Jack and Jill Politics - Latest Comments in Afternoon Open Thread

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

ch555x — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:58:29 -0000

I suppose that's one of those "historic lagging indicators"...LOL!

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

TyrenM — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:47:13 -0000

Sad but true "we all need to get ourselves some hustle on for '10."

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

GreenLadyHere13 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:25:45 -0000

RobM: LOL!! :>) SPEAK TA-RUTH!!:>)

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

ch555x — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:27:36 -0000

Another one of those "lagging indicators"...

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

rikyrah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:06:30 -0000

EVENING OPEN THREAD IS UP

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

rikyrah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:04:36 -0000

that was a w-t-f moment for me too.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

rikyrah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:04:13 -0000

I haven't seen it yet, but that sounds hilarious

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

RobM — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:56:58 -0000

has anybody seen George lopez's show yet. I haven't but the ad they are running here in Philly is outrageous, "Marc Anthony and Arsenio Hall are on tonight. we need you because we have so much color on tonight."

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

Town — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:46:50 -0000

Well, what's been the theme floating around Obama:

1) He's too weak to keep us safe on US Soil.

2) He's "dithering" on whether or not to send troops to Afghanistan to keep us safe.

Then you have a series of leaks saying "Obama's going to send X amount of troops to Afghanistan" and the WH denies it.

Now you have this froot loop shooting up Fort Hood, who was supposed to be under surveillance and the wingnuts are screaming that this was on Obama's watch blah blah he didn't keep us safe blah blah it's his fault yada yada.

So I expect in the next week one of the Darth Cheneys to pop up on TV screaming that Obama didn't keep us safe and suggesting he needs to be removed.

This screams "set up" from the inside.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

Angelar — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:43:48 -0000

totally ticked off at Chris Matthews and his criticism of President Obama making certain statements to paraphrase about "no faith" would support the mindless killing that happened at Ft. Hood. I haven't listened to Matthews lately, but usually he overly criticizes right after he does a "pro" Obama piece. Is this what happened. All I thought about Matthews piece tonight on the president's comments at Ft. Hood today was that it was nauseating.

I watched the ceremonies and listened to all the speeches and was choked up many times.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

Town — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:39:48 -0000

People's anger has been stirred up for almost 2 years now. People have been told by the Ferraros and Hannitys and OReillys and Dobbs and Becks and Fox Noises that "that guy over there took your spot, that guy over there is coming to take your shit, those people over there are going to suck you dry, those people over there don't belong here, these people right here aren't real Americans" and on and on. That anger has built up and must be released and all these shootings are the release of that nasty energy.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

RobM — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:37:13 -0000

The D's don't have the stones to do this. Watch what has happened w/ Liberman and Spector. They have spit on the President and the President hasn't done a thing but go out a campaign for Spector.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

Town — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:36:51 -0000

The US has always been about cheap labor.

The "good jobs" are reserved for the elites.

The scrap menial jobs are reserved for everyone else.

If companies can keep shipping "good jobs" overseas and pay Balki in India $6000 to be a programmer instead of paying Mike in America $60K they will do it.

"Good jobs" ain't coming back. I wouldn't be surprised if full time work goes away and companies just get a series of part time workers to avoid having to pay benefits. I think we all need to get ourselves some hustles going on for 2010.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

rikyrah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:34:53 -0000

they know that their teabagging purist would lose in a rout to the Dem

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

RobM — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:34:42 -0000

You don't have to worry about animal rights. His creditors are at the door. W/ a little luck he might have some cash for himself.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

RobM — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:32:05 -0000

I want to hear the case for 'intelligent centrism".

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

rikyrah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:22:32 -0000

here I go being politically incorrect...
they were Black longer than they've been Muslim

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

rikyrah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:20:05 -0000

i know too.....but, i won't admit how either...lol

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

rikyrah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:18:55 -0000

i agree

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

rikyrah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:17:49 -0000

I don't wanna see one friggin' word about him donating SHYT to ' animal rights'

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

RobM — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:17:33 -0000

I am not saying religion is a signifcant factor but it needs to be taken into account w/ treatment. Cultural factors such as a belief in freedom of religion may account for the lack of problems w/ AA Muslims manifesting itself the way it did in the Major. AA soldiers didn't come to Islam for extremist reasons nor did they grow up w/ it the way a fundamentalist does in either religion.
This does not mean AA Muslim soldiers don't suffer from PTSD.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

whiterosebuddy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:01:13 -0000

The RISE of the RIGHT

"Imagine you had been told five years ago that a huge economic crisis would erupt, prominently featuring irresponsible financiers, and that governments would come to the rescue of firms and families. You would probably have predicted that, politically, the right (the party of bankers) would do badly and the left (the party of bureaucrats) would do well. You would have been wrong. It's not just the Republicans who came out ahead. Last month a conservative coalition swept into power in Germany. In France, Nicolas Sarkozy's party has considerable public support. In Britain, conservatives are poised to win their first national election in 17 years. Even in Denmark and Sweden, where social democrats usually win, the right is in power. In fact, across continental Europe, only one major country, Spain, has a left-wing ruling party.

