unastronaut*

Banks knowing Americans couldn’t get out of trouble when they employed predatory lending practices didn’t spur a wave of high-risk, adjustable-rate mortgages. That couldn’t be how it happened. It must be, as President Bush said today, the fault of a slow-as-molasses Congress divided by the fringe elements of both sides. That makes perfect sense.

Scapegoating

The 110th Congress has failed America in many key ways. Inactivity in government can mean the difference of survival and “falling through the cracks”. It doesn’t come close to the devastation that counteractive policy and reform causes the American public. We work harder for less money, but the banks make far more. The average American swaps out name brands for generics as luxury jets, high-ticket jewelry and $10M apartments in Manhattan sell like hot-cakes.

Cronyism

The internet has been the saving grace for many Americans, who know the “truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” is out there somewhere, just not in the mainstream media. Mrs. Edwards, wife of former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, uses the phrase “strobe-light journalism” to describe the outline-only perspective presented by the mainstream media.

…every analysis that is shortened, every corner that is cut, moves us further away from the truth until what is left is the Cliffs Notes of the news, or what I call strobe-light journalism, in which the outlines are accurate enough but we cannot really see the whole picture.

She frames the situation far better than I could, and offers a stronger voice. Although a politician’s wife is no more an expert than any blogger, this truth will receive much more airplay because of her higher profile. I don’t believe the media will actually correct this issue, mostly because “the media” is no more a homogeneous group than “the American people”. A few of the pundits and talking heads are beginning to report more on the real issues, even if they fail to point out basic inaccuracies in the positions of each candidate.

For example, John McCain is able to freely attack Barack Obama over his proposal to raise the capital gains tax. I have yet to hear any journalist correct the statements of McCain, although they frequently play the statement and ponder “will this hurt Obama?” It will if nobody speaks the truth. First take a look at Sen. McCain’s attack on Obama.

Senator Obama says that he doesn’t want to raise taxes on anybody over — making over $200,000 a year, yet he wants to nearly double the capital gains tax. Nearly double it, which 100 million Americans have investments in — mutual funds, 401(k)s — policemen, firemen, nurses. He wants to increase their taxes.

Millions of Americans have investments, most have jobs. The problem is that someone making a living from investments alone end up paying half the taxes of the working people. Low capital gains taxes make investments available to more Americans, but most Americans aren’t making more money to invest. Lower capital gains taxes do benefit average Americans to some degree, but the wealthy to a far greater degree. A post at the DailyKos points out just how fundamentally wrong McCain is on this issue.

Investments contained in 401-K’s (Or in the case of ‘policemen, firemen’ usually a 403-B), pensions, IRAs, tax deferred variable annuities, and similar retirement vehicles aren’t subject to capital gains tax — they’re not taxed at all. Changing the capital gains tax rate will have zero effect on them. Withdrawals from tax deferred accounts by retirees are generally taxed at whatever the income tax rate is for that person at the time of withdrawal (Which, incidentally, is usually a hell of a lot more than the current long term capital gains tax rate, yet another way to rip off the middle class).

Many may dismiss anything from the DailyKos, but anyone with an understanding of our tax code and economy can confirm. Of course, people in the mainstream media discredit “far-left” bloggers at the DailyKos and other sites. The problem is, someone isn’t coming clean, and any deeper research reveals it’s the media. Many bloggers can be wrong about their facts, but they can also hyperlink ’til their heart’s content, allowing anyone reading the story to see the sources. Unfortunately, there exists no such option for the mainstream media. They quote and cite themselves as the expert, and we’re asked to accept it as fact.

I’ve always considered myself a moderate, although I’m sure many would call shenanigans. It’s just harder and harder to maintain any moderate views when our democracy has been so hijacked by ideologues who give most conservatives a bad reputation. A recent poll shows that 53% of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party, which I consider a shame, even though I admit I would like to see a Democrat win in November. A two-party system is divisive in some ways, but it can be divisive to the point of stalemate when the media decides to pick sides and report as a two-party media.

Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post and Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker both deserve some serious credit for putting recent comments by Reverend Wright into real context, as I try to point out any time I see the truth told on TV. On today’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, both attempted to point out that Barack Obama has never aligned himself with the views of Reverend Wright. If he ever had, he’d already be out of this race. We know his pastor and his bowling score, now if only we didn’t have to look so hard for his positions on the issues.

