Election Lies About Taxes…

 

….and this time we are going to look at a few of the lies that the Democratic Party has been airing over the past few weeks. We’ll pick on the Republicans later on.

   FactCheck.Org

A New Twist on an Old Tax Attack

Democrats continue misusing tax pledge, but this time against a gubernatorial candidate.

October 8, 2010

 

Summary

Democrats and their allies can’t get enough of the Americans for Tax Reform tax pledge — which, as we’ve reported, they’ve falsely equated in a number of ads with "protecting tax loopholes for companies that ship jobs overseas." Still, Democrats continue to use the bogus charge against Republicans, including in West Virginia’s Senate race and House races in Connecticut, New York, Maryland and the state of Washington, to name a few.

And now, there’s a new twist on the false tax attack in the Massachusetts’ gubernatorial campaign. A labor-financed political committee accuses Republican Charlie Baker of "favoring tax loopholes that encourage corporations to ship our jobs overseas" and signing "a pledge to protect those loopholes." However, the pledge for gubernatorial candidates — a single sentence promising to oppose or veto any new state taxes — is different than the one for federal candidates, so the attack on Baker makes even less sense.

Analysis

We first wrote about the misuse of ATR’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge in April, when the Democrats tried to hold on to Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District in a special election. We  correctly predicted it would be a "prototype of future attack ads."

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s ad falsely accused Republican candidate Charles Kong Djou of signing a pledge "that protects tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas." The Democratic spin: If you sign the pledge, then you oppose closing tax loopholes, an act that would raise taxes on U.S.-based corporations with foreign operations.

But, as we said at the time, the pledge a) says nothing about jobs, and b) does not rule out an overhaul of the tax code. So signers could vote to close tax loopholes and lower taxes elsewhere without violating the tax pledge. Here’s what the pledge says:

ATR’s Pledge for House and Senate Candidates

I will:

ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and

TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

The Democrats’ attack on Djou failed, and he became the first Republican to represent President Obama’s home state in Congress in 20 years. But that didn’t deter the Democrats.

More Faulty Logic

The most curious misuse of the pledge comes from Bay State Future — a recently formed 527 political organization funded by Service Employees International Union, the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the Democratic Governors Association.

Bay State’s ad — which first aired Sept. 28 — targets Charlie Baker, Republican candidate for governor in Massachusetts. It opens by asking the question, "Worried about jobs?" The ad then goes on to describe how Baker favors tax loopholes that encourage companies to ship jobs overseas and "even signed a pledge to protect those loopholes." The group cites the ATR pledge to support its claim.

⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full transcript ⬏

Bay State Future TV Ad: “Goodbye Jobs”

Announcer: Worried about jobs? Well, Charlie Baker favors tax loopholes that encourage corporations to ship our jobs overseas. He even signed a pledge to protect those loopholes. So if Charlie Baker gets his way, ‘goodbye jobs, auf wiedersehen, bon voyage.’

But the pledge for candidates for governor is even more straightforward than the one for congressional candidates:

ATR’s Pledge for Gubernatorial Candidates

"I, (name of candidate), pledge to the taxpayers of the state of (name of state) that I will oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes."

How can a simple no-new-taxes pledge encourage companies to ship jobs overseas?

In a memo defending the ad, Bay State Future cites an aviation bill passed by Congress this summer that included additional aid to states for education and Medicaid. "The bill was paid for partially by closing tax loopholes that encouraged corporations to ship American jobs overseas," the group says in its defense. "Charlie Baker, by signing the Americans for Tax Reform Taxpayer Protection Pledge has aligned himself with their platform and policies, which has [sic] opposed measures that would prevent outsourcing of American jobs overseas."

That logic is baffling to us on a number of levels:

• Baker isn’t running for Congress.
• Baker didn’t sign a pledge that "protects those loopholes," since they are in federal law. He took a pledge to oppose and veto any state taxes.
• Bay State Future is holding Baker responsible for a pledge he didn’t sign.
• The bill cited by Bay State Future makes no mention whatsoever of jobs overseas.

According to Bloomberg News, the bill at issue "clamps down on what Democrats call the abuse of tax credits for multinational corporations intended to ensure income earned abroad isn’t taxed twice, by both the U.S. Treasury and a foreign government." That is, if a company has headquarters in the U.S. and has operations in a foreign country, then the tax code allows that company to separate income earned abroad from income earned on U.S. soil. The bill would suspend these measures and tax overall income, regardless of where it was earned, in order to send additional aid to states. This, of course, results in a net increase in corporate taxes with no dollar-for-dollar reductions anywhere else, which is why ATR opposed the measure.

But forget all that. Even if the bill did close tax loopholes that "encourage corporations to ship our jobs overseas," it is irrelevant to Baker and the tax pledge he signed.

We expected, as we said in April, that we would see this line of attack "against nearly any Republican House candidate, all but a few of whom have signed the anti-tax pledge in question." But we didn’t expect to see it against a candidate for governor.

And, yes, we were right: House and Senate GOP candidates who signed the pledge continue to get hit with this line of attack. Here are some of the latest examples:

Chris Murphy for Congress TV Ad: "Hide," aired Sept. 30-Oct. 2

⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full transcript ⬏

Chris Murphy for Congress TV Ad: “Hide”

Announcer: Some politicians try to hide who they are. Sam Caligiuri says he’s a fiscal conservative, but ran Waterbury into financial ruin as a city leader. To cover the mess he passed a 10 million dollar tax increase, the largest in city history. Now Caligiuri is helping his corporate donors by pledging to protect tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas. Sam Caliguiri, a politician who can’t hide anymore.

DSCC TV Ad: "Opposes," aired Sept. 28

⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full transcript ⬏

DSCC TV Ad: “Opposes”

Announcer: John Raese, he wants to eliminate the minimum wage; failed to pay workers compensation for on-the-job injuries. One thing John Raese does support? A pledge that protected tax breaks for coporations who ship our jobs overseas. It’s true. Protecting tax breaks that reward corporations for sending our jobs overseas. West Virginia working families, we can do better. And we have to. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is responsible for this message.

Bill Owens for Congress TV Ad: "Moved Here," aired Sept. 28-Oct. 3

⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full transcript ⬏

Bill Owens for Congress TV Ad: “Moved Here”

Announcer: Matt Doheny moved here from New York City to run for Congress. So what don’t we know about Matt Doheny? As a Wall Street investment banker, Matt Doheny restructured Adelphia Communications. Top executives got thirty-five million in bonuses while he laid off five hundred American workers. No wonder Matt Doheny signed a pledge to protect tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas. That’s the way they do it on Wall Street.

