Public Employee Unions are not the Problem: The Super Rich getting tax cuts is.

Great blog by Robert Reich. Republicans are trying to use the recession they created to attack public employee unions.
Among the best passages:

It’s far more convenient to go after people who are doing the public’s work - sanitation workers, police officers, fire fighters, teachers, social workers, federal employees – to call them “faceless bureaucrats” and portray them as hooligans who are making off with your money and crippling federal and state budgets. The story fits better with the Republican’s Big Lie that our problems are due to a government that’s too big.

Above all, Republicans don’t want to have to justify continued tax cuts for the rich. As quietly as possible, they want to make them permanent.

Obama Rides High as Pessimism Wanes

from Teagan Goodard's Political Wire
A new Ipsos/McClatchy poll finds President Obama's approval ratings remain high with 64% of Americans saying that they approve of the job he is doing as President and fully 40% say that they strongly approve of his performance.

Key finding: A majority of Americans -- 52% -- now feel that the country is headed in the right direction while 42% worries that things are off on the wrong track.

The Advantage of Being the Party Out of Power

You really don't have to do anything.

10 things you should know about Obama's plan (but probably don't)

from MoveOn.Org
The plan:

1. Makes a $634 billion down payment on fixing health care that will go a long way toward paying for a more efficient, more affordable health care system that covers every single American.

2. Reduces taxes for 95% of working Americans. And if your family makes less than $250,000, your taxes won't go up one dime.

3. Invests more than $100 billion in clean energy technology, creating millions of green jobs that can never be outsourced.

4. Brings our troops home from Iraq on a firm timetable, finally bringing the war to a close—and freeing up almost ten billion dollars a month for domestic priorities.

5. Reverses growing income inequality. The plan lets the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire and focuses on strengthening the middle class.

6. Closes multi-billion-dollar tax loopholes for big oil companies.

7. Increases grants to help families pay for college—the largest increase ever.

8. Halves the deficit by 2013. President Obama inherited a legacy of huge deficits and an economy in shambles, but his plan brings the deficit under control as soon as the economy begins to recover.

9. Dramatically increases funding for the SEC and the CFTC—the agencies that police Wall Street.

10. Tells it straight. For years, budgets have used accounting tricks to hide the real costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush tax cuts, and too many other programs. Obama's budget gets rid of the smokescreens and lays out what America's priorities are, what they cost, and how we're going to pay for them.

The Grumpy Old Party is threatening our nation's economy

New Symbol of the GOP
There is a report that the Senate is getting ready to approve the Economic Stimulus package that we need to avoid Great Depression II. Let us pray this is so.

The GOP's worn out ideologues cling to their discredited ideas that by making our economic policies more favorable to the wealthy, somehow, someway, we will manage to avert disaster.

First, can't they see that a stimulus package that provides funds to rebuild our nation's decrepit and antiquated infrastructure is sorely needed on it's own right? Have they completely forgotten the collapsing bridges and breached levees, the slag heap landslides and crumbling highways all across our nation?

And then there is the latest unemployment figures that show over half a million Americans are losing their job, their hopes, each month.

Is their desire to deny Pres. Obama a "victory" so dulled their hearing that they cannot hear the cries of those in need?

The Republican Party has truly grown too old to function.

Another Good Obama Cartoon

Truly Evil

Economists Say "Obama Has Better Grasp of Economics"

In a telling survey, the journal The Economist, survey 142 members of the Bureau of Economic Research, America’s premier association of applied academic economics, on their analysis of the proposed economic policies and overall grasp of economic principles.

The detailed responses are bad news for Mr McCain (the full data are available here). Eighty per cent of respondents and no fewer than 71% of those who do not cleave to either main party say Mr Obama has a better grasp of economics. Even among Republicans Mr Obama has the edge: 46% versus 23% say Mr Obama has the better grasp of the subject. “I take McCain’s word on this one,” comments James Harrigan at the University of Virginia, a reference to Mr McCain’s infamous confession that he does not know as much about economics as he should. In fairness, Mr McCain’s lower grade may in part reflect greater candour about his weaknesses. Mr Obama’s more tightly managed image leaves fewer opportunities for such unvarnished introspection.

Barack Obama: Job Loss is Un-American

It's time we had a president who has walked a picket line.

Vote Obama/Biden Nov. 4.

Highlights from Robin's Sermon 28.09.08

Jesus driving the money men from the Temple
Here are some highlights from the Sunday service at Mayflower Congregational Church-UCC. "Where head and heart are equal partners in faith."

The Prayer of Confession:

Lord of Life, we pause in the midst of high anxiety about our country's financial future to remember the wisdom of the church about wealth and the life of the spirit. Once again, as we struggle to recover from an era of greed and corruption, we are driven back to words that are older than any political party or media spin: "The love of money is the root of all evil." Teach us, we pray, to heed the wisdom of the ages, not the seductions of idolatry. In the name of Jesus our Teacher and Lord we pray, Amen.

