“If the IRS taxed the wealthiest 400 at the rate it did when Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House, it would collect $35.9 Billion more.” – The Nation 4/27/2009 See the Institute for Policy Studies Reversing the Great Tax Shift: Seven Steps to Finance Our Economic Recovery Fairly
Considering that I am both doing NaNoWriMo AND have just moved, I don’t have time right now to formulate my utter (although predicted) disappointment in Obama’s cabinet choices, especially his economic choices. Instead I’m offering my dear readers (are there any really??) a smattering of articles that might give some insight – especially for progressives who think Summers & Geithner are good choices (and I’m not even taking into consideration the fact that Summers thinks that women just aren’t good at science): About the Advisory Board – Paul Krugman’s suggested picks. Why oh why Paul won’t you do it??Return of Wall Street Hustlers – Think that Rubin & Clinton aren’t partially responsible for this economic mess? Think again.State Banks Could Solve Financial Crisis – why not get the good part of...
Due to NaNoWriMo (and its textbook like qualities), I decided to split up my reading of On the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith’s definitive work on capitalism. So here are a cropping of quotes of Book 1: Of the causes of Improvement in the productive powers of labour, and of the Order according to which its Produce is naturally distributed among the different Ranks of the People. Is this improvement in the circumstances of the lower ranks of the people to be regarded as an advantage or as an inconveniency to the society? The answer seems at first sight abundantly plain. Servants, labourers and workmen of different kinds, make up the far greater part of every great political society. But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the...
Before we have any discussion about voter fraud, we need to clarify the difference between voter registration fraud and voter fraud. Voter Registration Fraud is when Mickey Mouse registers to vote. For this to be an issue at all, a fake voter registration form needs to be turned in (actually, it’s legally required that is turned in) then election officials need to someone how not realize that Mickey Mouse isn’t a real person and then someone who claims to be Mickey Mouse needs to show up and actually vote. Oh and this would need to happen hundreds of thousands of times to have any affect on an election. Vote Fraud on the other hand is when someone who isn’t allowed to vote for whatever reason actually does vote. ACORN “committed” voter registration fraud … sort of. ACORN, like most organizations that register voters or petition, often pays people by...
This is an issue close to my heart: Campaign Responses to Questions from The Association for Women in Science & The Society of Women Engineers Obviously I’m biased, but McCain really comes off and not knowing anything about the issue. His answers are much shorter than Obama’s, he doesn’t show that he even knows what the initiatives they are asking about are, and his focus seems generally to be on education. What about female scientists, engineers, and mathematicians working right now? McCain’s only real input is to say that he will create a presidential commission to study the issue. Why? There is a plethora of research out there on these issues. To me, this just says that he doesn’t care enough to get informed and he doesn’t want to committ to a decision. At the very least, it becomes clear that this is an issue that the Obama/Biden campaign...