Did you, for example, ever know a single fact about Joe Biden’s health care plan? Anything at all? But let me guess, you know Barack Obama’s bowling score. We are choosing a president, the next leader of the free world. We are not buying soap, and we are not choosing a court clerk with primarily administrative duties. - Elizabeth Edwards

The network CEO received $36.8 million last year, including an $18.5-million cash bonus.

It’s always easy to gripe about the boss, and seemingly easier to pass off the concerns of the common man when the real wealth is on the table. I’ve argued for a long time that we shouldn’t have the disgusting 300 to 1 scale for the hourly wages of an executive versus a labor worker. It’s not like it would spur creativity to limit the top end of what people can make. Not to a ridiculous extent, but this story is a prime example of a CEO being overpaid and not having any effect. Leslie Moonves will never have to come to grips with the fact that what he did moved kids out of colleges and back home to work. He’s got too much money to need a soul. What he, and many (but not all) of his contemporaries, have done by gouging the worker in a time of desperate need.

Americans must work longer hours just to get by with rising gas and food prices and a weak economy. The corporate greed that has become synonymous with “the American way” is sickening. Our leaders stand by doing absolutely nothing after their past actions included entrenching us in an unjust war and deregulating the bank industry in favor of the CEOs of major banking and financial institutions over the American people. It is now harder for Americans to declare bankruptcy and very much easier to get into the position of needing to file for bankruptcy (from health care costs, foreclosure, natural disaster when none of our troops are available for rescue and restore efforts).

We need a president with a strong code of ethics just like we need CEOs and business leaders with a strong code of ethics, or we will be easily manipulated and led into wars or corrupt financial decisions. I am always surprised with how little feedback is heard when the business elite are given ridiculous salaries or bonuses, like Michael Crow at Arizona State University who receives a $600,000 bonus for staying for his entire contract. At Target, CEO Robert Ulrich’s pay increased by ten percent to $20 million even as sales were down.

I’m not at all saying the CEO should make the same amount as the stocker at Target. I just believe there is something wrong with a raise when revenues are down, and going from $12 million to $20 million when most Americans can’t keep up with inflation is actually pathetic. It shows something of your soul when this is the world you choose to create. Some people are given extraordinary power and do absolutely nothing positive with it. Others possess such power and end up a wash, and very few become Gandhi, Dr. King or Benazir Bhutto. I just hope we’re making it clear to kids who they should and should not look up to, I don’t mind the variety I just hope there’s enough editorial comment for young minds.

Throw in the fact that they are reported to be pushing Katie Couric out, although I’ve seen reports that both CBS and Couric deny that story.

The irony about all the “outrage” that’s being manufactured over Barack Obama’s small-town Pennsylvania statement is that it’s coming exclusively from out-of-touch rich people like John McCain and Hillary Clinton, who are making the assumption that this is something small-town Pennsylvanians should be offended by.

I just had to post this. We have this mountain being made out of the little molehills of Obama’s campaign and ludicrous statements and outright lies of McCain and Clinton go by relatively untouched. When will politics as usual end? Hopefully January 20th, 2009 at noon EST we can have a uniting force telling Congress to get things done. Giving them the power to do their jobs back. The cowboy will have dropped the ropes and the bull of our economy and it will let loose.

I just can’t imagine any worse direction to be heading for America. We’ve sold our souls for business and rampant consumerism. Lead-based paint and tainted food aren’t enough to get people to wake up and exercise that little vote you have every time you hold a dollar. Everything purchased is a vote for that product, that company. We are all outraged when there’s something unsafe for our kids on the shelf, but so many people had the cheap Chinese products, I heard fewer parents saying they had nothing to worry about, they bought American products. We either have to realize another nation essential owns our mortgage, or we have to start doing some home improvement on our own.

We need a President who will appoint qualified, intelligent people to high profile and important positions in our government rather than his friends who have done him favors in the past. The next President has his/her work cut out for her/him. It’s like moving into a house you bought at a foreclosure auction and find the previous owner left an irresponsible amount of feces on the walls and stuck into the carpets. Only this would be the White House, and the only thing soiled is the Constitution.

I’m sorry but if you can’t even define “success” to the people who authorize your paycheck, you are not doing a good job. You are the American Ambassador to Iraq, not George Bush’s personal ambassador to Iraq. Start representing the people of this country and finding us a safe way out of that quagmire.

