Displaying 1,801 To 1,830 Of 2,270 Comments GOP Economics – How to Become Taller by Digging Holes And NO a weekly radio address doesn’t cut it in the least. » Posted By funksands On April 12, 2011 @ 11:51 am BDM, what are you saying? Americans are noted for their passion of Professional Chess. » Posted By funksands On April 12, 2011 @ 11:49 am Buddy, I’m kiiiind of with you. Marketing can be about shaping perception. Sometimes it can simply impart awareness. There is a big difference between what is essentially a public service annoucement and political ad. The President, with the biggest marketing “budget” there is can and should use it to inform his employers better about what is going on in our government. (again even after the fact) He is the only person uniquely able to do so. » Posted By funksands On April 12, 2011 @ 11:48 am Ad, I think the President is playing a very sophisticated, high-stakes game on several fronts. Sometimes well, sometimes badly. The big problem is that for the vast majority of Americans, they don’t have the time or energy to perceive, understand or appreciate that effort. I’ve said it before. The administration’s marketing sucks. » Posted By funksands On April 12, 2011 @ 11:00 am BDM, you make the most important point of all. The most brilliant strategy in the world for a politician is one that the voters are aware of. (even after the fact) » Posted By funksands On April 12, 2011 @ 10:52 am Ad, the winning message of the Dems is very simple. There is significant political danger to it, and it will draw every malovolent corporate dollar into every national election. But I think the time is ripe for that fight: Bring our jobs home. We are going to do what every other country on earth does. We are going to incentivize domestic domiciling of both production and headquarters here in the US by ending the tax incentives to ship jobs to other countries. This would bring some jobs home (not all, there are legitimate reasons for outsourcing), fill state and local tax coffers, lower unemployment, reduce our deficit and start chipping away at our debt. It makes sense and its patriotic. This however will bring hell’s fury from the Right and subversion from some in the Middle. A bill to repatriate offshore corporate profits at a 5.7% one-time only rate got filibustered by the GOP and slammed by the Chamber of Commerce, GE, Microsoft, et.al. But the people, the apathetic people, would finally have something to rally around. Study after study shows a spike of 10-15% in turnout when there is a minimum wage bill intiative on the ballot. What would Bring Jobs Home to Your Town turn out? It seems too simple. Poke holes in it please. » Posted By funksands On April 12, 2011 @ 10:45 am Ad: Great post. I think creeping normalcy has gone for so long, that too many workers have forgotten how things used to be: 1950: 39 billion in total federal receipts Income Tax Corporate Tax* Employment Tax* 2008: 2.5 trillion in total federal receipts Income Tax Corporate Tax* Employment Tax* This shift has resulted in a transfer of nearly 3 trillion dollars from the paychecks of workers into the pockets of corporations. And that is a NON-inlfation adjusted number. For example, the 39 billion in revenue today would be worth 349. http://www.jct.gov/publications.html?func=startdown&id=3719 » Posted By funksands On April 11, 2011 @ 10:05 pm Bito, thanks for the link. What’s interesting is that I learned of this during a Bank of New York conference on expected global economic conditions over the next 20 years. On of their big US headwinds? The growing wealth gap in the US. They use the Gini coefficient in some of their own economic and investment modeling. » Posted By funksands On April 11, 2011 @ 12:56 pm Cher, fantasitic work as always. I heard about the Gini coefficient at a conference the other day and thought it was topical given the budget fight. The Gini coefficient is a measure of the inequality of a distribution, a value of 0 expressing total equality and a value of 100 maximal inequality. It has found application in the study of inequalities in disciplines as diverse as sociology, genetics, and economics. It is commonly used as a measure of inequality of income or wealth. Worldwide, Gini coefficients for income range from approximately 23 (Sweden) to 70 (Namibia) although not every country has been assessed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient Let’s see who the United State’s neighbors are on the Gini coefficient scale shall we? Mali 40.1 There you have it folks. The wealth inequality in our nation is now closest to that of Turkmenistan and Senegal. We got it all the way down to 38 in 1968 from a high of 45 in 1921. The GOP is trying its best to take us back to 1921 » Posted By funksands On April 11, 2011 @ 10:53 am I have a lot of clients that are Medicare or nearly Medicare age. Paul Ryan’s plan would put half of them into poverty and greatly diminish the standard of living of another third. My sample size is about 1500. Add on Pete Peterson’s plan for Social Security and it will literally kill millions of seniors. Many by choice. Poll after poll shows what seniors number one fear is: 67%: Running out of money. 