One giant leap year for...

I've got lots to say, but frankly it's been a couple of shitty days at work and I'm exhausted.

The real reason for this post is that I wanted to have one for February 29th--it'll be four more years before I get another chance.

So I'm a dork--sue me.

Peace,
emaycee

Home of the Brave

I have to admit that I was more than a bit skeptical as I read this piece--and I probably still am.  But...the idea of doing what I want by doing away with money has more than a bit of appeal.  Everyone according to their needs, indeed.

After nearly thirty years of killing myself for corporations, in the end I'd be no worse off financially.  And at least I'd be doing something I enjoy--a perk I'd share with 50% of my fellow Americans.

Fuck it--bring it on.  Haven't heard any ideas in a long time that are much better.

Peace,
emaycee

Billy Bummer

In 2011, corporate profits reached highs not seen since 1950.  Between 2009 and 2011, 88% of our national income growth went to corporate profits, and only 1% to wages.  In 2011, American wages increased a whopping 1.4%, while inflation rose our prices 3.2%.  With 4.2 unemployed people for every job opening, Americans are not in any kind of bargaining position these days.

Forty percent of American households are less than three months from poverty should a personal crisis arise--and I was kind of surprised it was that long.

Turns out, state tax breaks to corporations in return for jobs doesn't always work out so well.  Job creation is often minimal to non-existent, and all too often it's for poor paying jobs.  Or the corporations end up cutting jobs anyway--ask the good folks of Illinois how they feel about Sears Holding Corp. and its tax breaks....

It's not going to get better anytime soon--and while Democrats are going to be marginally better on issues concerning working Americans than republicans, it's no guarantee that their first priority will be helping the rest of us with better paying jobs.

And that's why we need to keep looking for the union label.

Peace,
emaycee

If I could pay you less I would

It never ceases to amaze me how little regard for the poor and middle class the republican party has, and how they can continue to get even a single vote from anyone in those blocs.  I suppose it's like P. T. Barnum said about a sucker being born every minute.  The republicans are good at exploiting those suckers for their own gain.

The Detroit News has chastized Willard Romney for saying he supports indexing the minimum wage to the rate of inflation.  Taking a cue from its benefactor, the chamber of (ill-gotten) commerce, the News trots out falsehood after falsehood--how it hurts teens, costs jobs, raises prices.  All of their assertions are demonstrably false--the people working for minimum wage are largely adults, disproportionately women.  It neither raises prices nor costs jobs.  It does lessen poverty.  The News editorial staff is either woefully ignorant  or outright lying (and probably beholden to the 1%).

In the end, it's this simple:  republicans think making $7.25 an hour--fucking $7.25 an hour for Christ's sake--is too much money.  They think we would be a better country if most of us were paid less.  Think about it:  in a country where consumer spending is 2/3 of our economy, they think we should have less money to spend.  Who does this benefit except the 1%?  Fucking who?

This is republican class warfare.

To which I have but one response.

Fuck you.

Peace,
emaycee

So you want to be Veep

As one of the names being bandied about for the republican Vice-Presidential choice for this year's election, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (along with Marco Rubio and to a lesser extent, Chris Christie) is probably watching his ps and qs--how else to explain his sudden withdrawl of support for the Virginia bill which would have required women seeking an abortion to undergo a trans-vaginal ultrasound?

My guess is Democratic ad after Democratic ad showing his disrespect for women wouldn't have played too well this November.

Man's got to protect his chances.

Peace,
emaycee

Just because you're paranoid...

...doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

I can't be the only one who thinks the timing of this sudden spike in gas prices smells just a bit fishy--awfully funny, don't you think, that the prices are rising as the republicans are falling apart, as Obama (hardly a favorite of the oil industry) appears to be taking a commanding lead as we head to November.  Nothing like high gas prices to piss voters off and make them take a foolish chance on the newcomer.

Just sayin'.

Peace,
emaycee

Dream, dream, dream...

Seems the republicans are trying to console themselves over what has been a disaster of a primary season by saying that the protracted battle between their candidates is much like the Obama/Clinton primaries of 2008--and that those battles didn't hurt Obama's chances in the general election.

Hee, hee, ha, ha, chortle, chortle, guffaw, guffaw, guffaw....

I seem to remember the Democrats being extemely excited about their candidates in 2008...pretty sure the republicans are extremely less so here in 2012.  Voter turnout for the Dem candidates in 2008 was phenomenal...not so much for republicans in 2012.

