Article of the day: Failure to Enact Bigger Stimulus was Fatal Mistake

Failure to Enact Bigger Stimulus Was Fatal Mistake

by Mark Weisbrot

As expected, the Democrats took big losses in the midterm Congressional elections on Tuesday, holding on to the Senate but losing the House. It is typical for the party of the President to lose some seats in midterm elections, and it is doubtful [1] that this election result represents the beginning of another conservative era. But the Democrats’ losses were big by any measure.

The overwhelming reason for the Democrats’ losses was their failure to take the necessary measures to ensure a robust recovery from the recession.

This is a case where it clearly would have been better to fight for something that you want, and lose, than fight for what you don’t want, and win. Had the Democrats fought for a stimulus large enough to move unemployment to more normal levels over two years – and lost the battle in Congress – they would at least have a case that they tried and were stymied by the Republicans.

To read more:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/05-12



Article of the Day: Economist -- Deficit Cuts Mean More Unemployment

by Dean Baker

co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research

. . . .   Just to add enough jobs to keep the unemployment rate constant, the economy has to grow at a 2.5% rate. In the absence of some unexpected change in policy, we will not see the economy growing at this pace any time soon, which means that the unemployment rate will be rising. We can expect it to cross 10% in the not-distant future and likely to remain in double-digit levels through most of 2010.

The outrageous part of this story is that the pain is completely preventable. We know how to create jobs. It is really simple; we just have to spend money – people work for it. Unfortunately, the fiscal scolds, the people who were too lost to see the largest financial bubble in the history of the world, are telling us that we have to cut our deficits and tighten out belts.

It is probably worth noting that nearly all of the fiscal scolds earn at least six-figure salaries and many earn in the seven figures. So, we have an amazing sight here. People who earn hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars a year, who have the job of designing economic policy, completely failed on the job.

This can't be emphasised enough. Missing the housing bubble was an act of astounding incompetence for an economist. This is driving the school bus into oncoming traffic; it is the kitchen cook burning down the restaurant; it is the computer technician causing a complete freeze of the company's systems.

None of these highly-paid, highly-educated people got fired or even missed a promotion. Instead, they are running around telling people earning $20,000-30,000 a year that they have to tighten their belts and accept lower social security benefits.

If politics and the media in the United States were not so corrupt, this would have been topic No1 in the election. Candidates would have been pushing plans to aggressively stimulate the economy and to throw the Wall Street crowd in jail. But a candidate who said such things would not get enough money to run a serious campaign, because you need to court the Wall Street types to pay for a campaign these days. And the media would have ignored and/or ridiculed such a candidate.

So, we have an election based largely on nonsense. People are rightly angry that their lives are being ruined by disastrous economic policy. But they have no idea where to turn. And the latest data tell us that the situation is likely to get much worse in the year ahead.

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research 

read the whole article at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/10/29-4

Article of the Day: Candidate uses satire to protest lack of coverage

28 October 2010

Detroit News

After a long campaign season with bitter, biting attacks, nothing soothes Insider like some good political satire. So hats off to George Corsetti , the Green Party candidate running for the 13th District U.S. House seat against state Sen. Hansen Clarke , D-Detroit, and Republican John Hauler .

Upset with WXYZ-TV Channel 7 for not including coverage on his outside bid for the seat held by ousted Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick , D-Detroit, Corsetti fired off a satirical press release titled " George Orwell Now Working at WXYZ-TV."Insider thinks Orwell would be proud of Corsetti's protestations over WXYZ's noncoverage of third party candidates: "Whenever I see the words Green Party or Libertarians I just chuck 'em down the memory hole," Corsetti "quoted" Orwell as saying, a nice takeoff on the book "Nineteen Eighty-Four."

But alas, the famed political novelist isn't working at the Southfield-based station — Orwell died in 1950.

WXYZ political director Chuck Stokes couldn't be reached for comment; perhaps he was brushing up on his Newspeak?

http://detnews.com/article/20101028/POLITICS02/10280375/Candidate-uses-satire-to-protest-lack-of-coverage

Today's press release: George Orwell spotted working at WXYZ

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
19 October 2010

                             GEORGE ORWELL NOW WORKING AT WXYZ-TV

George Orwell was seen alive and well working at WXYZ-TV/Channel 7.  Orwell, thought to be dead years ago,  is the new director of the TV station’s "Democracy 2010" project.  Orwell, famous for inventing catchy phrases that disguise their true meaning, called Newspeak, took credit for naming the series "Democracy 2010."

He said his primary task at WXYZ’s Democracy 2010 is to suppress all references to third party candidates.  "Whenever I see the words Green Party or Libertarians I just chuck 'em down the memory hole," Orwell said.

“For example, none of the "Democracy 2010" video interviews include third party candidates and the "Complete Voter Guide" only has information about Democrats and Republicans,” said Orwell.  "I insisted on using the word 'complete,'" said Orwell, grinning.

He also admitted to secretly working with Democrats and Republicans for years.  He claimed credit for naming the Patriot act, No Child Left Behind, and the words "free trade" as in NAFTA.

Chuck Stokes, editorial/public affairs director for WXYZ-TV/Channel 7, had no comment on the Orwell's employment status.  Stokes denied any censorship at WXYZ and claimed his TV station had, "recently installed a new computer program that automatically deletes all references to so-called third parties."

"I heard people refer to the Democrats and Republicans as two wings of the same bird," Stokes said, "but all that talk is downright Un-American and wont be tolerated at my station.  Besides, we talk about the Tea Party all the time and they're a kind of third Party.  There's no censorship at WXYZ."

Paraphrasing Henry Ford he said, "People can vote for anyone they want as long as it's a Democrat or Republican."

See WXYZ-TV candidate bios and videos here: http://www.wxyz.com/subindex/news/political/elections_local
                                                                      
                                                                                # # # #

CONTACT GEORGE CORSETTI 313 885-4685
Green Party Congressional Candidate for 13th District, Michigan
http://www.george-corsetti.org/
gcorsetti@ameritech.net

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Slash Military Spending

How Many Millions More for the Pentagon?

By WINSLOW T. WHEELER

Since Sept. 11, 2001, Congress and the Defense Department have added more than $2 trillion to the Pentagon budget. About half that increase covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the rest covered the "base" (non-war) parts of the Defense Department. Against all logic, the extra money made our military forces mostly smaller and older.

The Air Force, for example, got a budget increase of 43 percent, but the combat air fleet shrank by 51 percent. If the plans for the next few years go perfectly, the Congressional Budget Office tells us, the major equipment inventories will get even more outdated, as they shrink further.

It has likely been the most relentless squandering of resources the federal government has perpetrated since the end of World War II......

Read More:http://www.counterpunch.org/wheeler10252010.html

Winslow T. Wheeler spent 31 years working on Capitol Hill with senators from both political parties and the Government Accountability Office, specializing in national security affairs. Currently, he directs the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information in Washington. He is author of The Wastrels of Defense and the editor of a new anthology: ‘America’s Defense Meltdown: Pentagon Reform for President Obama and the New Congress’.



Article of the day: The Perfect Storm by Robert Reich

How the rich got richer, the return of the robber Barons, and there’s no jobs bill to speak of.

It’s a perfect storm. And I’m not talking about the impending dangers facing Democrats. I’m talking about the dangers facing our democracy.

First, income in America is now more concentrated in fewer hands than it’s been in 80 years. Almost a quarter of total income generated in the United States is going to the top 1 percent of Americans.

The top one-tenth of one percent of Americans now earn as much as the bottom 120 million of us.

Who are these people?

Read more:

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/10/19-1