Eric Cantor:'That's what business does'

  Try this on for size, will you? The airlines have gotten what is basically a tax cut from the government because they cannot collect the $30 per ticket tax due to the lack of funding to the FAA. Are those airlines passing the savings which they are enjoying on to their customers? Hell no! This ploy enforces the fact that corporations are pretty much just sticking those tax cut savings into their own pockets. Have you seen any jobs being created by the Bush/Obama tax cuts? I thought not.

  Eric Cantor thinks that keeping that money is just fine and dandy.

CANTOR: And what airlines have done is have stepped in and said, well, if we’re not going to pay that money to the federal government, we’re going to keep it towards our own bottom line. And I guess that’s what business does.

 

ThinkProgress, Alex Seitz-Wald :

Oddly, Cantor seems to be unintentionally making the progressive argument about corporate taxes here. While conservatives generally argue that cutting business tax rates will lead to companies passing on savings to consumers and hiring more employees, progressives argue that corporations will just pocket much of these savings.

Technorati Tags: FAA,Airlines,Eric Cantor,Republicans,Corporations,Current Events,Politics.John Conyers

American Taliban Jobs Program?

  Why don’t you just find an FAA employee who is not working because the Republicans in the House are playing politics ( hostage taker ) over the short-term funding of a few job categories such as airplane inspection and so forth only because they are once again back into their union busting mode.

    John Boehner and the rest of the congress-critters went on their summer vacation and as a parting gift they left 74,000  workers  ( 4,000 FAA, 70,000  airport construction workers ) on a summer vacation. The difference is that the workers vacation is what is normally called unemployment. We get more of the Republicans jobs program in action.

  At this point, the Democrats are standing

firm.

Greg Sargent

The DCCC is now going on the offensive over the issue, blasting out releases in the districts of 50 House Republicans slamming them for going on recess without agreeing to the “clean” temporary reauthorization. “Representative Chip Cravaack called it quits and closed shop in Washington without resolving the FAA shutdown, which has thousands of workers on furlough, safety inspectors working without pay, and millions lost in revenue by the day,” reads the DCCC release sent out in Cravaack’s district.

 It will also deny the government over $1 billion in revenue from ticket taxes, $200 million of which has been lost already. This savings is not being passed on to consumers, however, as airlines immediately increased fares by the same amount as the tax.   WaPo

  Is this just another one of the Republicans ways to cut the deficit and to also give the government a tax break?

   The really sad thing is that Mr. Obama, being the ever resourceful Republican enabler, urged the Senate to pass the House version in order to avoid the shutdown. Senate Leader Harry Reid said no.

What the bills say: The provision Mica added to the short-term bill causing the shutdown would cut funding for the Essential Air Service program, which provides funding to rural airports that otherwise cannot sustain themselves. The long-term reauthorization passed by the House phases out funding completely for EAS. Also in that reauthorization was a provision that would reverse a regulator's ruling that airlines can unionize if an election is held and a majority of ballots favor a union — the same procedure as in most workplaces. Previously, those not voting in airline unionization elections were counted as "no" votes, an unusual practice the House bill sought to restore. The House bill would also allow more long-distance flights to Ronald Reagan National Airport, a provision opposed by Maryland and Virginia representatives who want to protect other airports’ business and avoid higher noise levels for their constituents. The Senate bill does not phase out EAS funding or reverse the union ruling, and increases flights to Reagan by a smaller amount.

Technorati Tags: FAA,The House,Republicans,American Taliban,Jobs,Unemployment,John Boehner,Harry Reid,Current Events,Politics

 

Florida Driver License Offices…

   … are a total waste of time of you need a license replacement in the same lifetime that you are now living in.

  Last week, I lost my wallet on the fine public transportation system in the Tampa, Florida metropolis. It was lost on Friday afternoon, so I could do nothing about it until Tuesday as I spent most of Monday at the Social Security office. As luck would have it, the office located closest to me has been closed down. Waste of my time. So, I hope on the bus to go to another location which happened to be closed down also. Between bus tips to these places, the day is over because of closing time at these overworked offices.

  I’m up early Wednesday morning on my way to the driver license office in order to be the near first in line. I make it! Yes! I sit around for only 30 minutes before it is my turn.

  In Florida you have to have a crap-load of info which identifies you as a real citizen of the United States. I have everything that I need since I’ve done this once before. But wait! They now want 2 proofs of residence instead of 1. Shit, back to the house I go, and it is raining.

  I get my other form of proof, go back to the driver license office, only to find out that I now need a marriage certificate. Say what? I’ve been divorced for over 30 years. Something to do with a name change. I replaced my license less than a year ago because I lost it somewhere, and I didn’t need a marriage certificate along with the other shit.

  What the hell’s the problem with this state? Give me a fucking break because you gouge the fuck out of us when we get a license in the first place. You have me on record as having a license for at least 20 years from the state of Florida so you should be able to look me up in your database/records. Are you morons not educated enough to push a few buttons on that keyboard in front of you, or is it that you still haven’t mastered your “ Hooked On Phonics “ system yet? Seven and a half hours of wasted time with you clowns is more than enough.

  Another thing? Is the budget cuts from governor Scott so bad now that you cannot afford to hire a live person to talk to when it is necessary. That automated bullshit is great when you don’t need anything other than basic information, for the rest, it’s bullshit.