That's the problem when your candidates are Tweedledum and Tweedledee--it's hard for your base to give a shit....

Peace,
emaycee

Is it over yet?

Joy of joys--we here in Michigan have spent almost two weeks now inundated with ads and newspaper pieces about the battle royale featuring Willard Romney and Rick Santorum.  The only pleasure I have is when one commercial says, "Rick Santorum can beat President Obama!"  and I respond, "No, he can't!" and that's getting old after a couple thousand times.

The Free Press featured excerpts from their interviews with Romney and Santorum and frankly they're both regurgitating economic ideas that have already failed under Bush the Lesser and espousing social ideas that are only being used to see who can out wing-nut the other.  Why I bothered to read the excerpts was beyond me, but I did come away amazed at how flaccid their positions were.  Nothing new, nothing that hasn't failed before, nothing inspiring--in a nutshell, same shit, different day.

Not that the Free Press noticed--their editorial page was too busy telling us how the republicans were choosing their nominee for the Presidential election with what they described as "fringe voters."

Fringe?  Nope--that's the republican party, the party of yesterday, the party of scared, old, white men.  And if they'd been paying attention, they would have noticed that the republican party has been this way for a long, long time.

They're just more honest about it now.

Peace,
emaycee

A real Michigander

Can we please end all this bullshit about Michigan being Mitt Romney's home state?  It's about as much his home as California is mine--just because you're fucking born here doesn't make you a Michigander.  It's where he was born--the occasional visit (especially when they're strictly for political reasons) doesn't make it your home.

I wasn't a fan of Gerald Ford but at least he had a home here and was buried here after he passed.  He's a Michigander.

No problem with Willard mentioning that he was born here or that his father was Governor.  No problem mentioning that the state means something to him--hell, I have fond memories of California.

But any way you slice it, Michigan is not his home.

Peace,
emaycee

The birth control facade

I've never been one to really believe that the powers that be in the republican party want to see the right to choose come to an end in America--it would cost them a bit too much money from political donations and a few votes as well from one issue voters and those who are republican on abortion only.  Likewise, I don't believe that republican opposition to the Obama administrations requiring religious institutions to offer birth control coverage to their employees to be about religious freedom or winning the Catholic vote (the latter of which doesn't seem to be working).

Nope, what it's about is finding another way to keep the 1% richer at the expense of the 99%.  The Blunt amendment, for all its claims about being the right for employers to refuse health insurance coverage "on moral grounds" is really about giving employers another way to fuck over their employees--if an employer wants to maximize its profits, even if it's at the expense of its workers and their families health, they can, under republican groupthink.  Because this amendment would allow employers to deny virtually any coverage by simply claiming they are morally opposed.  And we all know that businesses would never take advantage of that....

And what we really need is another way for working Americans to come up a day late and a dollar short.

Peace,
emaycee

Celebrating nothing

What a surprise--another day, another puff piece on Gov. Snyder's failed efforts to turn the state around in the Free Press.

Seems the state has an extra $130 million to put in its rainy day fund.  And this does exactly fucking what to create jobs or improve our standard of living?

I could mention how Tom Walsh's op-ed touts Snyder's first initiative with the extra money--falling upon an old republican standard--by telling us how bad crime is in Michigan (ooh, scary) so it will be spent on extra police, etc.  I could mention how the Governor plans to up education spending by 2-3%, which is a bit like trying to douse a wildfire with a squirt gun.

But what I'd like to concentrate on is this statement from John Nixon, the Governor's budget director:

"The notice we're getting nationally," Nixon said, "for having a balanced budget, for adding to the rainy day fund, maybe (emphasis mine) that makes more businesses and entrepreneurs want to move to Michigan."

Maybe?  You have absolutely got to be fucking kidding me.  For all the shit the working class has eaten because of Governor Numb Nuts, "maybe" is the best they can do?  I don't recall "maybe" being in their vocabulary last year when they were shoving their agenda of taxing old folks so corporations could get a tax break down our throats.  Or attacking teacher's unions.  Or gutting unemployment benefits.

It's good to know the republican party has become as big of a joke in Michigan as it has nationwide.

Peace,
emaycee

Giving medicine to the dead

"Attempting to debate with a person who has abandoned reason is like giving giving medicine to the dead." --Thomas Paine


I generally am an economic Liberal first and foremost--it's not that the right to choose or being anti-capital punishment (or any number of other social issues) aren't important, but in the end none of them mean much if you can't put food on the table and a roof over your head.  Today, though, today....
 
