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In November Californians will have an opportunity to shout “NO!” to Big-Oil. 

SOME BACKGROUND:  California’s new clean air law, the Global Warming Solutions Act — AB 32 — was passed four years ago in order to hold industry accountable for their pollution, and is California’s landmark clean-air legislation.  This law puts California in the forefront of the new clean-technology industry by jump-starting innovation and the new clean energy businesses.  Hundreds of thousands of new jobs are being created in California and once again California is leading the nation in the new economy.  

So, natually, oil companies are doing all they can to keep California and the country hooked on oil – with San Antonio-based Valero Energy and Tesoro Corp. in the lead.   They’re claiming to want to protect us and save jobs in our communities.  In fact, Silicon Valley investors who are backing so many of the new green technology companies, tell us that passing Prop 23 will COST California 500,000 jobs! 

Lost jobs, falling further and further behind other countries in the new green businesses, continuing to pollute the air we breathe, and remaining hooked on oil.  That’s what Big-Oil wants for America.  Makes you wonder, doesn’t it, if these Texas oil men really have our country’s best interest at heart?  Geez — and they called us unpatriotic when we questioned the Iraq war!  

Essentially being hooked on oil means being hooked on foreign oil, because we don’t have enough oil to supply our needs, and so to be hooked on oil means buying two-thirds of our oil from foreign sources.  Period. 

If enacted by voters, Prop 23 would freeze the provisions of AB 32 until California’s unemployment rate drops to 5.5% or below for four consecutive quarters.  California’s unemployment rate, which currently is around 12%, has been at 5.5% or below for four consecutive quarters only three times since 1980! 

Clearly, Prop 23 is essentially an attempt by Big-Oil to kill California’s anti-pollution law and keep the state and the country on the oil standard.

C A L I F O R N I A  —  V O T E  N O  ON  P R O P O S I T I O N  2 3 !

So, somehow I’ve managed to move through the 5 steps of grieving over the mid-term elections and arrived at a really hopeful and peaceful place about the future of the country.  Whether the Dems lose both the House and the Senate, just one, or lose neither and end up with more Repubs elected (and “nut-case Repubs” at that) I think that it’s soon going to become clear that the Republican Party is going to go the way of the Whig Party.  They appear to be a party in the death-throes-of-self destruction.

And, there are frankly just more of us than there are of them.  The Repubs are older, whiter, and meaner — and frankly out-of-step with where the American people are politically.  They are backward looking, longing for the-good-old-days — and the American people have always been forward looking.

The GOtP is whistling Dixie (actually, “Dixie” in more than a metaphorical sense!) in their exuberance to enact their archaic Conservative ideas — well, I guess we should say “re-enact.”  They may think they have a mandate to kill Social Security and Medicare, but they DON’T!

It’s true, public confidence in government is almost non-existent.  But, according to a new study done by Hart Research Associates for the Center for American Progress, “clear majorities of Americans of all ages want and expect more federal involvement in priority areas such as energy, poverty, and education,” the poll found.

What the American people are looking for is effective government, not small government — improved government performance by instituting reform that would kill programs that are not working and adopting more modern management methods, and implementing new information technologies. 

The American people’s disappointment in government is because of government performance rather than an ideological belief in small government.  Those surveyed indicated they would favor a political candidate who offers a reform agenda that would improve government efficiency and effectiveness. 

Essentially, the American electorate wants a government doing what works!  The survey also found a high level of confidence that government can be improved and a desire for that to happen. 

And, Republicans believe their call for repealing the health care reform legislation will help them be victorious in November.  But it’s not at all clear that they’re reading the American people accurately.  According to a recent AP poll the number of Americans who think that the health care law would’ve been better if it had done MORE, and gone further, outnumber those who want government to keep hands-off of health care by 2-to-1!

So, I’ve decided to stop being depressed and pessimistic.  Our problem as Progressives is that our idealistic hearts get impatient, but patience is what is needed right now.  IT’S GONNA BE OKAY.  JUST REMEMBER:

T H E  W H I G  P A R T Y  I S  “N O   M O R E”  &  T H E  G O t P  C A N ‘ T  B E  F A R  B E H I N D!

“PLEDGE TO AMERICA” LIES

At some point, we can’t continue to pretend that “it’s just politics, and both sides do it.”  Maybe.  But the sheer VOLUME of lying by the Right is so overwhelming that it becomes impossible to keep quiet.  So, here goes — on just this one subject.

• “PLEDGE TO AMERICA” First of all, they claim it’s a grassroots-inspired pledge.  That’s a joke.  It was written by a lobbyist for AIG, Exxon Mobil, and Pfizer. 

