Stop fighting birth control

John Boehner this week:

House Speaker John Boehner this week called the mandate "an unambiguous attack on religious freedom" in a rare House floor speech and vowed legislative action to reverse it.

"If the president does not reverse the attack on religious freedom, then the Congress, acting on behalf of the American people and the Constitution we are sworn to uphold and defend, must," Boehner said. "This attack by the federal government on religious freedom in our country must not stand and will not stand."

Translation of Boehner's words: "I'm a pandering ass who uses ridiculous hyperbole while pathetically grandstanding to blast everything Democrats do." Shut up, John.

Then there's this guy, who's demanding on behalf of Catholic bishops that the contraceptive requirement be removed entirely, not just given an exception for church businesses -- Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: "If I quit this job and opened a Taco Bell, I'd be covered by the mandate."

You're damn right you'd be covered, as you should be! Do you know how screwed up our laws would be if every private business owner could claim religious exception to laws they didn't like? Take your backwards, anti women views and shove them.

I'm so sick of this regressive bullshit. Welcome to the 21st century, same as the 19th century.

Whiling away the hours

The words of one of my college professors from 15+ years ago came to mind just now. "Are we just whiling away the hours until we die?"

It seems to me that life is meant to be enjoyed, but sometimes short term pleasure, something that's amusing for awhile, leaves nothing. Is it worth it because "a moment enjoyed is not wasted" as a popular video gaming website likes to say? Perhaps.

Yet what did I gain out of several years in my 20s when I was practically addicted to online role-playing games? I usually enjoyed it, but on the other hand, I don't spend much time telling people about all those great times we had back then staring at a computer screen. Mind you, it's no worse than many other activities people do to fill their time. Plenty of people go home and stare at the television screen for hours every night.

"Moderation in everything" also comes to mind. Then again, some people become truly great at something by doing it obsessively and they seem to like it that way.

Amusing Ourselves to Death. Great book title. "Kill the spirit, sell the flesh, we amuse ourselves to death." Words from a song by Bill Mallonee.

No answers... just musings...

Youth on Wall St

For the many young people spearheading protests on Wall St. and now in many other cities:


Your energy can be the engine for change.

Money Rules

If there was any silver lining in the disastrous Supreme Court ruling on the Citizens United case, the case that opened the floodgates for unlimited individual and corporate donations to political action committees, it was that who donated and how much they donated had to be disclosed.

Tonight Stephen Colbert humorously, yet depressingly for those of us who still give a damn about good government, demonstrated how those donations can be rendered completely anonymous. Bonus: It's sooooo easy. Start with the SuperPAC such as Karl Rove's American Progress, an organization that must disclose all donations given to it. Then simply add a shell corporation under a legal designation called 501(c)(4). Rove's shell corporation is called Crossroads GPS. The corporation can take unlimited anonymous donations from individuals and corporations, then spend the money directly on "issue-oriented" political advertisements, OR give the to the SuperPAC. All the SuperPAC has to disclose is that it received the money from the shell corporation, thus completely shielding all contributors.

To show how easy the process is, Colbert created a shell corporation to gather anonymous donations, creatively named Anonymous Shell Corporation, to go with his already created SuperPAC.

S&P credit downgrade proving insignificant

Interestingly, S&P's credit downgrade of US debt is not looking like near the disaster many expected.

The headlines today are full of declarations that stocks are falling because S&P downgraded US debt from AAA to AA+. These headlines are simply wrong. The stock market is not a measure of investor confidence in the US's ability to repay its debt. The interest rate the nation must offer on its treasury bonds to attract buyers is that measure. If investors have less confidence in our nation's ability to repay its debt, that interest rate will rise.

The exact opposite is happening. Interest rates on US treasury bonds fell today. People are selling stocks and buying US treasury bonds, still considered the safest place in the world to keep money.

Of greater concern to investors is the Euro-zone economic crisis that's showing no signs of letting up. Of greater concern to the US economy as a whole is the continuing high joblessness and underemployment rates as well as the stagnant growth rate.