33%: Dying. » Posted By funksands On April 11, 2011 @ 11:07 am Time to Stand Up to the Undermining Pundits KT, I am a huge fan of hers. Now in her 3rd? year, she has really found a groove. Her writers and researchers are phenomenal. And what other cable or network opinion show will have the transcript of every word spoken on the show up on the web? » Posted By funksands On April 10, 2011 @ 7:51 pm KT, anyone who does automatically deserves our suspicion. » Posted By funksands On April 10, 2011 @ 7:48 pm “The President must be greater than anyone else, but not better than anyone else. We subject him and his family to close and constant scrutiny and denounce them for things that we ourselves do every day. A Presidential slip of the tongue, a slight error in judgment — social, political, or ethical — can raise a storm of protest. We give the President more work than a man can do, more responsibility than a man should take, more pressure than a man can bear. We abuse him often and rarely praise him. We wear him out, use him up, eat him up. And with all this, Americans have a love for the President that goes beyond loyalty or party nationality; he is ours, and we exercise the right to destroy him.” John Steinbeck – America and Americans (1966) » Posted By funksands On April 10, 2011 @ 4:22 pm The Democratic Scorpions: Always the Sting in Our Own Collective Ass Great post Marion. If half of the energy spent teeth-gnashing was instead directed toward getting liberals appointed to judgeships, county commissioner, school boards, and mayors as was spent on lobbying into the void, we’d already be well on our way to seeding a more-liberal future. Instead, we use our national figures as avatar, which can only lead to frustration, regret and disappointment. Ultra-righties figured this out 30 years ago. We can learn something from them. » Posted By funksands On April 4, 2011 @ 3:40 pm Adonai, that is an interesting question? Is there a third choice? The Hindu Sadhu are solely dedicated to achieving liberation through meditation. Many are ascetics. They have renounced nearly everything except their clothing and enough food to live to tommorow. They are in a legal sense dead to their country as well. Are they moral? Or self-serving? Or are they simply “there”? » Posted By funksands On April 11, 2011 @ 10:13 pm Southern Discomfort – Code Red Marion, I for one a getting really tired of your stereotypes of those of us on the west coast being “really cool” and “awesome people”. Probably the worst one is when you called us “thoughtful”. There are plenty of assholes out here and we’re tired of being lumped in with the rest. 🙂 » Posted By funksands On April 3, 2011 @ 6:06 pm As a refugee from the Ozarks, I can tell you two things: 1) Great piece. 2) My dad’s family would have thought that people that operate by “codes” were pretentious. My grandfather, who didn’t wear shoes the last 12 years of his life operated under one simple principle. “Mind your own damn business”. Thanks again for posting. I really enjoyed this. » Posted By funksands On April 3, 2011 @ 5:11 pm Free Speech and Commenters’ Experiences at The Huffington Post BSM I put in a good word for you over there, all the good that it will do…. » Posted By funksands On April 9, 2011 @ 9:17 pm Hi Greta, and welcome. Good hard-working peeps here. Looking forward to getting to know you better. » Posted By funksands On April 3, 2011 @ 6:01 pm Some Not Very Strong Arguments Against Action in Libya I think that we are injecting ourselves in the middle of a civil war. Anytime that we do that we run the risk of causing problems we do not have solutions to, and perhaps ultimately causing more problems that we solved in the first place. » Posted By funksands On March 22, 2011 @ 8:42 pm We Are Aiding and Abetting the Republicans WTS, I think you completed my thought very well. » Posted By funksands On March 21, 2011 @ 10:26 pm Choice, I guess you and I are just too good for the position. *sniff* » Posted