Kratovil for Congress TV Ad: "Deregulation," aired Oct. 1-3

⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full transcript ⬏

Kratovil for Congress TV Ad: “Deregulation”

Announcer: The real Andy Harris. His past attacks have been called deceptive. His new attack, false. Harris voted for deregulation, increasing our electric bills by 72 percent. It’s not suprising, Harris always sides with the big guys. He opposes cracking down on Wall Street. And supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Harris even opposed making big insurance cover cancer screenings. Andy Harris’ extreme ideas will cost us.

Denny Heck for Congress TV Ad: "Pledge," aired Sept. 28

⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full transcript ⬏

Denny Heck for Congress TV Ad: “Pledge”

Announcer: Some ideas are just crazy, like the false, out-of-state attacks against Denny Heck. News media call them misleading. The trusted AARP says the new health care plan would not cut Medicare benefits period. Meanwhile, politician Jaime Herrera pledged to support tax breaks that reward corporations for outsourcing our jobs overseas. Jaime Herra pledging tax breaks for shipping Washington state jobs to China and Mexico? That’s not just crazy, it’s dangerous to our economy.

– by Joshua Goldman and Eugene Kiely

 

Technorati Tags: Bill Owens,Charlie Baker,Chris Murphy,Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee,Denny Heck,Frank Kratovil,Taxes,Mid Term Elections

The Health Care Lies Spread By Republicans Running For Office…

 

…are not few and far between. Of course, you already knew that if you have been watching the latest barrage of commercials on television over the past week. We have some downright ridicules ones down here in the state of Florida, but let’s go elsewhere, shall we?

  The 2 gentlemen running for the Senate ( Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin,GOP businessman  John Raese)   in West Virginia had a debate on October 18 and of course, they sparred over “Obamacare” as was expected.   Mr.Raese was certainly spitting out the half-truths and outright lies about the Obama health care bill, but THIS  answer to a questioner took the cake.

A questioner asked Raese: "You have said you want to repeal the health care legislation Congress passed earlier this year. What is it about this new law specifically that you do not like?"
Raese jumped right in. "Well, I don't like socialism, to tell you the truth, and when you have a doctor-patient relationship -- that's the way it's supposed to be, and that's the way we have the greatest health care system in the world, and that's the way it is right now," Raese said. "That's all going to change because from here on out under Obamacare, something Gov. Manchin has always supported, you're going to have a patient-bureaucrat relationship, because the first person that patient has to go to is a bureaucrat. That is called a panel. I disagree with it. ... I'd like to repeal every part of it, because it is pure, unadulterated socialism. It is the worst bill ever to come out of the U.S. Senate and House."

    So is there any truth to this jackoff’s claim?

Politifact

Here's how the Kaiser Family Foundation -- an independent health-care research group -- summarized the 15-member Independent Payment Advisory Board.
The board would "submit legislative proposals containing recommendations to reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending if spending exceeds a target growth rate." If Medicare spending is found to exceed certain inflation benchmarks, the board, beginning in January 2014, "will submit recommendations to achieve reductions in Medicare spending." Then, beginning January 2018, if the appropriate inflation targets are not met, the board will submit proposals to the president and Congress for immediate consideration."
However, Kaiser Family Foundation adds that the board "is prohibited from submitting proposals that would ration care, increase revenues or change benefits, eligibility or Medicare beneficiary cost sharing (including Parts A and B premiums), or would result in a change in the beneficiary premium percentage or low-income subsidies under Part D. Hospitals and hospices (through 2019) and clinical labs (for one year) will not be subject to cost reductions proposed by the board. The board must also submit recommendations every other year to slow the growth in national health expenditures while preserving quality of care by January 1, 2015."
So the board is real. And Cornyn and his allies may have a case to make that the IPAB is a bad idea or poorly designed. Still, we don't see how its existence justifies Raese's statement.
-- The board's purview is limited to Medicare. Patients who have employer-provided health care, Medicaid or insurance through the health care exchange would not be affected at all by the board.
-- The board's powers are advisory. The board can only make recommendations, and it is expressly prohibited from anything that would "ration care, increase revenues or change benefits, eligibility or Medicare beneficiary cost sharing ... or (change) the beneficiary premium percentage or low-income subsidies" in the Medicare drug benefit.
-- The board doesn't interact with patients. The board is supposed to do big thinking about cost-containment, not judge individual patients to determine whether they qualify for care. The changes that it suggests to the president and Congress could eventually, many years hence, shape how care is provided. But it's a major stretch to say that under the new law "the first person (a) patient has to go to is a bureaucrat."
-- Patients didn't live in a bureacracy-fee paradise before the health care law passed. Today, patients may need to check with an insurance company before undergoing a procedure or making a visit to the specialist. If an employer's HR department decides to change health care plans, a worker may have to drop a doctor or give up benefits. And employers can eliminate health insurance entirely, or drive up the cost of premiums, either of which could intefere with a patient's health care.
Though the Raese camp didn't mention it, we'll also pre-emptively dismiss any notion that the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute -- another entity created by the bill -- could wedge "bureaucrats" between a doctor and a patient. This institute, which would conduct research that compares the clinical effectiveness of medical treatments, is at least as controversial, if not more so, since it fed critics' fears that the bill could result in the rationing of health care services. However, the law prevents the institute's findings from being considered mandates.
When we sent Raese's comment around to health care experts, they universally said he overreached.
"This is purely ridiculous," said Linda Blumberg, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Urban Institute. "Nothing changes in that respect relative to today’s system."
"Choices, if anything, will be enhanced through the exchanges, with a much clearer description of what plans cover and their cost-sharing requirements," said Sara Collins, vice president of the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund's Program on Affordable Health Insurance. "In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services has to certify that qualified plans offered through the exchanges have adequate provider networks."
Henry Aaron, a senior fellow with the centrist-to-liberal Brookings Institution, called the statement a "rant, appalling if based on ignorance, and mendacious if uttered knowingly."
Even a major critic of the health care bill said he thought Raese went too far. "As bad as I think this bill is, I don’t see that anywhere in it," said Michael Tanner, a health care specialist at the libertarian Cato Institute.
We usually accept a bit of overstatement if it's in the vein of artistic license. But Raese's statement is a gross distortion, along the lines of his subsequent claim that the law is "pure, unadulterated socialism." (The law preserves the private-sector health care insurance for most Americans who already have it, and lawmakers rejected a single-payer model early on.) We see Raese's claim as yet another attempt to demonize the health care law by twisting the facts beyond recognition. We rate it Pants on Fire.

