Americans Are Sheep

Andrew Napolitano speaks about Americans as sheep on Fox news. You know where I stand on civil rights. I think Americans are sheep as Napolitano suggests. Americans blindly trust the government rhetoric and surrender civil liberties without discussion, a fight, or even a care really.

An Argument For Prudence On Global Warming

I've always felt that we can't afford to be wrong on the global warming issue. Would it kill us to take the possibility of it seriously even if it turns out to be a "natural cycle"? Though this video takes an extreme stance on both arguments the logic is clear. By taking global warming seriously we are reducing our risk. I understand this because I do the same kind of thing with my investment portfolio. It's called hedging the risk.

Politcal Cartoon About a Virtual Border

The Associated Press: Moussaoui Judge Questions Government

The Associated Press: Moussaoui Judge Questions Government

Nobody supports terrorists. But how can we function as a free and democratic society if our government cannot be trusted to produce all evidence it has in it's cases. The CIA and FBI have incredible leeway in dealing with their classified information. They withheld information that would have hurt their case against Moussaoui. They can classify information and hide it under the guise of national security at will and there is little that can be done about it. Even a federal judge has difficulty making the information available to all who should have access to it during a trial.

This may seem justifiable during a terrorist case, but how can we suspend our national values to prosecute those who want to destroy our national values? We will become just another corrupt judicial system run with strings attached by the executive branch. But this can't happen right? This is America.

Feds' budget tricks hide trillions in debt - MSN Money

Feds' budget tricks hide trillions in debt - MSN Money

It is staggering the sheer amount of money this country overspends and how they play with the numbers to hide billions upon billions in overspending.

With the middle class getting the knock out punch from inflation (food price increases, gas, medical insurance) there isn't a very strong base to pull us out of this when the social security problems begin to hit.

Intelligentguess - Analysis of Market Economics » USA - Relationship between Total Debt ( data from 1929) and External debt as a % of the GDP (data from 1995)

Intelligentguess - Analysis of Market Economics » USA - Relationship between Total Debt ( data from 1929) and External debt as a % of the GDP (data from 1995)

I've talked a lot about the Republican cut and spend policy and how it is hurting out country. Here is a nice graphic illustration. It's a graph of the national debt as a percentage of GDP. Look at how in recent years what has happened under Republican Presidents. They increase spending but reduce revenue in the form of tax cuts. The size of government has grown incredibly under George W which is normally a trait of the Democrats.

I'd actually support a cut and cut policy if it reduced the national debt. Cut and spend is damaging the future of the country.

Report: Americans getting poorer - MSN Money

Middle Class Squeeze

I'm a little fearful of the current state of our middle class. Anyone who is middle class like myself has been under a squeeze for the past few years. I know the inflation index is something like 3% per year, but that index doesn't take into account all of the costs the pile up on the middle class. Our tax burdens have increased, health care costs go up 5% on a good year, more on every other year. Gas has taken a heavy toll. Even granny on social security thinks long and hard every time she gets behind the wheel to go to the store. Wages don't seem to be able to go up enough to compensate. Companies are transferring health care insurance increases onto their workers. I can't blame them as they can't absorb the increases either.

My father was a union pipefitter during the booming 80's. Everything was going great as the ecomomy was going gang busters. I remember when the union voted down a $5 pay raise because it wasn't enough. And this was 1980 dollars. Then Reagon ordered them back to work with a pay freeze. Oops.

It was feasible for families to have only one bread winner and a stay at home parent. Our standard of living continued to go up. And it kept going up into the 90's. It wasn't necessarily a gang buster economy that kept the standard on the rise, it was the introduction of the 2 parent income. Mom and dad both worked and their combined income was better than 1 80's income. Our houses got bigger, our cars got bigger.

And so here we are now. We don't have a third worker to give our middle class families that boost in income. In fact, that two parent income under the pressures of inflation is only doing what 1 income did in the 80's.

People have been predicting the death of the consumer for a long time and again and again the consumer has risen on their plastic. I'm afraid this time the consumer is tapped.

This article talks a little bit about the topic. It is inconsistant and shows how difficult it is to track how our wages compare to other places. It is an interesting read though and worth browsing through.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/ReportSaysAmericansGettingPoorer.aspx

Overestimating the cost of Iraq?

Republicans Seek Retraction of Report on Wars' 'Hidden Costs'

There are many unrecorded costs of the war in Iraq and it's piling up. The Bush administration grossly underestimated the cost of the war and when some Democrats put in their numbers which could possibly be on the high side (though I think in the end they won't be) the Republicans are all up in arms about it. Your cost of the Iraq war is somewhere around $20,000 per household.

Honestly, I'd rather see estimates on the high side that come in lower, than gross underestimates of the total costs. Those numbers of course don't take into consideration the price the soldiers themselves have paid.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty?

It all started with Rush Limbaugh saying innocent until proven guilty is for the courts he doesn't have to follow it. Then there were people like Nancy Grace ready to execute anyone in her path before court. In the aftermath of September 11th, the Constitution was somehow buried in the rubble along side the thousands of victims. People used to hold out judgement and carefully listen and weigh out both sides of an argument. Innocent until proven guilty meant something outside of the courtroom. We as Americans viewed ourselves as a superior culture because we had the freest society. We had something to brag about.

But now we have a culture of quick reaction, quick judgement, and even quicker execution. What is the result of our quick action without weighing the consequences? We get poor laws passed like the Patriot Act. We pass laws to take the thinking and thought process out of decision making. We jump gung-ho into a war in Iraq based on fictional accounts rather than factual accounts of the situation. We tolerate the blatant disregard of our Constitution by our intelligence networks. We believe what we want to hear. We see what we want to see, and that is seldom where the truth lies. We pass laws that limit our public discourse and we create a culture where opposing views are seen as impediments rather than pillars.

Take a deep breath America. In your fast paced society where every moment is filled with something, your survival into the next century depends on preserving a few quiet reflective moments. When did we begin looking at the Constitution as if it were a souvenir?

MSNBC Video

O'Reilly can behave like a pervert but nobody else can. Bill criticizes J.K. Rowlings for gay Dumbledore, but can make suggestive menage a trois comments as if that is perfectly okay. Yet again the Republican right wing has a high standard of conduct for everyone but themselves. I have no problem with the menage a trois, but just don't tell me you are on some higher moral ground than the rest of us.

MSNBC Video

Political Cartoon- McCain and Giuliani Walk Through New York

Cable Channel Nods to Ratings and Leans Left - New York Times

Nice to know someone criticizing Bush rather than kissing his ass is improving in ratings. Take note Republican talk radio.

Glenn Greenwald - Political Blogs and Opinions - Salon

Want to learn how to become nonaccountable for your actions? Take some lessons from Bush.