By funksands On March 21, 2011 @ 10:24 pm Obama is perceived to be soft. I don’t think he is, how could anyone be and rise to the heights he has risen? But he is perceived to be. He’s a gentleman, and a thinker, and a comprimiser. He likes to get what he wants without scoring a “win” or being “right”. He’d prefer to talk through a problem rather than wrestle over one. He’s got a cool head and a calm demeanor. He’s self-confident is isn’t a show-off or a chest-thumper. Liberals feel he isn’t “fighting” for them. They’re right. He’s advocating, pushing, tinkering, cajoling, horse-trading. Not fighting. His political opponents lie ouright, distort, demean, ridicule and slander the President on a daily basis. He rises above it, its beneath him. He mentally rolls his eyes, trots out the Press Sec. when things get out of hand, but generally prefers his opponents hang themselves. He’s conducted himself better than I ever could. I would have keyed McConnell’s car about 20 fucking times by now. That’s why I shouldn’t be President. However…..the Presidential demeanor and bearing that that Obama presents is in sharp contrast to the utter manic desperation that many Americans feel. Politically the left feels a noose sliding around their neck. Economically middle and lower-middle class Americans do not see the light at the end of the tunnel and are one paycheck away from debtor’s prison. The people want a fighter. Even a FAKE fighter. They want a well-timed “fuck you” (paraphrasing) to the GOP opposition. They want the President to be in campaign mode even while it is not campaign season. They want something to rally around, something to inspire them. Obama can and has done that time and time again. The fact that he does not continue to do so every day could be a fatal mis-read of the electoral mood. I feel that Obama is actually more like President Obama than Campaign Obama. I think he is a good man who is working hard to hold a lot of shit together. I have some pretty intense policy disagreements with him and his administration, but still plan on voting for him again. » Posted By funksands On March 21, 2011 @ 8:37 pm I was really startled to find how many commonalities that both Presidents shared. » Posted By funksands On April 4, 2011 @ 3:42 pm WTS, wait until part two. Part one is just sad and disgusting. Part 2 is the really awful segment. I share your feelings. » Posted By funksands On April 4, 2011 @ 3:33 pm jkkFL, when hauled up in front of the Senate, the amiable Taft let slip that we were waterboarding Philipino civilians. The resulting uproar nearly cost Taft his job. By no means did all of our government share the opinions and attitudes of the Roosevelt administration. » Posted By funksands On April 4, 2011 @ 3:32 pm KT, I understand where you are coming from. What I found sad but not surprising was that enlightened attitudes about other issues found cozy company with barbaric attitudes about race. What WAS surprising was how much those attitudes shaped the policy of our nation. » Posted By funksands On April 4, 2011 @ 3:30 pm Wisconsin and Learning from Our Mistakes The police shouldn’t strike. Just start handing out warninngs instead of tickets. That should help the deficit. » Posted By funksands On March 10, 2011 @ 2:10 pm Any good thief knows that your best friends are stealth, darkness, and speed. Like all of the ultra-right wing governments to come before them, the coordinated rise of the right can only take place in times of great economic and/or social upheaval. Since there are no prosperous 1st world countries run by their ultra-right wing, history also shows us that ultra-right governments also pass on quickly. Sometimes at the ballot box, sometimes on the battlefield. The corporate kleptocratic GOP and its masters know that the window for looting and destruction is small and fleeting. Speed is of the essence. They only have to stay in power just long enough to steal it all, and then change the rules to make sure they never have to give it back. It’s nothing personal to sharks. They don’t even care if you call them a predator if they get to eat your arm anyway. » Posted By funksands On March 10, 2011 @ 11:39 am Buddy, someone need to buy this fu**er some cocktails…. » Posted By funksands On March 10, 2011 @ 11:49 amComments Posted By funksands
39.9% 45.6% 7.6%
45.4% 28.7% 27.9%
Sri Lanka 40.2
Georgia 40.4
Ghana 40.8
Turkmenistan 40.8
United States 40.8
Senegal 41.3
Cambodia 41.7
Thailand 42
Burundi 42.4
He needs to revamp his marketing. Its shallow, but its real.
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