Special Music: "Simple Gifts" Shaker hymn, arranged by Mark Hayes

Scripture Reading: Mark 10:17-25 (The story of the rich man told by Jesus to "sell all you have and give to the poor.")

Next to the kingdom of God, Jesus' most freguent topic was money.

When Jesus attacked the Temple money changers during Passion Week, he sealed his doom.

Talking about greed is suddenly in in our world. We are reminded of the scene in the movie Wall Street where Michael Douglas' character states that "Greed is good."

We need to be reminded that the First Commandment is, "Do not make an idol for yourself out of anything."

Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and Wealth."

"The love of money is the root of all evil."

One commentator said, "Why do we borrow money from China so that we can buy oil from Saudi Arabia which in turn is poisoning our planet?"

Prosperity theology, the preaching that God will help us become rich, is the final and complete perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Louis Brandeis once said, "We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."

The church of Jesus must challenge the present social/economic system in the nation, not merely endorse it.

Proverbs 19:17--"He who gives to the poor, lends to God." This is a much safers investiment than any bank.

The responsibility of the church in this economic crisis is the same that it has been throughout the ages. We must seek to help those harmed by these events and confront those who have caused it with the Word of Truth.

We need in these times to rediscover the joys of simplicity. In the words of the Shaker hymn:

It's a gift to be simple.
It's a gift to be free.
It's a gift to come down where we ought to be.
And when we come around to the place that's right,
We will be in the valley of love and delight.

Is McCain Becoming The Issue In This Race?

Does Obama have the cooler head?
A truism of politics is that when a candidate becomes "the issue" in race, in other words, when a candidate's personality or credibility comes into question, then the race is over, and the candidate has lost.

John McCain is perilously close to becoming a major issue in this campaign due to his recent antics in regards to our country's financial crisis. By his seemingly impetutous decision to suspend his campaign and insert himself into the negotiations between the White House and congressional leaders, he has raised questions regarding his judgment and his temperment. This quote fairly sums up my impression of what McCain has demonstrated about himself:

"It just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology. In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The 'steady hand in a storm' argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain... My guess is that plasma units are rushing to the McCain campaign as we speak to replace the blood flowing there from the fights among the staff."
-- Former McCain adviser Craig Shirley, quoted by the Huffington Post.

The question the American people need to be asking is, which person has demonstrated a cool head and steady nerves during this crisis? Who would they want to have at the helm of this country during those inevitable times when it seems that all hell has broken loose? Obama is the man for me.

McCain Didn't Even Read Treasury Proposal

from Wire Services
Though Sen. John McCain says the nation's current financial crisis requires "all hands on deck" because "the whole future of the American economy is in danger," he admitted in an interview in Cleveland on Tuesday that he hadn't even read the Bush administration's proposed rescue plan that was unveiled over the weekend.

2008 Republican Party Platform Opposes Bailouts

New GOP Logo?
from VoteFromAbroad.Org

"The Republican Party platform adopted 3 weeks ago explicitly opposes government bailouts of private companies. Here is the exact quote (from the section "Rebuilding Homeownership"):

We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself. We believe in the free market as the best tool to sustained prosperity and opportunity for all.

"This plank in the GOP platform is not controversial within the party. Republicans have always believed that when companies make bad business decisions the market will punish them and this is the deterrence for future companies to think through their decisions carefully. The problem now is the utter hypocrisy of throwing overboard a principle Republicans have held dear for a century. If (big) companies lose the fear of bankruptcy because they expect the government to bail them out, they will take unconscionable risks in the future. Maybe somebody should send Henry Paulson a copy of the Republican platform."
The GOP is being hoisted on its own petard.

Thanks to my friend Shauna Struby

I sent out my questions I posted yesterday to my friends, and Shauna saying she had heard it this way:

They Privitize the Profits and Socialize the Losses.

Why?

Why do businesses want the government to leave them alone until they get themselves into so much trouble they come running for help?

Why are individual citizens on welfare irresponsible, but businesses on welfare are victims of a bad economy?

Why is it Socialistic for the government to take over the failing health industry, but not for the government to take over the failing banking industry?

Someone explain this to me.

The Bush Economy Fails Us

Today, the United States jobless rate jumped to 5.5%. John McCain has been a big supporter of the failed Bush economic policy. Can we afford a 3rd term with these economic policies still in place.

Oh, and oil prices surged higher up to $139 a barrell.

The linked article below includes a quotation from an Oklahoman:

Cheryl Williams, who lives in the Tulsa, Okla., suburb of Broken Arrow, has been looking for work for two years after losing her job as a certified nurse's aide. The 37-year-old relies on $225 a month in welfare and odds-and-ends jobs to support her two kids.

"I have job searched and job searched and job searched," Williams said. "I would like to have a real job."

It's time for change we can believe in.


Biggest Jobless Jump Since '86

Love that Free Enterprise System!

Huffaker