 

Technorati Tags: West Virginia,Obamacare,Health Care Bill,Gov. Joe Manchin,John Raese,Politifact,Senate Races,IPAB,Kaiser Family Foundation Independent Payment Advisory Board,News

Panhandlers In Tampa Bay…

 

…are most certainly a dime a dozen in this area. Everywhere that one walks or drives will run into panhandlers at almost every major intersection in this town. You cannot get away from these people!

    I bring this topic up because a few days ago the Tampa City Council decided that it was just fine and dandy for this group to come up to drivers in order to get cash from them. Now, they cannot ask the drivers for the cash so they stand in the intersections middle island while holding up signs that read “will work for food” or “hungry,thanks for the help” with the usual “God bless you” at the bottom.

    This would usually not bother me,but the local clowns here in government are using the excuse that the economy is bad and that many folks here in the area have some cash to spare. I’m fine with that also as those of us who can should be trying to help others less fortunate.

    Many of these panhandlers are out in the intersections on Sunday selling newspapers for a little extra change in their pockets. I have no problem with that either as I’ve done that a few times myself. The extra $30 to $70 comes in handy on weeks when the bills are coming due.

    It is the other 6 days of the week that I have a problem with especially since most of those out doing this are panhandling for their beer and/or crack habits, not for food or rent money. Many of the same just happen to be getting checks from the government for either S.S.I. or S.S.D. from Social Security. I know of more than one who get their checks on the 3rd of the month and who are flat broke by the 6th or 7th of the month because they have smoked their checks up in crack and have drank the money up. Then they go out and harass the drivers for cash to help them support their habits. This is bullshit.

    Tampa Bay Online

"There are enough distractions on the roads," said Frank Ehnle of Brandon. "Having to deal with panhandlers or vendors standing in the middle of intersection or at off ramps is yet another ridiculous distraction that impairs driving and affects traffic."

Staff photo by KATY KUEHNER

City officials have blamed St. Petersburg's solicitation ban, as well as the impact of the economic recession, for the recent increase in panhandling on the city's roadways.

     More Here

Dozens of newspaper "hawkers" packed council chambers, urging the council not to ban median solicitation, saying such a move would put hundreds of people out of work.

"You don't realize how many people you'll be putting on the unemployment line," said Sonia Long, a hawker for both The Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times.

    Bullshit! they only do this one day a week. That does very little for those folks trying to actually buy food or pay a bill.

Technorati Tags: T.B.O.,Tampa,Florida,Panhandlers,Peddlers,Pam Iorio,Tampa City Council,Current Events,News

Did The Stimulus Create Any Employment?

   Well, of course it did but you would not know it when listening to the Republicans talking. the GOP had made it plain after Barack Obama and the Democrats took over that they would do anything possible to make sure that Obama got nothing done while in the White House, and they have kept their word. So now,with the mid-terms only a few short weeks away the Democrats are looking at some pretty good losses in both the House and the Senate because no one paid attention to the “dead” Republican party which would not see a return to any sort of power in the near future. The Democratic party has been sleeping at the wheel and so have the American people. This is what the Republicans can count on year after year.

    Here are the Republicans at work spreading their falsehoods.

FastCheck

The economic stimulus package is a favorite target of Republican candidates and groups, but more than a few ads falsely claim it did not create or save any jobs. Some recent examples:

• Republican House candidate Dan Debicella charges that Democratic Rep. Jim Himes failed Connecticut’s families because he voted for a "stimulus package that has done nothing to reduce unemployment."
• Rick Scott, the Republican candidate for governor in Florida, says Democrat Alex Sink "backed the failed stimulus bill, which created debt, not jobs."
• Similarly, Sink — who never served in Congress and didn’t vote on the bill — is attacked by the Republican Party of Florida in an ad that says the stimulus "gave us big debt and no jobs."
• Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group that does not have to disclose its donors, aired an ad against Democratic congressional candidate Denny Heck of Washington that claimed the "$787 billion stimulus … failed to save and create jobs." The group has launched similar ads against other Democrats.
• Kristi Noem, a Republican House candidate from South Dakota, calls the measure a "jobless stimulus."

The truth is that the stimulus increased employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million people, compared with what employment would have been otherwise. That’s according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

 

Analysis

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more commonly known as the stimulus bill, has been featured in more than 130 TV ads this year, according to a database maintained by Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group. In many of those ads, Republicans claim the bill has "failed" (a matter of opinion) or state (correctly) that unemployment has gone up since President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on Feb. 17, 2009. The national unemployment rate was 8.2 percent in February 2009, and it now stands at 9.6 percent, having peaked at 10.1 percent in October 2009.

But it’s just false to say that the stimulus created "no jobs" or "failed to save and create jobs" or "has done nothing to reduce unemployment" – or similar claims that the stimulus did not produce any jobs.

As we have written before, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a report in August that said the stimulus bill has "[l]owered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points" and "[i]ncreased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million."

Simply put, more people would be unemployed if not for the stimulus bill. The exact number of jobs created and saved is difficult to estimate, but nonpartisan economists say there’s no doubt that the number is positive.

 

Technorati Tags: Fastcheck.Org,Republicans,Democrats,Midterm elections,Politics,News,American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,Stmulus Bill,Jobs,Employment

Is America A Scared Country?

   Posted at Watching America

A Frightened Superpower

By Ansgar Graw
Translated By Ron Argentati

Edited by Sam Carter

9/11, the economic crisis, China: Americans are afraid. For the first time, their pioneer spirit seems to have reached its limits.
Jokes about German Anxiety were popular for many years in the English-speaking world. In past decades, Germans in the old Federal Republic worried about Soviet nuclear weaponry and worried even more about their ally America and the upgrades to their own nuclear arsenal. After that, Germans feared a new ice age, acid rain, dying forests, nuclear energy and the greenhouse effect. “German Angst” was defined in American dictionaries as the German propensity for brooding and insecurity.
But almost unnoticed, the term “Angst” got separated from the modifier “German” some years ago. How the Germans managed the east-west reunification of their nation, their approach to reforming social systems and the deployment of German troops to Afghanistan all contributed to the decline of the German stereotype that, according to the lyric poet Hölderlin, was “all thought but little action.”

  The Chinese want to take over the world:
Meanwhile, insecurity has spread throughout the United States; it’s an insecurity that just doesn’t befit a 20th century world superpower. Americans are anxious. Not only do they fear terrorists; they’re afraid of Islam and even mosques, whether they’re near ground zero or in the backwoods of Tennessee. They’re afraid of Sharia law, something that a whole two percent of American Muslims would like to see included in the U.S. Constitution. They fear India, free trade and, above all, they’re afraid of China. A salesman at Sears sighs, “This vacuum cleaner is made in China and so is this microwave and even this coffee pot. The Chinese want to take over the world. I hope I’m not around to see that.”
Americans are afraid that the United Nations is interfering in their affairs. They’re afraid that Europe, and especially Germany, exports too much. Americans are afraid of illegal immigrants as well as Wall Street; afraid of big government at the same time they fear the government is too weak to protect them. They fear progress and they fear stagnation. They fear more of Obama and they fear a return of George W. Bush.