• Second, they claim that they didn’t include a ban on earmarks in their document because they already had a moratorium on earmarks, despite the FACT that their moratorium expires even before the beginning of the next Congress.

• Minority Whip, Eric Cantor falsely asserts that the increase in the national debt under President Obama “has exceeded that which the country has incurred over the last 200 years.”  DON’T LET THE FACTS GET IN YOUR WAY!  The debt was $10.6 trillion on the very day that the President was sworn into office.  Since that time, the debt has gone up an additional $2.8 trillion — and most of that increase comes from a huge drop in tax revenues due to unemployment AND to the Bush Tax Cuts.  So the assertion that President Obama is responsible for more debt over the past 18 months than had been racked up in the previous TWO CENTURIES is a shocking LIE.

• Republican’s “Young Guns” in the House of Representatives claim their “Pledge to America” will rein in deficit spending.  What a joke.  Here are the FACTS:  The fiscal policies, that the GOtP would return the country to, would give us a budget deficit that would be $200 billion BIGGER in 2020 than under the President’s budget.  Over the following 10 years the GOtP pledges to give America $1.5 trillion MORE in deficits than the President’s budget.  Check out this comparison graph.

L I E S  — L I E S — L I E S !

Well known and deeply respected investor Warren Buffett — along with some of the biggest names in business — declared in the last few weeks that the country and world will not fall into another recession. 

“I am a huge bull on this country.  We are not going to have a double-dip recession at all,” said Buffett, chairman of Omaha, Nebraska based Berkshire Hathaway Inc.  “I see our businesses coming back across the board.”

According to Buffet, the banks are lending money again and businesses are hiring.  “This country works,” Buffett said at the Economic Development Summit in Montana. “The best is yet to come.”   

Buffett, along with Steve Ballmer of Microsoft Corp and GE Chairman Jeff Immelt, told the gathering of almost 2,000 business leaders, government officials and others at the summit that the economy is improving. 

Ballmer said that advancement in technology and invention will soon overtake the Internet era, and that it would drive growth in business.  “I am very enthusiastic what the future holds for our industry and what our industry will mean for growth in other industries, ” Ballmer said.  “All areas of science today are moving forward more quickly,” Ballmer said. “The speed of scientific breakthrough is accelerating.”

Ballmer foresees new technologies that will eventually tie together computers, phones, televisions and data centers and will create new products.  He says that the pace of innovation will speed up as new technologies make workers even more productive.

He believes new technologies that move beyond the Internet to tie together computers, phones, televisions and data centers will create amazing new products. And the pace of innovation will increase as technology makes workers more productive.

Immelt said that the rage in the political sphere is unhelpful and that the media is too focused on finding negative indicators.  He states clearly that the GE business, which is one of the world’s largest companies, is improving.

He said that manufacturing is the key to the future for our economic growth, and that we need to reduce the trade deficit.  Immelt said that America will need to adjust and move from a consumer-credit driven economy, and away from the service economy we had drifted into.

“It was just wrong. It was stupid. It was insane,” Immelt said of the push for a service-based economy. “The future of the economy has to be as an exporter.”

More investment is needed.  We need to grow technology innovation, exports, and both clean energy and affordable health care need to be at the top of the list of concerns for our leaders.

Immelt also said that the polarizing political environment makes it more difficult for our nation to develop a national energy policy.  He urged business leaders and local governments to come up with their own local solutions.

“Anger is not a strategy. Anger does not create growth. Only optimism creates growth,” he said. “Be the contrarian. Everyone is mad today. Be happy.”

GOtP’s SMALL BUSINESS DEFINITION = A JOKE!

Republicans and Tea Partiers (same thing — the GOtP) tell us that the top 2% of income earners will lead the way in job growth because it includes many small businesses — therefore job growth will be boosted by making W.’s tax cuts for the wealthy permanent.  They also tell us that 50% of small business profits go to people in the top 2% of small business income earners, to  back up their false claim. 

Let’s examine that claim:  what they’re telling us is  that their definition of a “small business” is based on how business income is reported to the IRS (rather than the actual size of the business ) — and is actually income from “sole proprietorships, income from rental real estate, royalties, partnerships, sub chapter S corporations, estates and trusts, and real estate mortgage investment conduits (Schedule E); and farm income (Schedule F), as would be reported on lines 12, 17, and 18 of the 2010 Form 1040” according to Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman.

So, authors with book royalties, along with the income of doctor’s offices and law offices, hedge fund managers, etc. are classified as “small businesses” — not too likely to be leading the hiring and job creation that the GOtP is claiming.

