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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

1 July - More articles


2010 Election - Republican Ugliness


"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"
For the fist time the President has a higher disapproval rating than approval. The generic Congressional ballot is giving the Republicans a slight advantage of 1.8%. The unemployment rate is persistently in the high 9% range and nothing, even a massive jobs bill (which is not going to happen) is going to change that before election day. All of these things are conditions that could lead to a rout like we saw in 1994.
However, the Republicans have a gigantic problem. They are ugly. I am not talking about their personal appearance, but the face of what they represent.

EPA will hold 4 meetings on hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking)...where will you be?

he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hosting four public information meetings on the proposed study of the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and its potential impacts on drinking water...The meetings will provide public information about the proposed study scope and design. EPA will solicit public comments on the draft study plan.
(  Please help us validate whitewash and stalling )

For months, governors and economists alike have been warning that unprecedented revenue shortfalls in the states would lead to draconian budget cuts and massive layoffs. Now with the July 1 start of fiscal year 2011 for many states, doomsday is here. And thanks to Republican obstructionism in Congress, the combined $89 billion budget gap facing the states could result in 900,000 jobs lost - and an end to the nascent economic recovery.Last month, President Obama asked Congress to send him a $50 billion aid package for the states in order to avert "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters." And with good reason. Despite thesuccess of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, economists like Stephen Gordon warned "The increases at the federal level have not been enough to compensate for the spending cuts at the local and state levels." While the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and former McCain economic adviser Mark Zandi among others touted federal aid to the states as the biggest bang for the stimulus buck, a new report from the Rockefeller Institute painted a grim picture if Congress failed to act.

The revenue decline comes despite the tax increases imposed by many states since the recession began. With less tax money coming into state treasuries and expenses for programs like Medicaid continuing to mount, many states will probably be forced to consider further tax increases, spending cuts and layoffs -- actions that some economists warn could put a drag on the nation's fragile economic recovery.
And still Senate Republicans said no, choosing instead last week to filibuster last the $112 billion jobs bill that provided new grants and badly needed Medicaid funding to refill state coffers.
Now, the Washington Post reports, the chickens are coming home to roost. And, as the Post put it, "Nothing less than the nation's nascent economic recovery hangs in the balance."



Spin: The Media’s Crocodile Death Roll

The purpose of spin, and all propaganda, is to make the victim believe a lie. An organized propaganda campaign snatches its victims from dry land, and drags them down into a sea of spin, attempting to drown them in lies and disinformation. Once the media begins its death roll, logic, reason, and truth are torn away from the victim like so many chunks of flesh as they slowly suffocate in the watery grave of spin.
Read article here

Banned trailers return for latest Gulf disaster 

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, they became a symbol of the government’s inept response to that disaster: the 120,000 or so trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to people who had lost their homes. 
The trailers were discovered to have such high levels of formaldehyde that the government banned them from ever being used for long-term housing again.
Some of the trailers, though, are getting a second life amid the latest disaster here — as living quarters for workers involved with the cleanup of the oil spill.

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