America Has Always Suffered Setbacks:
With all the despondency apparent in the debate, the United States no longer reminds us of the nation that was victorious in two world wars; a nation that eradicated the Soviet Union with a Cold War; a country that landed men on the moon and paved the way for the Internet and the digital revolution.
The fact that the U.S.’s attempts to export democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan have failed so far were setbacks. But setbacks have been common throughout American history. The Sputnik shock and Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight seemed to signal the final triumph of communism over capitalism in the ‘50s and ‘60s. But instead of becoming paralyzed, the United States came back with the Apollo space program. Neither the defeat in Vietnam nor the humiliating Iranian takeover of their embassy in Tehran was enough to send the American people into post-traumatic soul-searching.

Callers Were Asked Whether They Spoke English or Spanish

So what’s different now? Why do Americans, whom Robert Kagan described as being from Mars, now come off whinier than the Europeans, whom he decreed came from Venus? Is it because of the global financial crisis that put an end to the belief in limitless growth? Or is it because of the ongoing diversification of society? People calling government offices or large firms in America get an answering machine that inquires whether they speak English or Spanish.
Many Americans worry, “Where has the real America gone?” And the tea party, which came about as an outgrowth of the conservative longing for easily understood differences, frightens those progressives who feel reforms aren’t coming quickly enough.

“Real Americans” Are a Disappearing Breed

In this patchwork nation, “real Americans” are hard to find. But there is something called an average American whose principal trait is eternal optimism. Even American traditionalists have always been forward rather than backward looking. But these days, many Americans are losing faith in tomorrow due to their country’s economic weakness and the rise of new powerhouses, mainly in Asia. For the first time in history, the American pioneer spirit seems to have hit a brick wall geographically, globally, economically and ideologically.
The United States needs new goals. Americans need to go from being large-scale consumers to being exporters again; they need to create new jobs — in the renewable energy sector, for instance. They need to use their super powers to integrate Hispanics and Muslims into their society. It won’t be an easy task, but mastering “American Angst” is an absolute necessity, not only for the U.S. but for Europe as well.

 

CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL VERSION

 

Technorati Tags: america,United States,Robert Kagan<Europe,China,Muslim,Hispanic,Economy,Unemployment

Angry voters? Less Government Programs?

  Then of course, there’s the media trying to get you all to believe that there are many voters who buy into the Tea Party line of bullshit. That’s where this comes in.

Cracks in the Media Frame Propping Up the Tea Party?

by Project Vote

Mon Oct 11, 2010 a

Cross-posted to Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters.

Three weeks after reviewing (and deciding not to cover) Project Vote’s major new survey documenting how out of step the Tea Party’s anti-government agenda is with mainstream voters, the Washington Post has released their own poll confirming many of our findings.

Yesterday the Post reported that their own new survey finds—as Project Vote’s poll did—that there is strong support for government programs that provide a social safety net and protect ordinary people from the predations of the market. "Although Republicans, and many Democrats, have tried to demonize Washington," write Jon Cohen and Dan Balz, "they must contend with the fact that most major government programs remain enormously popular..."

According to the Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University poll, large majorities among the public say that Medicare (96 percent), Social Security (95 percent), food stamps (82 percent), federal aid to public schools (91 percent), unemployment benefits (91 percent) and environmental protection (89 percent) are important government programs. For the functions served by these government programs, large majorities also say they want to see more federal government involvement, not less. For example, 64 percent of respondents said they want to see more federal government involvement in reducing poverty; 61 percent want more government involvement in protecting the environment; and 52 percent want more government involvement in ensuring access to health care. And as our own survey found, presented with a choice, more people want government to spend more now to create jobs and improve the economy (50 percent) than do those who want government to avoid increasing the federal deficit (46 percent).

We undertook our survey of attitudes toward government not knowing what we would find. All we were sure of was that, given our long-standing work in minority and low income communities to encourage voter participation, we were skeptical of the idea promoted by the myopic press coverage of the rise of the Tea Party movement that the majority of Americans share the Tea Party’s strong and angry anti-government views.

Our survey findings were startling, even to us (see, What Happened to Hope and Change? A Poll of 2008 Voters). When we released our poll, we hoped for wide interest among the mainstream media because we thought the story about the silent majority who do not appear to agree with the Tea Party was a blockbuster. This story is urgent because it adds significant new information to the important public debate over the role of government, a story that affects us all.

But it has been a difficult story to convince the media to tell. For more than a year now, the media’s fascination with an apparently "angry" public rising up against alleged government tyranny has seemingly taken priority over the first principles of responsible (objective) journalism. The spectacle of older white people dressing up in Revolutionary War garb and railing against "Obamacare," has held many in the mainstream media hostage to their own prejudices. And the herd mentality of our modern, 24-hour news cycle has only made things worse. By locking in the distorted-but-dominant media frame on the Tea Party as representative of the electorate, the skepticism we expect from good journalism has been locked out. As a result, the mainstream media has not just reported or investigated the news: in beating the drum, it has unwittingly emerged as a vital supporting player, playing in the rise of the Tea Party movement itself.

That said, we are encouraged by the Washington Post’s initiative in digging beneath the surface of apparent voter anger to independently confirm our findings about attitudes toward government. The complexities and contradictions of public opinion that they find should spur on further good journalism. Though our two surveys were designed to be representative of different populations—ours is representative of the 2008 electorate, while theirs is representative of the public at-large—our findings converge in the evidence of a counter-narrative to the Tea Party’s rant. Both surveys reveal significant support for more, not less, government action to address the big problems facing ordinary Americans today.

 

Technorati Tags: News,FoxNews,The Media,Tea Party,Angry Voters,Government,DailyKos,Politics

Test Post

   Once again, Live Writer is having a seizure!!

My Alcoholic Friend:Final Chapter

Just how much crap is one supposed to take from a sorry-assed person before one says “enough?”

As many of you know from a few past postings of mine, I've been involved with a female who happens to be a hardcore alcoholic with a few mental problems. By involved I do not mean in any type of sexual involvement. That would be the farthest thing from my mind as I have a very low tolerance for drinkers in general.

