Monday, July 25, 2011

Paul Abrams: Congress Must Eliminate Its Own Pensions, Reduce Its Salaries -- Before Cutting a Dime From Middle Class Entitlements

Huffington Post:

“Dear Members of Congress:

You keep telling us that we are broke. [We are in the sense that the Bush tax cuts, the Bush recession and the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars have put us deep in the hole, but those are all reversible with sensible policies.]

Yet, you pay yourselves a whopping $174,000 per year, provide gyms with pools and steamrooms for members, and healthcare and nice cushy pensions.

Sorry, girls and boys, but we cannot afford it anymore. We are broke.

Before you touch a hair on the chinny-chin-chin of benefits for the middle class and poor, before you reduce payments to any healthcare providers, before you cut a dime from a social security recipient's benefits, before you mess with the citizens of this country, we ALL demand that you eliminate your pensions, past, present and future.

(snip)

Nor, I am afraid, can we afford to pay you $174,000 per year. You take a lot of time off already, probably more than teachers, and so we are really overpaying you, and you do not need to invest in continuing education to keep your credentials up-to-date. Moreover, middle-class workers actually suffered a decline in salaries over the last decade, even prior to the Bush Recession, so you need to be cut back to what you were earning in 1999.

 

We would like to pay you more, but we just cannot afford it.

 

Oh, yes, on healthcare and your gym memberships -- you can start paying for those like all other Americans do, out of your salaries. Instead of the program for federal employees, you can only get covered by whatever insurance is available in the states from which you come. That will be good for you, it would enable you to be "men and women 'of the people.'" We are doing that for your own benefit…” Read it all: Paul Abrams: Congress Must Eliminate Its Own Pensions, Reduce Its Salaries -- Before Cutting a Dime From Middle Class Entitlements

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Friday, July 22, 2011

Cops: McDonald's boss punches mom with service dog - Yahoo! News

Darn, I thought he used the dog as a weapon:

ATLANTA (AP) — A McDonald's manager in the Atlanta area is accused of punching a mother after she brought her autistic children and a service dog inside the restaurant, authorities said.

Cops: McDonald's boss punches mom with service dog - Yahoo! News

And in other news, it’s really hot:

Hot Kitties - WT

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The Rude Pundit - A Scene From Our Unshared Sacrifices

So well said. Be warned – The Rude One is rude:



The old lady at the pharmacy counter obviously wore an adult diaper. That tell-tale sharp urine scent half-masked by sweet-smelling chemicals emanated from her, and the Rude Pundit stood right behind her yesterday, waiting to pick up the pills that prevent him from going on a five-state killing spree. She was getting three prescriptions. The total was $6.00. This puzzled the old lady. She had never paid anything before, and even this seemingly small amount was obviously causing her consternation. The cashier checked with the pharmacist, who said that there had been a minor change to her plan, and now she had to pay a little for the scrips, a buck-fifty, three bucks. She apologized and put aside the couple of other things she was going to purchase to pay for the medicine.

(snip)

A drug benefit cut for an old lady in a diaper and a closed tax loophole on private jets are not balance. That six bucks cut into that woman's limited income in profound ways. To use the friend's equation in reverse (times ten), $6 is like $3000. And even that's not a big deal to the wealthy because you can bet that the woman is living paycheck to paycheck. The millionaire has shitloads of money that don't even count as taxable income.

(snip)


Our savage economic inequality in this country is coming to a head. We talk about "spending cuts," as if what we're not really talking about is "making the poor pay more for stuff." We talk as if the services that are cut will be picked up by the aching states and cities. And we talk about nonsense like "shared sacrifice," as if that's the rational position in any of this. When the wealthy actually sacrifice something, we can talk about sharing.

the whole thing here: The Rude Pundit


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Rep. Eric Cantor will profit if US suffers credit default

Huh.

Last summer, the Wall Street Journal ran a story that revealed Eric Cantor had as much as $15,000 invested in ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20-plus Year Treasury ETF. As the name implies, this mutual fund “aggressively shorts” long-term U.S. Treasury bonds. That means when the U.S. debt load is at its worst, the ProShares EFT produces maximum ROI.

 

Rep. Cantor’s financial records, which are publicly available via sources like OpenSecrets.org, indicate that he still has as much as $15,000 invested in the ProShares fund. According to government insiders, if the U.S. government is unable to raise the debt ceiling by Aug. 2, the nation will begin to default on its debt payments to creditors. According to Bloomberg, this will also force a government shutdown that will furlough 800,000 federal workers.