Why? Part of the answer is that despite the economic turmoil, few people seriously believe the answer is a turn to socialism. But it is also worth looking at the conservative parties that are thriving. Britain's Tory leader, David Cameron, calls himself a "progressive conservative." Sarkozy argues passionately for tight regulation of the financial industry, with pay caps on executive bonuses and more. Angela Merkel staunchly defends the German social market system. In Europe, the right is firmly at the center.

snip

Barack Obama's handling of the financial crisis has mostly been marked by such intelligent centrism. He es-chewed calls from the left to nationalize banks, ignored criticism from scholars that the stimulus was too small, and has largely avoided business bashing. In all these areas, the left wing of his party is dissatisfied.

On health care, however, the story looks different. There are two great health-care crises in America—one in-volving coverage and the other cost. The Obama plan appears likely to tackle the first but not the second. This is bad economics but also bad politics: the crisis of cost affects 85 percent of Americans, while the crisis of coverage affects about 15 percent. Obama's message to the country appears to be "We have a dysfunctional health-care system with out-of-control costs, and let's add 45 million people to it."

Americans see a health-care bill that has been produced by the old Democratic machine rather than the new Democratic technocrats—more Lyndon Johnson than Larry Summers. That might please the party's base but it will dismay independents. Were costs to rocket over the next few years, the Democrats will have squandered a reputation for economic competence that was hard won."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/...

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

Miranda — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:35:35 -0000

Dont ask me how I know but the bootlegging business is way down too! LOL

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

whiterosebuddy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:20:01 -0000

***Breaking NEWS*****

VICK GETS A BREAK Court RULES he can KEEP $16M

A federal appeals court on Tuesday backed the judge who ruled against the NFL and let quarterback Michael Vick keep more than $16 million in roster bonuses from the Atlanta Falcons.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed Judge David Doty's order saying Vick had already earned the bonuses before his dogfighting conviction, so the money wasn't subject to forfeiture.

Vick served 18 months in prison and is now with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Doty has long handled matters arising from the NFL's collective bargaining agreement. After Doty ruled in the Vick bonus case, the NFL accused him of bias and sought to end his oversight of its contract with the players union.

The appeals court said the contract should remain under Doty's oversight.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello did not say whether the league planned a further appeal, but he said the 8th Circuit upheld Doty's ruling on Vick's bonuses in large part because it found the contract's forfeiture language ambiguous.

"That is something that we will seek to change at the bargaining table to ensure that bonus payments are paid to players who comply with their contracts and perform on the field," Aiello said.

Vick, a former Atlanta Falcons star, was released from federal custody July 20 after serving 18 months of a 23-month sentence for running a dogfighting ring in Surry County, Va. The Eagles signed Vick to a $1.6 million contract for 2009, with a team option for the second year at $5.2 million, but he has not played much.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

Guest — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:53:18 -0000

The lack of “good” jobs is a serious problem for all Americans and an especially dire problem for America’s people of color. The current recession has highlighted overall job loss and the need for robust job creation; however, we must also look at the quality of those jobs. The United States has too few good jobs, and the share has been declining over time. A recovery that creates millions of low-wage, no-benefit jobs is not a real recovery at all. This Briefing Paper uses a minimal definition of a “good” job. It defines a good job as one that pays a wage that can support a family and that provides health care and retirement benefits. Using this minimal standard, the paper shows that Hispanics are less than half as likely as whites to have good jobs, and African Americans are about two-thirds as likely. When comparing workers of the same educational level, whites are also more likely to have good jobs than Asian Americans. The large share of college graduates among Asian Americans, however, hides their disadvantage when one
examines the group as a whole. Generally, people of color have less access than whites to quality jobs.

The lack of good jobs is a problem for all racial and ethnic groups. From 1979 to 2008, the share of good jobs declined 6.9 percentage points among all races. This is a surprising development when one considers that there has been a 76% increase in productivity over the same period.1 Average Americans are working harder and smarter, but average workers of all racial and ethnic groups have not benefitted in pay and benefits from these improvements. Without the good jobs agenda outlined in this paper, we will likely continue to see reductions in their number.

Without a doubt, the United States could do much better in this area. Many other developed nations pay higher wages than the United States. For example, if one
examines the wages for manufacturing production workers only, workers in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden all earn more on average than U.S. workers (Mishel, Bernstein, and Shierholz 2009, 377). America also has a comparatively large share of workers making less than two-thirds of the average wage (OECD 2007, 268). If the United States enjoyed a more equitable income distribution, Americans would have more good jobs for millions of Americans, including millions of people of color.

...

In summary:

• America has too few good jobs for people of all races, but the problem is more severe for workers of color.
• The United States needs to develop a “good jobs” agenda at the federal, state, and local levels to dramatically increase the amount of. Ideally, all jobs should be good jobs, but setting an intermediate target of 75% good jobs is an achievable goal over the next 10 years.
• Increasing the number of good jobs will require (1) having policymakers make enlarging the number of good jobs a priority; (2) implementing universal health insurance and universal retirement security; and (3) increasing the unionization rate of American workers.
• Reducing the racial good jobs gap with whites will require programs for ddressing (1) racial discrimination in the labor market; (2) the need for better education and training for people of color; (3) the failure of the U.S. labor market to validate the foreign, non-European college degrees of immigrants; and (4) a dysfunctional criminal justice system.

Getting Good Jobs to People of Color<hr>Economic Policy Institute Briefing (PDF)