Sub chapter S is not a part of my daily word usage, so I turned to a former CEO of my personal acquaintance, for clarity.  It seems that sub chapter S is a term used by the IRS to describe corporations that are privately owned and where the income derived from the business is transferred directly to the owners.  Many of these sub chapter S corporations (as it turns out) are not “small businesses” but are in fact mega international conglomerates — Price Waterhouse, Bechtel and Koch Industries for instance. 

We all know that the engine of job growth comes from small businesses and NOT from large international corporations, so the GOtP has conveniently changed the definition of “small businesses,”  so they can give these tax breaks to their friends and donors.  To classify all businesses that are a sub chapter S as “small” only because they are privately owned is basically dishonest. 

A more accurate definition of a small business, according to this former CEO, might be:  “any business that has less than $50 million a year in revenue, for instance;  or maybe it could be any business with less than 500 employees, rather than as all sub chapter S corporations — many of which are, in actuality, huge businesses.” 

The GOtP has asserted that “the top 2% of “small businesses” account for 50% of the profits of small businesses in total.  With this assertion they basically have admitted that they’ve inflated the “profits” number of small businesses by lumping huge mega-corporations into their definition of “small businesses.”  These large sub chapter S corporations are NOT the engine of job growth — true small businesses are.

So, according to the GOtP we  need to plunge our nation trillions of dollars into debt — by borrowing the money from China — in order to give tax breaks to hedge fund managers, doctors and lawyers, and large privately owned mega-corporations.

Raising the top marginal income tax rate on the highest income earners might impact in a modest way 2% of true small businesses.  And, the administration and the congress are trying with all their might to get tax breaks to these very people — and without much help from the GOtP — in order to off-set any change in the tax code.  

Well, we know for sure whose side they’re on:  and it’s not on the side of middle-class Americans.

***JOBS FOR NEW GRADS:  A bit of good news for the 2011 college graduates is brought to light in The National Association of Colleges and Employers Report — job prospects are looking up!  The biggest jumps are in the Midwest and West where projections are that employers will be hiring 13.5% more new grads than in 2010.

NRA LIES — AGAIN:  The National Riffle Association is claiming credit for the 3 year decline of violent crime in our country.  The NRA proclaims that the 2009 rise in gun sales is responsible for the fall in crime.  Gun sales have gone up all right:  gone up in response to right-wing fear mongering that “Obama’s gonna come git yer guns!”  Which resulted in…?  Yep, you guessed it, gun sales went up among right-wingers, who already had an arsenal.

Gun ownership by household has gone DOWN.  In 1977 54% of households had guns, and in 2009 that number’s 33%.

We would be the safest citizens in the world if more guns meant less crime.  80% of people in the industrialized world who die from bullets are Americans, and the truth is that more gun violence is the result of more guns.

***GOTP HYPOCRICY — AGAIN!:  This small, but irritating, thought occurred to us this week — why is it that Hillary Clinton was so totally demonized by the Right for keeping her maiden name, Hillary Rodam, (and even continued to receive ridicule after she added “Clinton” becoming Hillary Rodam Clinton) BUT the Right seems to have no problem at all with Liz Cheney, who is married  —and presumably not to a cousin?!?

***GOTP TO REPEAL THE AFFORDABLE CARE LAW (HEALTH CARE REFORM):  The Republicans have finally revealed their new document with their plans for the country, in the event that they take over the House/Senate.  Not a surprise, the Repubs say if elected, they will repeal the new health care law and replace it with one of their own.  What is a surprise is that 7 of the things in their own plan are actually in the existing law that they plan to repeal. 

And, the Wonk Room points out that the “Republican Pledge to America” doesn’t tell voters how they plan to offset the $140 billion increase in the deficit, that will be the result of repealing the ACA.  They actually have no plans to lower health care spending, and the repeal of the ACA will actually bend the cost curve up!

***AMERICANS UNAWARE OF OUR WEALTH INEQUALITY:  In a new study, majorities of Americans underestimate the income inequality in our nation today.   AND, they actually are supportive of a “more equal distribution of wealth.”  The study was conducted by Duke University’s Dan Ariely and Michael Norton of Harvard Business School.  Crossing all ideological, economic and even gender groups, Americans way underestimated the amount of wealth controlled by the top 20% of our society.  Americans believe that the richest 20% control about 59% of our wealth, but the actual number is almost 84%.  And, in all demographic groups (including Republicans and the wealthy) there was a desire for a more equal distribution of wealth than we currently have in our nation — they believed that the top 20% should own only 32% of the wealth.  

