Inside two sides of the GOP

The most fascinating thing in politics right now is the infighting int he GOP as they try to find themselves and regroup after being rebuked by voters in 2012. It wasn't exactly a landslide election for the Dems, but considering the state of the economy and mood of the country, the failure to unseat Obama was massive one.
Now we see two different approaches moving forward. One, best exemplified by Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey is to moderate extreme stances on social issues and relent on the manaical assault on the credibility of government as a whole. Make no mistake, CC is still conservative, but he is strategic and effective as a con governing a very blue state. He has established great cross party cred and is well liked across the political spectrum, something few others in the GOP can say.
The 2nd approach to being rebuffed is best shown by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. The js from the bluegrass state and scion of the biggest name in libertarian circles has lead the charge from the teaparty/isolationist wing of the GOP base. In contrast to "establishment" pols like Christie, Paul sees government and corporate synergy as a huge problem and has launched a zealous crusade against the growth of big government and big business in the name of individual liberty. His support is more fevereant than Christie, but unless he can expand his message beyond the older, predominatly white, fox news watching crowd, his method of doubling down on isolationist conservatism is doomed to fail at the pols.
And that is not just my idealogical opinion, it is a demographic certainty in 21st Century America.
Unless they can broaden their tent to draw in more young people, the lgbt community, and minorities, who are currently shunning the GOP in astonishing numbers, the 2010 midterms will stand as the highwater mark of Paul's brand of libertarian conservatism. The Tea Party will surely be remembered fondly for generations by those politically left behind, similar in a manner as Pickett's charge was (and is) viewed by those with confederate sympathies after the civil war. The high water mark of a glorius lost cause for a demographic out of time, out of power, and out of new ideas.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Women of Walmart Class Action Suit

The Supreme Court today struck down a massive class action lawsuit by women throughout the Country who were claiming discrimination in wages and promotion opportunities based upon their gender.
The Majority Opinion, written by Antoin Scalia and supported by Justices Thomas, Roberts, Alito, and Kennedy, claims that the lower court classification of the female employees as a discriminated against class was not legally viable under prior precedent. The women therefore can continue to press forward in their individual cases, at their own expense, but will not be eligible for a class action settlement.
That these women received less pay and a lack of promotion opportunities, under the unofficial policies of local management, when compared to men in the same jobs with less senority and lower performance ratings, is not statistically in question. And yet, with the fig leaf of an 'official' corporate non-discrimination policy, Walmart was able to escape liability in the class action venue of legal pursuit by the highest court in the land.
This will allow Walmart to avoid a mass settlement and use divide and conquer tactics to deal with each offended party individually, putting a greater burden and cost on these working class ladies to pursue their own suits agaisnt the corporate giant.
This is a big win for corporate interests, and gives credance to Robert Kennedy Junior's recent claims that this current Supreme Court favors Big Corporations First, Big Government next, and puts the rights and recourse of everyday people last.

Down With the Sickness

Anti-American sentiment is not a fictional occurrence. Many people in many nations throughout the world harbor ill-will towards the United States and it's citizens for any number of reasons. Last week, Dominique Strauss Kahn (DSK), a French politician and Director of the IMF was arrested in New York City on sexual assault allegations. The crime that is being attributed to DSK is one of a disgusting, humiliating, and degrading nature. This is also not his first time being accused of such a heinous crime, however guilt is hard to pin in he-said, she-said occurrences and that goes for both accuser and the accused. According the BBC and some French media outlets, the US media is the entity being put on trial, though. Apparently, the photos of Kahn's arrest do not sit well with the French and their Anti-American sentiments are awakening from a brief hibernation. They do not like photographing people who still await trial. They deem it to be brutal and inhumane.They have no problem photographing people who are famous, engaging them in a high speed car chase, putting them in extreme peril, and ultimately causing their death. But taking a picture of an alleged criminal after his booking before his official trial is taboo.

I don't know if it is merely their hate for all things American or the fact that sexual assault is merely a seduction tactic in France, but I think the Frenchmen denouncing the US media's tactics should take a look at their own pot before calling our kettle black. I will never deny that the American media is lacking in more ways than one. However, the overseas reaction to the DSK arrest seems to be spawned more from a sick sense of Nationalistic pride from a spineless nation of whiners who never hesitate to come knocking when their soil is endangered. America is not a perfect nation, not by the wildest stretch of the imagination, any American will tell you there are things they don't like about our fair nation. But hating just to hate is a whole other story.