  Florida is bullshit. The assholes at Tampa driver license office, one in particular, are incompetent.  FUCK YOU ALL!!!!

Technorati Tags: Florida,Tampa,Driver License,Current Events

Trojan Horse: The Obama Deception

     America, we have been screwed over by President Obama once again! From this point on, I will be calling him either Barack or Mr. Obama with full disrespect intended.

  Original Article

H/T to my old friend TocqueDeville who saw this ruse for what it was long before I did.

I have resisted writing this for a long time. I didn't want to believe it myself. But the fact is, we've been had. Anyone who believed that Barack Obama ever intended to be 'the change President' in a way that would make Democrats proud and our nation a better place has been cruelly betrayed.

”The Republicans, Speaker Boehner or Majority Leader Cantor did not call for Social Security cuts in the budget deal. The President of the United States called for that.”

John Conyers

H/T to my old friend Edger for the Conyers quote and linked video

This shameful attack on entitlements was an underhanded deception from the beginning. Entitlements add to the deficit in much the same way that we invaded Iraq for 9/11 - which Leon Panetta, Obama's Sec/Def, swears is true. These bastards don't even try to tell credible lies anymore. They just make shit up...and take what they want.

In many crucial areas, he has done more to subvert and weaken the left's political agenda than a GOP president could have dreamed of achieving. So potent, so overarching, are tribal loyalties in American politics that partisans will support, or at least tolerate, any and all policies their party's leader endorses - even if those policies are ones they long claimed to loathe. This dynamic has repeatedly emerged in numerous contexts. Obama has continued Bush/Cheney terrorism policies - once viciously denounced by Democrats - of indefinite detention, renditions, secret prisons by proxy, and sweeping secrecy doctrines. He has gone further than his predecessor by waging an unprecedented war on whistleblowers. And now he is devoting all of his presidential power to cutting the entitlement programmes that have been the defining hallmark of the Democratic party since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

Glenn Greenwald: Obama Gutting Core Principles of Democratic Party

This latest abomination shows our government for what it is – outright enemies of the American people. More importantly, it shows Obama for who he is, a willing dupe and loyal servant of the rightwing corporate plutocracy. Let's take a look at just a few elements of his legacy so far:

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove on national television bragging about torture and their other crimes against humanity. They are carefree. They've been given a Presidential pass. So much for justice or human decency in America.

Renewal of the shameful, destructive and idiotic Bush tax cuts for billionaires.

America occupying Afghanistan for 10 years and counting. Total estimated cost of unnecessary wars = $3 to 4 TRILLION.

American troops hunting Afghans for sport.

US soldier admits killing unarmed Afghans for sport

Jeremy Morlock, 23, tells US military court he was part of a 'kill team' that faked combat situations to murder Afghan civilians

Didn't even try for single-payer. Took it off the table preemptively. Unilaterally.

The Military Industrial Complex continues to bankrupt the nation to pay for their stupid and immoral wars. The only thing Obama has done about this is to step it up. He immediately reappointed Bush's Sec/Def. Bob Gates for crying out loud.

Fabricated bogus rape charges against Julian Assange for the high crime of telling us the damned truth (and don't say the Obama administration had nothing to do with it - you know damned well they did). And tortured Bradley Manning for the same egregious offense.

Continued and unremitting persecution of whistleblowers. Just ask Jesselyn Radack.

The largest corporation in the world, Exxon-Mobil, earned $18 billion in profits and received a $156 million tax REFUND.

Bailed out crooked banksters with sixteen-trillion dollars of OUR money, and then refused to tell us where the money went.

Multimillion dollar Wall Street bonuses paid with taxpayer money after we rescued them from their own incompetence and thievery.

The richest 2% getting $850 billion in tax cuts while the rest of us are losing our jobs, our homes and our hope for the future.

Goldman Sachs paying 1% in taxes on their obscene and ill-gotten profits.

The brutal rape of the poor by the rich hasn't missed a beat.

A Democratic Party distinguishable from the Republican Party only by their rhetoric.

Dismissing Richard Holbrooke's dying words to our nation as a joke.

Holbrooke's Last Words On Afghanistan Clarified As Being Part Of A Humorous Exchange By Obama Administration

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said Tuesday that the reported last words of veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke, its point person on Afghanistan and Pakistan who passed away this week, were meant as humor.

Administration officials sought to clarify that, according to people who were present, Holbrooke's final words, "You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan," were part of a jovial back-and-forth with the medical staff.

And now this odious piece of excrement. He gave the Republicans everything they ever wanted and then some on a silver platter. This vicious attack on the American people would never have happened without Obama leading the charge.

”The Republicans, Speaker Boehner or Majority Leader Cantor did not call for Social Security cuts in the budget deal. The President of the United States called for that.”

John Conyers

If Obama were merely incompetent we could say that he's a disappointment. But he's not incompetent and he's not merely a disappointment – he's a willing traitor to the American people. He has betrayed the movement that brought him into office. It's as simple and awful as that.

Hope? Change? We were fools to ever believe it.

So don't call Obama a moderate. Don't call him a centrist. Don't call him a blue dog. Call him what he is...a Republican.

Technorati Tags: Progressives,Democrats,Republicans,Barack Obama,Current Events,Politics.John Conyers