No, I have wasted my time in trying to help this woman get her act together, and i have just recently realized that I’ve been getting the worst side of the deal. I found this woman living out in the streets and she happened to be doing a little food-stamps sales and a little bit of whoring around with the old men at a county complex in order to pay for her beer habit. All of her so-called friends are nothing but low-life crack heads and pill poppers and alcoholics to top it off. She’d rather listen to those bums than to hear anything that someone who cares about her has to say.

Enough is enough! I’ve had all that i am going to put up with. We’ve been sharing a place for the past 3 months and for the most part it has been a horror story. I leave for work at 6 in the morning and all that she did was lay around drinking that nasty Natural Ice crap which no one in their right mind would consider as a beer. It had got to the point that she’d be drinking when I went to bed at night and she would still be drinking,or drunk, when I got up in the morning. there were burn holes on the couch and beer cans knocked over on the floor with beer still in them. She wouldn’t remember what was said to her only a few hours earlier,much less days before.

She finally did do something that I’d been trying to get her to do for at least the past 10 months. She was getting tired of waking up with the shakes every morning from alcohol withdrawals so she decided to go into a county detox program. I thought that was a good thing and her tri[up to detox lasted for a week before she was released. Sunday,October 9 would have been three weeks for her having been sober. Like I said,would have been. She got a little angry at me earlier in the evening because I got on her a little bit for not restocking the refrigerator with some soda.

That is no big deal but I am a diabetic and I keep cases of diet drinks around the house,which are normally drank by only myself. I keep at least 10 cans in the fridge because I do not like having to drink a warm can of soda when I want one. Ice? That would be great if not for the fact that when I go for ice, the trays are in the freezer and usually empty.

I told her to put some cans in the fridge after she removed the last one, and she got an attitude over it. I usually do it 99% of the time, so if one time killed her to do it, then I have no use for her. So she left about 6 hours ago and just recently sent me a text saying that she was staying at a friends for the night. It don’t work that way in my place. We had an agreement that we do not stay out overnight for any reason. This is an infraction that I will not except since her friend are pretty much worthless when it comes to doing anything of value for anyone.

She called me up a little after the text, and it was very obvious that she was drinking. said she wasn’t coming home and then spat out a lot of obscenities before I hung up.

I AM FINISHED with this creature. She knows now that when she shows up on Sunday that her belongings will be outside on the porch. I’ve had my fill and I've much better things to do with my time.

Readers, you do not know the half of what I’ve gone through with this creature, so many of you will call me an asshole or even worse. I do not really care as it is my sanity that is on the line here.

Friday Funnies' Late Release

 

   I’m running a little late today with my political humor post only because I am still updating all of my files and website bookmarks. This happens after your operating system self destructs for no apparent reason.

   Anyway, tonight, or this morning depending on where you are at, I am doing something a little different. Instead of the better jokes from the late-night shows, I am bringing you a few of the better bumper stickers that are making the rounds this midterm election season. Enjoy them!

    Political Humor.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

   you can go and check out much more of this stuff  right here.

 

Technorati Tags: Political Humor,Politics,Elections,Republicans,Democrats,Bumper Stickers,Current Events

Floridians And Taxes

 

     I found an interesting article in one of our local newspapers this morning, but i cannot find it in their online edition.

    Anyway,Pew Research Center did a survey with the people of Florida and found that some 70% of the residents have no problem with paying higher taxes in order to keep their current level of funding for the states kindergarten thru 12th grade schools. from what I've seen around the Tampa Bay area, they may want to also request an educational bailout from the federal government.

    54% of those who were asked said that they would also favor a tax increase in order to keep health and human services at the current funding level,and 69% say that they would approve of a tax increase on alcohol and cigarettes. they just had one of those not to far back.

    So, Florida residents. how about a tax increase to keep your public libraries open and another increase to keep your police departments operating at near full capacity, at least? While I’m at it, lets raise some taxes so that your sorry group of city council members do not need to take a furlough day.

 

Technorati Tags: Pew Research Center,Tampa,Florida,Economy,Polling,Taxes,Tax Increases,News,Current Events

Computer Crash

 

   The Windows 7 Ultimate which I normally run caught some sort of nasty virus (?) the other day and I lost all of my files and I even lost the operating system. Naturally, I cannot find my Windows 7 disk, so I had to revert back to windows xp for the time being.

   No posting from me for at least this day as I am still tweaking my computer. Have a great day folks!

Technorati Tags: Windows 7 Ultimate,Blogs,Computer,Crashes

Tourist Bitten By Water Moccasin At An Orlando Hotel Pool

 

   I was going to write about all of those great attack ads that are now appearing on television sets in the state of Florida,but, when I ran across this story, I thought that it would be more interesting than reading about Charlie Christ, Mark Rubio, or the rest of the battlefield members. Plenty of time for those jerkoffs.

   Tampa Bay Online

Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman John Mulhall says a crew responded to a 911 call Monday afternoon about a man bitten by a snake near a swimming pool at the J.W. Marriott Grande Lakes resort in Orlando.

The fire rescue crew found and killed the water moccasin after transporting Geisman to the hospital.

Geisman's sister-in-law tells the Orlando Sentinel that Geisman was bitten on the ankle as he was walking with his wife.

Lynn Arruda says her brother-in-law and his wife were visiting Orlando for a food management conference.

   Maybe the snake thought he was supposed to take a little taste of the food himself?

 

Technorati Tags: TBO,Orlando,J.W.Marriott Grande Lakes,Resort,Water Moccasin,Snakebite,Current Events

Angry Voters Not Likely To Decide the Midterms…

 

….and that bit of info will probably piss the Tea Party group of fools off a little bit. That won’t make the GOP all that happy either,which means that they’ll have to revamp their election strategies and come up with some more inaccurate info to use against their Democrat rivals. That puts the FoxNews group into overtime.

NewsWeek

But the NEWSWEEK Poll's most revealing finding is that despite months of media coverage insisting that voters are "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore," anger is unlikely to decide this year's elections. For starters, self-described angry voters constitute only 23 percent of the electorate, and there's no reason to believe that they're more likely to cast ballots in November than their calmer peers. Why? Because the percentage of angry voters who say they will definitely vote in the midterms is statistically indistinguishable from the overall percentage of voters who say the same thing (84 percent vs. 81 percent). In fact, majorities of voters say they would not be more likely to vote for candidates who express anger at Washington incumbents (60 percent), Wall Street bankers (52 percent), the illegal-immigration problem (53 percent), the Gulf of Mexico oil spill (65 percent), or health-care reform (55 percent).  Fifty-three percent of voters see Obama's unemotional approach to politics—his "coolness"—as a positive, versus only 39 percent who don't.