When presented with 2 unlabeled pie charts, one representing the wealth distribution of the US (top 20% control 84% of the wealth) and another of Sweden (top 20% only control 36% of wealth), without knowing which country they were picking:  92% picked Sweden as the country they’d rather live in.

THE RIGHT IS NOT SERIOUS ABOUT DEFICITS

After the GOP turned Clinton’s record surplus into record deficits, they have yet to present a serious solution to rein in our country’s deficits.  They are only offering the same old trickle-down voo-doo policies that created our mess in the first place.  NO NEW IDEAS.

The tax “plan” that Minority Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell is proposing calls for making permanent the Bush tax-cuts for the super-wealthy, which would almost double the deficit and boost it $4 trillion in the next 10 years.  Republicans are playing games by suggesting that this gift to the wealthy would be off-set by a spending freeze that would only save $3 billion in 10 years.  And yet — they don’t even let us in on what they’d freeze or cut!

Yep, it’s the same-old-same-old economic ideology that has severely damaged our economy and devastated the middle-class.  It’s tax-cuts for millionaires and billionaires that will solve all our problems, according to the GOTP — GRAND OLD TEA PARTY.

While the GOTP is screaming about the deficit, they want to ADD almost $4 trillion to it by borrowing that amount from China to give tax breaks to the upper-class — the least effective stimulus option according to economists and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

According to the CBO the GOTP plan would force the country to borrow an additional $3.9 trillion over the next 10 years.  The impact of extending these tax-cuts to the top income recipients is four times bigger than the combination of the health care reform and the stimulus package — which were both demagogued by the GOTP as “not affordable.”

The GOTP isn’t serious about deficit reduction — they’re playing election-year politics and standing by the lobbyists and their special interests.

They still have no new ideas or plans to help dig us out of this ditch — we need all hands on deck to grow our economy, create jobs, and strengthen our middle-class.  Cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires, removing regulations on corporations, and telling the middle-class that “you’re on your own” are no solutions to our economic crisis.

We really do NOT want to give the car keys to the nation back to these people who drove us into the ditch in the first place!

CHECK-IT-OUT:  This article in Time Magazine is eye-popping!  We had no idea that the Recovery Act (aka The Stimulus) had a major and strategic plan behind it to transform the economy, not just boost it.  All we hear from the Right is that it was wasteful spending that only added to the deficit.  You know:  the deficit that OBAMA and the DEMS created — that one. 

According to the author of this Time Magazine article, Michael Grunwald, the President and Vice President had a dynamic vision for transforming our country and moving us forward, and used this Recovery Act to put the nation well down the path to doing just that.  Oh, and by the way, creating jobs along the way.

THIS is impressive and, to tell you the truth, what we all voted for when we voted for Obama and the Dems in 2008. 

***REUTERS REPORTS OPTIMISM THAT THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY, WHILE SLOW, IS PROCEEDING: The latest data showed that US retail sales rose in August with the biggest gains in the last five months.  Best Buy Co Inc. had a bigger quarterly profit than was expected, and they raised their outlook for the future.   There were stronger-than-expected jobs and trade data that also helped lift optimism about the economic recovery.

***OLYMPIA SNOW (R-ME) SOUNDS OFF: In an interview yesterday moderate Senator Snowe warns about the “shrinking wing” of moderate Republicans. She argues that while “Congress isn’t working right,” that moderate Republicans “can’t be endangered” if the GOP is to be a national party.

***STATUS OF NEW START TREATY: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday passed out of committee the new START nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia — and with bipartisan support. To ratify the treaty it will take two-thirds of the Senate to vote “yes.” That means that at least 8 Repubs will have to vote for it.

***LADY GAGA WEIGHS IN: Lady Gaga is now calling on her fans to call Senator Harry Reid and demand the repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. She released a new video today that calls on senators to repeal DADT. Senator Reid Tweeted, “anyone qualified to serve this country should be allowed to do so.”

***LOST DECADE FOR AMERICANS: Official data reveals that the Great Recession has come on the heels of a decade of stagnant wage growth for most Americans that is the worst in the last half century.

DON’T BOTHER US WITH THE FACTS, WE JUST LOVE OUR ANGER!

Is it purely American, or just human, to rant and rave about non-existent issues?  A segment of our population is just so furious that there’s a man in the White House that is not even a citizen — clearly illegal and unconstitutional!

And when presented with the FACTS, these people will look away.  They just love their rage, and damn-it you’ll have to pry that rage from their cold-dead-hands.  FACTS be damned.

They choose to look away when presented with the FACTS — because they just LOVE THEIR RAGE.