 

“If the debt ceiling isn’t raised, investors would start fleeing U.S. Treasuries,” Matt Koppenheffer of Motley Fool told Salon. “Yields would rise, prices would fall, and the ProShares ETF should do very well. It would spike.”

Rep. Eric Cantor will profit if US suffers credit default

Eric Cantor, Proud Republicon:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) (Photo Credit: Public Domain/U.S. Congress/Wikipedia)

Putting America First. And a dick.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Once Again, With Feeling

h/t AMERICAblog News

This Week on the Prairie

This week as reported in The Tumbleweed Tribune:

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CRIME BEAT: Police cruiser hits skateboarder; he is cited.

The policeman or the skateboarder?

A woman angered over an argument with her boyfriend was arrested Friday for reportedly damaging 13 cars.

Because nothing drives your point home like destruction of your neighbor’s property.

At least two vehicles in two blocks of Ontario Street were damaged by fire about 2:30 a.m. Saturday.

Hey, the bar closed and the IHOP was packed.

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Barking Prairie Dog Award:

A 44-year-old man was ticketed and taken for a psychological exam after walking through a neighborhood naked and damaging a front door.

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http://www.chieftain.com/news/crime_beat/crime-beat-police-cruiser-hits-skateboarder-he-is-cited/article_a472a968-aa9f-11e0-bf9e-001cc4c03286.html

What The Jamie Leigh Jones Verdict Says About Rape Culture

Click this link to read about the injuries she suffered during the ‘consensual’ sex:

Jones was working for the Iraq war contractor when she claimed she was drugged and then brutally gang-raped.  Jones blacked out, woke up bruised and bleeding and then when she reported the attack to her employer was locked in a shipping container and denied food and water for at least 24 hours.

 

The main attacker named in the complaint defended the case by saying the sex he had with Jones, while she was unconscious, was consensual.  And it was enough for a Houston jury to believe.

 

What The Jamie Leigh Jones Verdict Says About Rape Culture | Care2 Causes

KBR Inc., a former subsidiary of Dick Cheney’s Halliburton. If you had a heart, maybe you could reflect on the damage you’ve done to the globe through your war mongering and profiteering, Darth.

dick-cheney-guns-dont-kill-people

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Best Blog Comment This Week

"If Michele Bachmann is againist gay marriage, why is she in one?"

You Know What Day it Is!

Iz Caturday!

I See Where This is Going

Just returned from Cancun, a wonderful experience I refused to let be marred by the ridiculous TSA procedures put in place by the scared soccer moms who voted Republican because they thought they'd keep us safer.

Leaving the Springs was typical; every bag was searched, every nook, cranny and flip-flop was scanned, x-rayed or patted. Entering Mexico was a three-hour wait of long, snaking lines to get to customs, then longer, curvy lines to have every single bag x-rayed and some (lucky us) chosen for a search before we could leave the airport.

The Cancun airport was much easier to leave, a helpful porter carried our bags right from the curb and into line (sorry that our last 50 pesos went to the van driver, kind sir). The people behind us told of the security people who tossed all the liquids from their checked baggage; the family traveling behind them lost every full-size liquid personal care item for a family of seven in their checked baggage as well. No explanation forthcoming, just "you are not allowed this".

The security line could not have been shorter or quicker, and glory be, I've loved the sign instructing me "Do Not Remove Your Shoes". Remove my laptop? Check. Remove my coat? OK. Take out my one qt zip lock bag containing 3 oz or less of each liquid (containers cheerfully provided for me at an inflated cost by corporations delighted to cash in on that new industry) you betcha? Remove my shoes because one time some stupid slob tried unsuccessfully to blow up his Keds? I silently seethe at Dick Cheney and his stupid terror campaign but feel good that I have at least left foot powder prints all over the floor.

This whole liquids scare was started by a Bush talking head on one of the Sunday morning shows where he speculated that maybe that much liquid could contain an explosive. You know, maybe. He was paid to think up those things, I'm sure. So now somebody is paid to think this up: Boobie Bombs.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2011-07-06-bomb-implants-terrorist-airlines_n.htm?csp=YahooModule_News

How can cavity searches be far behind? What seems so silly to me is that with all the close-the-barn-door tactics we engage in, the huge money-maker that security is now (now including  the Chertoff Porno Scanners) why are we so narrowly focused on aircraft? Why not the myriad of other ways people could harm us on any city street? If you think we are safer with these procedures, how about being safe from the car or bus that might hit you tomorrow?

If you want to fly, you have to submit. Just stop telling yourself that these security procedures will buy you a few more days on this earth.

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