 

Technorati Tags: Neewsweek,Polling,Democrat,Republican,Midterm,Elections,Angry Voters,Tea Party,Barack Obama,News,Politics

Florida Race For Governor Is A Tossup…

 

  …as of Fridays polling results conducted by RasmussenReports, one of the finer polling organizations in the country. New comer Rick Scott  (R) is holding a very slight lead over political pro and Democrat Alex Sink.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Florida finds Scott with 46% of the vote, while Sink’s support stands at 41% when leaners are included. Five percent (5%) favor some other candidate in the race, and seven percent (7%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

That’s little changed from Scott’s six-point edge a week ago, but enough to move the race back from Leans Republican to Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Gubernatorial Scorecard. At the beginning of September, the candidates were essentially tied.

   What a choice to choose from! A former top dog at a healthcare corporation who somehow managed to avoid being convicted of fraud against the government, and a woman who just doesn’t get it either when it comes to what the working people of the state really need.

   The campaign theme on both side are more “tax cuts” and less  government spending. Where have you heard that shit before?

   “None of the above” may be my choice this election season.

Technorati Tags: Florida,Governor,Alex Sink,Rick Scott,Election,Politics,Government,News,Rasmussen,None of the above

America Is Bleeding And The World Is Watching…

 

…and that isn’t a joke, folks. For those of you who may not know it, not all of the rest of the world is third-world. In fact, when it come to healthcare and a somewhat better standard of living, America is rapidly slipping into the third-world category. America should be ashamed of itself, The wealthy and the larger corporations especially. Oh. then there is Wall Street.

   From  Belgium via Watching America:

De Standaard, Belgium
America Is Bleeding —
Not Only in the Movies

By Bjorn Soenens
Translated By Niek Hendrix
24 September 2010

Edited by Gheanna Emelia

Belgium - De Standaard - Original Article (Dutch)
Twenty-three years after the first "Wall Street," director Oliver Stone paints a portrait of a superpower in decline. Bjorn Soenens thinks that this fiction gets close to reality.
"I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal!"
It's the perfect summary of the era that began in 1981. Ronald Reagan and the magic of the market: no rules, free enterprise, fanatic privatization and, above all, a lot of speculation. The system collapsed 30 years later. Hordes in Middle America descended into misery. The number of Americans that are officially below the poverty line stands at 44 million. That's one in seven.
“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”
Gordon Gekko leaves nothing to the imagination: Getting rich is the message. The numbers do not lie. In 1970, 8 percent of American wealth was in the hands of the richest 1 percent of the population. A quarter of all wealth is in the hands of the same 1 percent 40 years later. The consequences are devastating: Ordinary people have seen their expenditure budget melt away. American sons and daughters, for the first time in 100 years, are poorer than their fathers and mothers. While the Gordon Gekkos were speculating and letting their wealth grow, the American middle class tried everything to maintain its standard of living. The average citizen suffered more debts — by credit card, by mortgages and by student loans. He stopped saving, took a second job, and a third, but eventually drowned when the fraud of Wall Street came to light. And in the meantime nobody noticed that the bridges and roads were deteriorating for 30 years, that schools were no longer up-to-date, and that social safety nets were weakened.
Nearly 15 million Americans are officially unemployed. America is bleeding. People over [age] 55 who, after 30 years had lost their jobs and their benefits after two years, have nightmares about how they will reach retirement. As a wanderer? A bag lady? More and more Americans of different generations are living under one roof: back to mom or dad on the couch to avoid homelessness. The alternative? Sleep on subway grates, in the park or in the restrooms of the Wal-Mart.
“Someone reminded me I once said, ‘greed is good.’ Now it seems it's legal."
Gordon Gekko, just released from prison, sees his grabbing techniques have now become law. The Republican agenda since [the] Reagan [era] is devoted to tax, reducing of regulations, dismantling of public services and even more tax cuts. The Ownership Society. The model of Milton Friedman, the laissez-faire model. A strong reduction — in some cases, the elimination — of taxes on income, dividends and real estate would lead to more investment and more economic growth. The belief that government regulations inhibit the free market, and that benefits for the weakest [citizens] breed dependence and kill all initiatives. As Reagan put it succinctly: "The government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
Obama has turned away from this view because the economy had a cardiac arrest in 2008. Keynes made his re-entry: To deal with a recession, you have to put more disposable income into the pockets of the people. Put more in to save the free democracy. Franklin D. Roosevelt said in 1944: “People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.” That's why Obama is a Keynesian; he thinks that only decent wages and working conditions can create a middle class that stabilizes the U.S. economy and is the engine of new growth.
Yes, there is growth again. But the companies grab their profits, and no new jobs are created. At the current rate, eight years are needed to make up for the number of lost jobs since the recession (8 million!). The Americans were very shocked about the meltdown of 2008. They save more now, because they are terrified of the future. But that's bad for the economy also: Saving more means consuming less, making the economy jam again. Gordon Gekko notes that his way of life actually killed America.
“More? I would say, enough!”*
Americans are furious about what Wall Street has done to them, angry with their president, who plunders the public treasury to save the banks and the auto industry with large holes in the budget. Public opinion is also further incited by the tea party and the Republicans who act like they are stung by a wasp when it comes to government intervention in the free market or impeding their right to bear arms. But many of those same conservatives care very little if the government eavesdrops on people without authorization or tries to conduct war on terror in foreign countries. In a country as diverse as the U.S., there is always a strong debate about where the influence of the government must cease.
As Gordon Gekko thinks he can make the laws, so do those who are right. But those who are right don’t always get their way, while those who persistently make the loudest arguments do. President Obama has no answer and responds to emotionless calm, making him lose touch with the land and its people. As Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street” says: “If you need a friend, get a dog.”

*Editor's Note: This quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.

CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL VERSION

 

Technorati Tags: Wall Street,America,United States,Gordon Gekko,Watching America,News,Business,De Standaard,Republicans,Ronald Reagan

Windows Live Writer 2011 Is Available…

 

…and it is about time! I’ve been using the beta version for quite some time and you have probably read a little about my trying times with this newest Microsoft version.

  Well, it is now out of beta and is ready for all of you bloggers and writers to give it a try. So, go here to get your copy. Thus far it seems as if the problems that I had been have been worked out in the final version.

   Enjoy!!

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Windows Live Writer 2011,Blogging Tools,Blogger,Bloggers,Software

President Barack Obama’s Interview With Rolling Stone …

 

…makes for an interesting read,which you can browse right here if you have the time. The article will be out on October 15,2010,and the interview was conducted by Jann S. Wenner

    Below are a few excerpts from the interview.