I wouldn't be one to eulogize Whitney Houston--she was a very talented woman whose talents didn't appeal to my taste in either music or movies (uh, my Mom liked her for Christ's sake, and she wasn't cool in the way, say, Sam Cooke was--whom my mother also liked).  But the comments on the Fox News website after her death are literally sickening.  I am not exaggerating.  Most of the comments are from people who have all the grace of child molesters and serial killers.  They are literally inhuman.
 
Any Liberal who is down on President Obama, any Liberal who doesn't think that elections matter after the disappointment of Obama, any Liberal who is thinking of not voting in 2012 because Obama has been such a disappointment--whatever the reason, should take two minutes of his or her life and read those comments.
 
And then begin counting the minutes until you can vote for him again this November--because the people who made those comments will be sitting in your White House if you don't.
 
Peace,
emaycee

Fair and square

The utter tone deafness of the republican party and its enablers can often be mind boggling.  Witness the Detroit News regurgitating for the umpteenth time (yawn, yawn, yawn) how "fairness" can't be legislated  through our tax code.

Horseshit.

Even worse, they drum up the usual republican fearmongering about how taxing the wealthy their fair share will put a stake in the economic recovery, despite all evidence to the contrary.  Tax cuts do not stimulate the economy.  Tax cuts for the rich do not trickle down.  The greatest economic boom of many of our lifetimes--the Clinton economic expansion of the nineties--occurred after taxes were raised on the wealthy.  But the piece de resistance of the News's idiotorial is their claim (typo or outright lie, you decide!) that the Bush tax cuts in 2003 created 8 million jobs--which is truly a miracle since the record shows Bush created just three million jobs over the course of his Presidency, the worst job creation record since W.'s mentor, Herbert Hoover.  Tax cuts for the wealthy don't create jobs either.

But the one idea emanating from their idiotorial that I did really like was their idea that Willard should pounce all over Obama over his idea that millionaires should pay more in taxes.  What a sight that would be--the two hundred million dollar man with his tax shelters in the Caymans and Swiss bank accounts telling those of us who live paycheck to paycheck why he should pay less in taxes than we do.

And when we've finished laughing we can vote to re-elect Obama and go back to whining about how moderate he is.

Peace,
emaycee

Little piggies

I could probably think of a few hundred reasons why I will never vote for, or be, a republican, but Nolan Finley's commentary in last week's Detroit News is a microcosm of all those reasons.  Finley's basic assertion--that since Gov. Snyder is loathe to sign a bill that makes Michigan a right to work for a lot less state (because it's "divisive") and the republican legislature is unwilling to build a second bridge from Detroit to Canada (ostensibly because they're in the pocket of the first bridge's owner, Matty Moroun--and don't even get me started on how, if the shoe were on the other foot, Finley would be excoriating Democrats for being beholden to their special interests) the two sides should be willing to hold their noses and make a trade that will be beneficial to both.

This kind of partisan gamesmanship is repulsive on so many levels, but is specifically endemic to the republican party and its enablers.  At a time when Michigan is beyond hurting for jobs to hold jobs hostage so that working men and women can be paid less to further line the pockets of the wealthiest of the wealthy is class warfare at its ugliest and disgusting.  This isn't about disagreements over policy--this is about winning at all costs and the people be damned.  As an acquaintance of mine recently told me, "You have to be a fucking idiot to vote for a republican."

Nolan Finley is a pig who cares not a whit for Michigan or its citizens.  He is exactly what the republican party is and what it stands for--and we need to hammer this home on a national, state, and local level from now until Election Day.

Peace,
emaycee

Part Two

Yup--I paid for this bullshit, too.  Seems one Bobby Schostak, the Chairman of the Michigan republican party, was given a guest "commentary" spot on the pages of the Free Press to give what could generously be called the Michigan republican response to the SOTU.  I could give any number of excellent rebuttals to the tripe espoused by Mr. Schostak (he trots out the same old trite republican talking points--Obamacare, Democrats as big spenders, deficit out of control, yawn), but this snippet particularly stands out:  "...there is no hiding the feeling that he [Obama] has let Michigan citizens down."

What the fuck?  If it hadn't been for the Obama Administration's rescue of the auto industry this state would be a wasteland right now.   Our improving unemployment numbers would be massively worse and probably still headed in the opposite direction--quickly.  If there's any one state that Obama should win in a landslide this November, it's Michigan.

Congratulations to Michigan republicans for choosing Mr. Schostak as their chair--he has all the political acumen of...Willard Romney!

Peace,
emaycee