and right,'" she reportedly said.

The Times' writer fired back, suggesting that she was "trying to tell me that Smurfs aren’t blue" by claiming that The Huffington Post was not founded as a "lefty" publication.

"I’m just telling you that it is very clear that we have progressive views, but to call everything we’re doing lefty — it misses the whole point that American policy needs to be redefined beyond left and right," she reportedly said. "It’s a completely obsolete view of politics."

"Still, I’m amazed you’re trying to tell me that The Huffington Post wasn’t started as a lefty blog?" Goldman asked.

"I’m not trying to tell you anything," she reportedly replied. "I’m telling you things. I’m not trying, O.K.?"

Who, us?  Progressive?   Surely you have us confused with another large corporate news aggregation and commentary site.  Why anyone would think HuffPo would go Sensible Centrist, "post-partisan" Third Way on the Dirty F'ckin Hippies after the AOL buyout, just because they hired Andrew Breitbart, just because they picked up anti-Obama Reasonoids like Radley Balko...why I have no idea where anyone would get that kind of notion from.

Money talks, bullshit walks.  If it wasn't for Amanda Terkel, I'd drop HuffPo from the blogroll completely.  As it is, I'll simply change the link to her author page.

You dance with who brought you, Arianna.