When you came into office, you felt you would be able to work with the other side. When did you realize that the Republicans had abandoned any real effort to work with you and create bipartisan policy?

I still remember going over to the Republican caucus to meet with them and present our ideas, and to solicit ideas from them before we presented the final package. And on the way over, the caucus essentially released a statement that said, "We're going to all vote 'No' as a caucus." And this was before we'd even had the conversation. At that point, we realized that we weren't going to get the kind of cooperation we'd anticipated. The strategy the Republicans were going to pursue was one of sitting on the sidelines, trying to gum up the works, based on the assumption that given the scope and size of the recovery, the economy probably wouldn't be very good, even in 2010, and that they were better off being able to assign the blame to us than work with us to try to solve the problem.

    On the subject of The Tea Party;

There's no doubt that the infrastructure and the financing of the Tea Party come from some very traditional, very powerful, special-interest lobbies. I don't think this is a secret. Dick Armey and FreedomWorks, which was one of the first organizational mechanisms to bring Tea Party folks together, are financed by very conservative industries and forces that are opposed to enforcement of environmental laws, that are opposed to an energy policy that would be different than the fossil-fuel-based approach we've been taking, that don't believe in regulations that protect workers from safety violations in the workplace, that want to make sure that we are not regulating the financial industries in ways that we have.

    Of course, it would not be a complete interview if President Obama were not asked about his feelings for FoxNews.

What do you think of Fox News? Do you think it's a good institution for America and for democracy?
[Laughs] Look, as president, I swore to uphold the Constitution, and part of that Constitution is a free press. We've got a tradition in this country of a press that oftentimes is opinionated. The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history. Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition — it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It's a point of view that I disagree with. It's a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world. But as an economic enterprise, it's been wildly successful. And I suspect that if you ask Mr. Murdoch what his number-one concern is, it's that Fox is very successful.

    The complete session at Rolling Stone.

 

Technorati Tags: President,Barack Obama,Democrats,Republicans,FoxNews,Rolling Stone,Jann S. Wenner,News,Current Events

Government Seeks New Internet Laws

 

    All of the major law enforcement agencies in the United States want new laws for the internet in order to track terrorist and their activities more easily since those groups are now using the net more frequently to communicate with each other. So folks, look out because we are about to get fucked by the government once again in regards to our civil liberties.

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.                 New York Times

    I am a very heavy user of Skype and for many years governments all over the world have been trying to get this p2p to make it easier to track communications on the network.

   The Barack Bush Obama administration plans on introducing a bill to our lawmakers next year, one which will no doubt have the backing of the Republicans on the other side of the isle.

James X. Dempsey, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Internet policy group, said the proposal had “huge implications” and challenged “fundamental elements of the Internet revolution” — including its decentralized design.

“They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique, and now pervasive, architecture of the Internet,” he said. “They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.”

   One of the joys of the digital age is that law enforcement can track you down at the snap of a finger if they have the authorization to do so. Do you remember those illegal wiretaps that the Bush administration did with the help of ATT? Can you imagine the information that could be gotten on the net with the help of a company such as Comcast?  I can, and it is a scary thought.

“We’re talking about lawfully authorized intercepts,” said Valerie E. Caproni, general counsel for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “We’re not talking expanding authority. We’re talking about preserving our ability to execute our existing authority in order to protect the public safety and national security.”

Investigators have been concerned for years that changing communications technology could damage their ability to conduct surveillance. In recent months, officials from the F.B.I., the Justice Department, the National Security Agency, the White House and other agencies have been meeting to develop a proposed solution.

    Where have I heard similar words before?

    Read more on this

 

Technorati Tags: Internet,Intercepts,Skype,Obama,FBI,NSA,Justice Department,Illegal Wiretaps,New York Times,Terrorist,Surveillance,ATT,Internet Service Providers,An American Gothic,News

Republican Supporters Out In Full Force To Keep Bush Tax Cuts Going…

 

…and they even have a few of their former wannabe presidents out in the countryside with their petitions to Congress urging them to not let those cuts expire at the end of the year.

   Fred Thompson (remember him?),the man who did for campaigning what George Bush did for reading, has an urgent video message posted over at The League of American Voters telling you how much your taxes will go up if Bush’s bullshit cuts are allowed to die. We get to hear that with an economy that is in such bad shape that now is not the time to be forcing a tax increase on the American public.

   I have not had time on this Sunday morning to verify the accuracy of the numbers which the league has on their post, but here they are:

• 35% bracket which will increase to 39.6%
• 33% bracket which will increase to 36%
• 28% bracket which will increase to 31%
• 25% bracket which will increase to 28%
• 10% and 15% will condense to 15%

Whereas the capital gains tax will increase from 15% to 20%

Whereas the tax on dividends will increase from 15% to 39.6%

   One more time for those of you who may have your heads stuck up your asses. Those Republican tax cuts that they all seem to love so much are partially responsible for our current economic bag of shit in the first place. How many times have you not read,or seen some of the results from the cuts, which have trickled down from the federal level to your neighborhood? You local news stations and the local papers call them “budget cuts” when they should be called “tax cuts.”

    It is because of said cuts that the budgets are being slashed in city’s and town all over this country. Those cuts are responsible for many police departments having to fire or lay off their officers,as is the case here.

Dow Constantine, the county executive, directed the sheriff’s office to cut $7 million from its budget to help close a $60 million hole in the county budget. The cuts in the sheriff’s office include laying off 28 deputies, which according to Maple Valley City Manager David Johnston, could cause serious problems for the city.

Maple Valley, like Covington, contracts city police services from King County and Johnston said the city has been able to maintain a smaller police force because Precinct No. 3 is located in the city. The city manager said on top of the layoffs, the precinct is on the chopping block and is to be closed by the end of 2011, if not sooner.

   This means less services and more concern about public safety.

   If you have an I.Q. over 1, you’ll be pushing for those cuts to be left to die a painful death at the end of the year. If not, then you and I both will be going through more pain than we care to go through.

 

Technorati Tags: George Bush,Tax Cuts,Fred Thompson,League of American Voters,Barack Obama,Big Business,Economic News

Bomb Strapped Bank Teller In Florida Bank Robbery

   I am always ragging about the people of Florida not having to much in the smarts department but this adds a fairly new twist to the bank robbing scheme of things.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Bank robbers pulled off a dramatic heist Friday, strapping a bomb to a teller and ordering him to steal as much money as he could grab from the vault — all while his father was being held hostage.

It began when the three masked, gun-toting thieves burst into the teller's apartment shortly after midnight.