The French are so quick to criticize every move made by the Americans because  they have a preconceived notion that they are better than everyone else. Ironically, citizens of many other nations would say the same thing about Americans and wouldn't be too far off base. Nationalistic pride is nothing to be ashamed of. But when the line is blurred between right and wrong, when people are taking sides blindly based on your passport's origin, it may be time to take a step back and look at the facts.

In America, they say you are innocent until proven guilty. Most people know that the trial in the court of public opinion has it's verdict decided long before a prosecutor presents their opening arguments. The Italian media did it to Amanda Knox. The American media has done it to our own citizens countless times. Nobody is innocent of a little bit of dirty journalism thus nobody is fit to point their finger at somebody else for doing the same. Maybe it's the cultural differences, maybe the US and France will never see eye to eye. Everybody has their day in court and DSK will get his, too. The outcome of his trial should be an interesting one since he was believed by many to be a favorite in France's 2012 Presidential election and has already resigned his post as head of the IMF.

I will leave you with this: Imagine an American politician being accused of sexually assaulting a woman in France. Would the French media be as kind as they suggest?

The Weight

Take a load off Corbett, and you can put that load right on me.

PA governor Tom Corbett has vowed not to raise state taxes, to reduce spending, eliminate a deficit, turn water into wine, lower corporate taxes, layoff employees, and yet somehow increase the commonwealth's tax revenues. Changing water into wine might actually be the most doable of the group after the layoffs.

Many level-headed people have noted that reducing the number of individuals employed while also reducing corporate taxes is probably NOT going to lead to an increase in tax revenue. Just doing a simple bit of associative math, it seems more than probable such a policy would fail. Less People paying Taxes + Plus less Tax Revenue from Corporations= More Tax Revenue? I don't need to be an accountant to tell you that kind of math simply doesn't add up.

So now, for at least the second time in less than 7 days, another Western PA municipality is announcing their plan to raise property taxes in order to offset the cut in state aid to their school districts. So while Corporate Corbett may be right that he personally did not raise state taxes, these local hikes are a not too distant product of his slash and burn education budget.

The same schools that were good enough for his own two children to attend are now left to be the bad guy while he bathes in gas drilling money at the gubernatorial mansion. 

AP IMPACT: CEO pay exceeds pre-recession level

CEO's are now making more then they where in 2007, the year before the Great Recession hit. Unemployment however is still double what it was back then. And that is not including those Working Class Americans who took actual paycuts or found lesser work to keep feeding and housing their families while the richest of the rich climbed their way back comfortably, right back into their fatcat seats.

Stories like this can just make you sick with rage. Remember things like this when we hear talk about how 'raising taxes on the rich will only hurt the economy.' After all the misguided harm these bastards have done, they are making more, and not paying one red cent more in taxes, while the rest of the Country SUFFERS for their mistakes.



By RACHEL BECK, AP Business Writer Rachel Beck, Ap Business Writer – Fri May 6, 8:36 am ET
NEW YORK – In the boardroom, it's as if the Great Recession never happened.

CEOs at the nation's largest companies were paid better last year than they were in 2007, when the economy was booming, the stock market set a record high and unemployment was roughly half what it is today.

The typical pay package for the head of a company in the Standard & Poor's 500 was $9 million in 2010, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data provided by Equilar, an executive compensation research firm. That was 24 percent higher than a year earlier, reversing two years of declines.

Executives were showered with more pay of all types — salaries, bonuses, stock, options and perks. The biggest gains came in cash bonuses: Two-thirds of executives got a bigger one than they had in 2009, some more than three times as big.

CEOs were rewarded because corporate profits soared in 2010 as the economy gradually got stronger and companies continued to cut costs. Profit for the companies in the AP analysis rose 41 percent last year.

More Details and Breakdown are available here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_ceo_pay

Our Country faces record deficits and huge questions about its future ability to provide a comfortable, middle class life style to its working peoples. When are some of these Tea Party folk going to get around to realizing that Government is not the only problem in town, and that these pigs on Wall Street are just as liable for the unenviable situation the vox populi find themselves in?

How has the outrage that has been centered on Barrack Obama's plan to contain healthcare costs and provide better coverage options to all Americans overshadowed the overwhelming question of what are we going to do about the out of control excesses of the Corporate Classes? Where are people in the streets protesting such a blatant economic injustice?