President Reagan’s administration even raised taxes each of the last 7 years following a large cut the first year. At this rate, any of the candidates could come into the White House and crack down on just a few of the leaks in our public cashflow and lower taxes quite a bit. The problem is that our current war is not being funded by us, it is being funded by our children and grandchildren in the form of loans. A war on borrowed money, could you imagine such an evil plot?

“Federal employees charged millions of dollars for Internet dating, tailor-made suits, lingerie, lavish dinners and other questionable expenses to their government credit cards over a 15-month period, congressional auditors say.”

Just the numbers alone in this report make me understand why people hate and distrust the government to the point of not voting. If not paying taxes were an acceptable protest, the government wouldn’t receive 30% of the current revenues. Those Government Accountability Office reports seem to be the only thing worth our tax dollars anymore. Everyone should read this story, wake up and demand more from their government.

It is easy to find analysis and coverage (especially on talk radio) of these studies, but much more difficult to find and examine as a researcher. I am not claiming there aren’t a few scientific studies disproving global warming, but the media blitz set to dumb down and polarize the debate have done an incredible job. You could be led to believe that the debate is raging within the science community, and it’s really not. To what extent humans do negatively and can positively affect our planet is a debate, but the fact that humans have contributed to rapid degradation of some of our vital resources isn’t a question. Some environmentalist causes are complete nonsense, and so are some free market entrepreneurs’ money-making schemes. The point is to have the issues we do agree on sorted out and tackled first, let researchers argue over details and not put every cause and issue under the same umbrella.

A few points of the hype to avoid getting caught up in:

Al Gore’s theory of global warming - This is not one man’s theory, this is one man’s philanthropic goal and a majority of scientist’s viewpoint on climate change and the effects humans can have on the planet. If you’re attaching Al Gore’s name to everything Green, you’ve been swindled by someone. He’s involved, but he doesn’t get a cut of your tax credit for making your home more energy efficient.

Not every environmental issue is global warming - They shouldn’t even be billed as such, the umbrella of Green has put the stamp of sloganized consumerism all over anything remotely friendly for the environment. For example: if you think we can breathe for long on this planet after we’ve clear-cut every forest, you’re wrong. If you think we’ll cure many more diseases when the rain forest frog population has gone extinct. That isn’t to say we chain ourselves to trees, but stop the PR campaigns and admit what the agreed problems are, there are many.

Gas prices are about economics, not the environment - If you had 100 diamonds and only 3 people wanted to buy them, how would you go about maximizing your profit? If you now still have only 100 diamonds and thousands of people want them, would you leave prices the same? This is much the same as the gas price debacle. It has nothing to do with profiteering oil companies. If anything they take more risks being where they are in the Middle East and being liable for employees who need serious protection. This doesn’t make it right, but they aren’t gouging us during a war time. Something different is happening: India and China are developing. In the same way our population and way-of-ease exploded in the twentieth century, so are those of India and China as we speak. That means the teenagers of wealthy parents might be driving a car to school. That means more two-car homes. That means two countries with populations over a billion apiece have more drivers on the road. Demand goes up, prices go up. We need to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil and all fossil fuels if we are to stay ahead in this world. It’s the American thing to do.

This was all sparked by a blog by Charles Wheelan, an economist and columnist for Yahoo! discussing the problem with job conversion to overcome skill jobs lost overseas and due to a slumping economy, and his link to how a lack of education is part of the issue. I would say to Dr. Wheelan he’s accepted an incomplete idea when he looks at statistics like unemployment rate by education to justify his hypothesis, that we cannot use empty buildings and available labor workers to train and build a new green energy infrastructure.

Although I generally agree with Dr. Wheelan, this just isn’t a very solid argument. His thought experiment can be considered another way: how many screw-ups do you know who still never lost their shot at a good job because of their situation at birth? How many hard-working people (or people at all) do you know in the poorest neighborhoods and rural areas in our country? Education is another indicator, a symptom maybe, but not the direct cause of anything. This argument falls flat at the point you realize pursuing an education (for some even beyond 8th grade) is not an equal opportunity. You can easily make it look like a race argument, but it’s truly just another sad testament to the shrinking middle-class. Here are my skillful questions:

Are standardized tests in wealthy, well-served schools the same as those in schools in the Phoenix area which do not have any maps in their history classrooms (except for the few instances where the teachers were able to provide one?

Are the common jobs people do around those same schools similar in any way? Is the school surrounded by Doctor’s and Dentist’s offices tested using the same material as those who walk by a Church’s chicken and a row of unused (except for the loitering junkies) office spaces?