  I cannot post any more than this due to the fact the the Associated Press get mad when one does such things so you will have to go HERE to read the rest of the story.

   It appears that the robbers have not yet been captured as of the time that this story appeared on Yahoo,which was some thirty minutes ago. The bank which was robber was a Bank Of America branch down near Miami.

   Couldn’t happen to a nicer bank

 

Technorati Tags: Coral Gables,Florida,Yahoo News,Bank Robbery,Bank Of America,Breaking News

Friday Night Funny’s…

   are back again just to get your weekend off to a somewhat decent start. Remember that if not for politicians, we’d have nothing to laugh about.

   These comments are brought to you by PoliticalHumor.com.

"So two years ago America broke up with you, because you had badly mistreated her. ... And you come back rapping on our door, hat in hand, and you say, 'Baby, I know you love me. But if we get back together, I pledge to you, I promise you, I will still try to f*ck your sister every chance I get.'" –Jon Stewart, on the GOP's new "Pledge to America" (Watch video clip)

David Letterman:

"You know Delaware is running a witch, her name is Christine O'Donnell, and she wants to be the Senator from Delaware and today she promised if she's elected she'll cast a spell on health care."

"The Republicans announced their Pledge to America, and here's what it is: Less taxes, smaller government and act now and they'll throw in the Dean Martin roast of Frank Sinatra."

Jay Leno:

"As you know, Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell has come out against masturbation. Well, she is already paying a heavy price for taking this stance. In fact, today, the powerful hand lotion lobby has endorsed her opponent."

"I saw that new movie 'Devil' or as Delaware Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell calls it, 'Roots'"

Jimmy Fallon:

"Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell is taking criticism because she once said she dabbled in witchcraft. Yeah, everyone is talking about this. O'Donnell was like, 'If one more person claims I'm a witch, I will take legal action against them and their little dog, too!'"

Technorati Tags: Politics.Humor.David Letterman,Jay Leno,Christine O'Donnell

Senior Citizens:Turn Off FoxNews…

….and then get a grip.

From Crooks and Liars

September 23, 2010 02:30 PM

Dear Senior Citizens, Turn off Fox and Pay Attention

By karoli

Dear Senior Citizens,

I know you think Glenn Beck is the new Jesus and the black guy in the Oval Office is a Muslim pretender, but for the love of all that's holy, turn off Fox News and pay attention.

That ad at the top of this post? They LIE. They are LYING TO YOU. Don't believe me? How about Politifact? Or if Politifact doesn't do it for you, how about your own pocketbooks?

Yes, your own pocketbooks. Because in addition to the donut hole closure, those of you who are enrolled in Medicare Advantage will see your premiums drop next year. That's right. Your premiums will go down in 2011.

Medicare officials said they had held down premiums and co-payments by negotiating with insurers, which sponsor the Medicare Advantage plans.

The law, signed by Mr. Obama in March, gave officials new power to negotiate and to reject bids, as they did in a few cases.

“We negotiated more aggressively than in the past,” said Jonathan D. Blum, deputy administrator of the Medicare agency. “As a result, some plans changed their bids to produce more value for beneficiaries.”

“On average,” Mr. Blum said, “Medicare Advantage premiums will be 1 percent lower in 2011 than today. Medicare Advantage plans project that enrollment will increase by 5 percent in 2011.”

Yes, you senior citizens claiming your Medicare is being "cut" need to quit listening to your heroes at Fox News and pay attention to facts. While the rest of us suck up big increases because we don't have the benefit of the federal government negotiating on our behalf, YOU and YOU ALONE will see your premiums go down.

I'd better not see you with a sign saying for government to keep their hands off your Medicare after this. That will make it very difficult for me to respect my elders.

Also, a question for the "repeal and replace" crowd. Who will explain why you want to take premium reductions away from seniors?

Technorati Tags: Medicare,Glenn Beck,FoxNews,Senior Citizens,Politifact,Insurance,News,President,Barack Obama

Are Americans Addicted To Their Electronics?

 

    Of course we are! I myself did not realize how much I depend on my computers until I had to go offline on a regular basis for almost a year. I keep in contact with the majority of my friends through Skype and regular email. Then we also have our smartphones,witch is one device that I have not cared to purchase yet.

    When you look around you,all that you will probably see while you are driving are other drivers either talking on their cellphones or texting on them.

Rasmussen

Americans are concerned that, in today’s technological age, we may have become too dependent on electronic devices such as computers and calculators.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% of adults are concerned that Americans have become too dependent on electronic devices, with 41% who are Very Concerned. Twenty-eight percent (28%) are not worried, but that includes just four percent (4%) who are Not At All Concerned about our dependence on these devices.

It has been estimated that roughly 20% of Americans use smartphones and 80% own a computer. However, just 26% of Americans admit that they spend too much time using the Internet, computers and mobile communications devices. This is roughly the same as in late January. Sixty-nine percent (69%) say they do not spend too much time using such technology.

But 75% of adults said at that time that young children spend too much time on computers and other electronic devices.

Adults under 50 are more likely to say they overuse technology than those who are older.

Adults with children at home and higher-income adults are also more likely to feel they spend too much time using the Internet and other related technologies.       More

Technorati Tags: Rasmussen,Polling,Americans,Electronics,Computers,Smartphones,News,Technology

New Blog Look…

…and it is not necessarily by my own doing! AHHHH!

   This morning, I just happen to bring my blog up online and to my surprise it looked different than it is supposed to look. My home page was quite bright instead of its usual darker look. I do not know what happened to change it,but I had to do something and you now see the end result, thus far. I am not finished with this yet, so please bear with me as I experiment with a new look. What you are now seeing, is not it.

Technorati Tags: An american Gothic,Blogger,Blogspot

Florida Has Thousands Of Dead Voters..

…and I don’t mean “brain dead” voters. That would not be news down here.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel ran a story in their Sunday newspaper telling the readers that after they did an investigation they had discovered that there were some 9,700 felons on the voter rolls whose voter rights had not been restored,and,14,000 people on the rolls who were dead.

   The new numbers are lower than they were back in 2008,when a similar investigation was conducted. those numbers were 28,000 dead voters on the rolls and 33,000 felons on them.

While few votes are cast for the dead, the paper found that about 7,500 felons voted in the state's 2008 general election.

Florida elections head Dawn Roberts told the paper that based on its findings she is ordering an immediate review of the methods the state uses to identify voters who die or are convicted of a felony.

    So, did those felons who are no longer on the rolls die,and will they now show up on the voter rolls under the “dead voter” heading?

Technorati Tags: South Florida Sun-Sentinel,Voters,Florida,Elections,Voter Rolls,Fraud,News