By the way, why are we listening to credit rating agencies like S&P? They completely destroyed their credibility by being a major cause of the 2008 financial collapse. They gave AAA rating after AAA rating to the mortgage backed securities that were pure, toxic garbage. They handed out these absurdly high ratings because they were competing with one another for income from the very banks that were selling the mortgage securities and paying the rating agencies to rate them. They're corrupt profit mongers with no credibility. The S&P gave Lehman Brothers an A rating right up to the month of its bankruptcy. They're morons. Krugman has more today on this topic.

Speaking of government spending and deficits during a bad economy, we've been here before and massive budget cuts is not the answer. Facing criticism of high deficits, FDR slashed his New Deal programs in 1937. The unemployment rate had dropped from well over 20% to 14% in the prior few years. In a matter of months after he slashed the New Deal programs, it was back up to 19%. After about a year, FDR realized his error and worked to restore the program funding. The result? The recovery began anew.

Harry Reid's debt ceiling bill is very similar to Boehner's bill before the latter's most recent idiotic revisions made at the behest of the moronic teabaggers in Congress. Reid gives Republicans almost everything they wanted. Nevertheless, all 43 Republicans in the Senate have signed a letter, released on Saturday, saying they will not vote for a Democratic plan to raise the debt limit.

Letter I've sent to Senator Dick Lugar, which I'm sure won't do any good:

"Reuter's today: "All 43 Republicans in the Senate have signed a letter, released on Saturday, saying they will not vote for a Democratic plan to raise the debt limit."

Why? Harry Reid's bill gives the GOP almost everything they wanted. It is quite close to Boehner's bill before his most recent revisions made at the behest of the radical, economically ignorant tea party backed House members. I had some hope for the Senate, but your latest foolish actions have destroyed it. Your party is willing to drive the country off a cliff.

Why is the GOP utterly unwilling to compromise? Raising the debt ceiling shouldn't even be up for debate. The money is already committed and you know it. The US government has agreed to pay. Not doing so means a default and that would be catastrophic. Those who think otherwise are stunningly ignorant. Stop this ridiculous game of chicken and get a compromise bill.

Poll after poll shows that a strong majority of Americans want a bill that combines spending cuts with revenue increases. Harry Reid took even modest tax increases and tax loop hole closure off the table in an attempt to get GOP votes. You've still refused.

Meanwhile the GOP controlled House is pushing a terrible, extremist bill that will never pass the Senate and will not be signed by the president. What a waste of time! Also, ask most any economist how smart a balanced budget amendment would be. It's a horrible idea.

Despite some policy disagreements, I once had great respect for you, Senator Lugar. No longer. Your actions in lockstep with the rest of the GOP senators absolutely disgust me. Think of the country's well-being and get your house in order. The nation can't afford the increasingly far right wing insanity that now dominates the once reasonable GOP."

US likely to lose AAA credit rating

Yep, we're already likely to lose our top credit rating, which will amount to a huge tax on the American people as interest rates go up across the board. On top of that, if the debt ceiling impasse continues, we will default on our debt, triggering an economic collapse of immense proportions.

You bear the responsibility for this disaster, Republican lawmakers. You are pathetic. You're playing chicken with the nation's economy in an attempt to get your demands met, demands that should be debated during budget talks, not when the full faith and credit of the US government is on the line.

For the sake of the US economy, the debt ceiling must be raised. It should not be contingent on the GOP's ridiculous demands. It should simply be done. Budget haggling is for another time. Economists know that a default would be a total disaster for the US economy. Since the GOP refuses to compromise, even after Obama and the Democrats in the Senate have offered concession after concession, far more than they ever should have, and even when poll after poll shows that a strong majority of Americans want a compromise solution with spending cuts and tax increases, I can only conclude one or both of the following are true:

1) GOP congressmen do not give a shit about the country.
2) GOP congressmen are too ignorant to begin to understand the massive consequences of the political game they are playing.

These two options are not mutually exclusive.

Once again the GOP is proving that they are an ignorant, broken party hell bent on destroying what's left of the United States in order to please their wealthy friends.

There was a time when we had two major, worthwhile parties in this country. That time has passed. The GOP is worse than worthless. They are destructive to the nation and everyone in it except for a wealthy few. I hold out little hope that what needs to happen will ever happen, but we need another major political party, better yet more than one, but at least one to replace the ignorant, anti-intellectual, far right wing disaster that is the Republican party.