This Flag Bows Before No Earthly King

In case you didn’t hear, they had a little wedding over in England this morning.
If you are one of the millions in the States who are enthralled, enamored, and all wrapped up in this farcical fairy tale, you probably should bail out on this column right now.

You’re still with me? Good.

I do not understand why we in this Country are so smitten with a Monarchy we cast off over 200 years ago. It truly befuddles me. I take pride in our Flag, our Constitution, and our Democratic Republic. Not in some ancient regime which we discarded any allegiance to on the Concord Bridge and in the hallowed Halls of Independence.

This is nothing against the British people, but I despise the very concept of Monarchy, Nobility, and Royalty. The arcane and archaic espousal of power into a familial lineage regardless of their character or qualifications is no legitimate way to determine a Head of State. Who gives them this authority? Is it still some divine right?

At least in modern times they have had the good sense to put a limit upon the powers of this Aristocratic lunacy and the Monarchs whim is no longer the absolute law of the land. The real power is invested in their representative Parliament, and the Monarch in almost all circumstances performs only ceremonial power within the Realm. And if they choose to continue to prop up these antiquated institutions of heralded heredity, then I guess that is their endowed right to do so. Over there. Far away from me.

So why, oh why, do I ask, does the media from the United States cover this outlandish and garish event like it is our own crowning achievement? Are we so starved off from pomp, circumstance and glitterous, glorified extravagance that we need to somehow collectively tap into our obedient collective colonial roots to fixate our infatuation for foppish foolery? I, for one, am sick and tired of being bombastically bombarded with the Royal hullabaloo.

For on July 4th, 235 years gone by, we cast off these tired customs of rulership through arbitrary marriage, life, and death of far off Kings and Queens. We stood up as a nation of Free and Independent People declaring: “enough with your ancient and capricious lordship, our ennobled powers of State shall be invested in the Common Man!”

Our sacred artifacts are not those of Crowns, Carriages, and Trappings of Lordship. They are documents of ink and parchment declaring our Freedoms and Protections from obtrusive intervention by a whimsical Governing Authority. Why can we not celebrate these Freedoms, which are our sacred birthright, as extravagantly as we commemorate far-off nuptials betwixt those whom would station and allot themselves above us in life?

I say what makes our nation great is that we do not sit by and watch as subjects, but instead we take action as free and independent Citizens.

God Save the Common Man

The Rich Get Richer

At least in New York, they will be. Governor Andrew Cuomo is set to allow a surcharge on wealthy taxpayers to expire at the end of this year. The tax applied to high earning individuals and joints filers, starting at $200,000 annually for single filers and $300,000 for married couples. For a married couple earning $350,000 per year, the surcharge was $3,500 or 1%. If this "give back" is supposed to help stimulate the New York economy, then Governor Cuomo may be barking up the wrong tree.

In a recent New York Times article regarding the tax cut, nearly every person with whom the writer spoke said they do not plan to spend any of it but instead will put it into college savings. One individual mentioned that he did not even notice the additional tax when he paid it and didn't mind because he does well financially. Another individual mentioned he won't be spending the extra cash on fancy lunches or extravagant items because he already does that now. While that certainly shows two completely opposite views, a majority of those interviewed still had no plans to further stimulate the economy with their minor windfall.

What I have learned about situations like these, tax cuts for the rich, is just how extremely polarizing they can be. There are many people who are not even close to the top earning brackets, and probably never will be, who blindly support these tax cuts because they envision themselves there someday. There are others, like myself, who know that $3,500 to a couple earning over $350,000 per year means a lot less to them than it would to a couple earning $90,000 per year. I also know that the couple earning $90,000 per year is feeling a lot more of the financial burden in terms of inflation, out of control interest rates, and soaring higher education costs.But with people so quick to side with the "haves" in a nation made up mostly of "have nots", it's unlikely that situation will ever change.

For being one of the richest nations in the world, America is not filled with many people who are actually rich at all. In reality, we have a staggering number of  individuals, nearly 13%, living at or below the poverty line and many well regarded experts feel that is grossly understated. Only 15% of Americans earn over $100,000 per year and only 1.5% over $250,000, yet  there is an abnormally large contingent supporting tax cuts for the highest earning rich despite only making up 1.5% of the population? As someone who works with numbers, that simply doesn't add up but it certainly follows the Golden Rule which states: " The one who has the gold makes the rules".