Sunday, July 17, 2011 6:48:03 AM
Yes, I'll dare call it treason
US infrastructure has been decaying over the past decade. Nevertheless, Republicans are pushing for deep budget cuts.
[EPA]
Cliff Schecter
[ http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/profile/cliff-schecter.html ; http://www.cliffschecter.com/ ]
Last Modified: 13 Jul 2011 05:32
Once upon a time, in a land that now seems to have been populated by tooth fairies and unicorns, there was a political party that had a set of core beliefs to which they actually adhered.
Among them was that actually balancing the budget, as opposed to just talking about it, was sacrosanct. Slow change, while necessary, had to be balanced against the traditions of the United States, ones that had mostly served us well over two centuries.
Foreign military adventures should be limited to our national security interests. And one of the single most important components of diplomacy was protecting the economic interests not only of an elite few, but of the great many Americans who toiled in our factories and fields.
This party was known as the Republican Party, and while one might have disagreed with them on their policy prescriptions to cure any particular US ill, one could at least see some logic in their beliefs and understand that they - with some obvious exceptions from time to time (ahem, Joseph McCarthy, ahem) - were doing what they thought was right for the United States of America.
Today, this once respectable organization has turned into nothing so much as a collective id the size of a David Vitter Pampers shopping spree. When facing changes to this nation that make them uncomfortable, they choose national hate. When facing ideological worship versus the greatness of the US, the former always wins the day. When facing a choice of what is good for the US or their personal bank accounts, they inevitably go with the latter.
Every. Single. Time.
In simple terms: We, the people of the United States, are the maid. The GOP is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Any questions?
The one caveat is that it's not Republicans, so much as the forces of the anti-American, gun-toting, religious and corporate Right that have taken over the GOP who are responsible for papa's brand new bag. The Right is Darth Sidious to the GOP's Anakin Skywalker, Angelina Jolie to foreign-born children.
And yes, sadly, the Dark Lord has also sunk his hooks into quite a few in the Democratic Party, just somewhat less in number and relevance.
Charter members of this anti-American Right include the National Rifle Association, whose executive vice president-cum-Waldo impersonator, Wayne LaPierre, pushes new and more deadly weaponry into the hands of American criminals and terrorists without a first thought of the common good of his country. Giddily referring to US law enforcement agents as "jack-booted thugs", and using fear of a black president to encourage the militia mentality among his most deranged (and armed) followers, his reign at the NRA has facilitated their retreat into revolutionary rhetoric, which has included plans by associated paramilitary groups to kill police officers and government officials.
Not so good for the US, but great for selling weapons to support LaPierre's $1.27m salary, as well as NRA board members who earn a paycheck by owning companies that pay their bonuses based on firearm sales.
It also includes the "pro-business" Right's support for finishing a four-decade quest to hollow out US manufacturing and destroy what was once, as succinctly put by polymath and top-rated progressive radio host Thom Hartmann, "the American way of life". A few elite moneymen get rich, while the United States' ability to create things that don't come with fries or an apple pie, once a source of great pride to, you know, Americans, has gone off clubbing with Casey Anthony.
No political will to fix US infrastructure
Last week, China broke the record for the longest sea bridge in the world with the opening of the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge. Quite symbolically, it passed Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which had previously held the record.
You'd think that this, in and of itself, would pain those on the Republican Right and their friends among the Blue Dog Democrats, "patriots" who never hesitate to tout American greatness. But for some reason - perhaps campaign contributions make a soothing bubble bath? - their refusal to fund the slightest hint of improvement or addition to US infrastructure is allowing it to collapse quicker than John Boehner at an all-you-can-drink Margarita marathon at Bahama Mama's.
We used to make big things in the US, often with direct government investment. Whether it was the federal highway system, the Sears Tower, or the Golden Gate Bridge - these were not small undertakings. It was a proven method of creating jobs and wealth, as well as a source of national pride.
These days, it's the historical blindness and hatred of any spending contained in a philosophy that underpins simplistic calls for "austerity". Contained in budgets written by small-minded men such as Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, it has seen corporate cybernetic organisms posing as legislators do what once would have been unthinkable: pave the way for Chinese exceptionalism.
US slipping in quality-of-life indicators
Yet perhaps right-wingers' work to undermine America is nowhere as evident as it is in the everyday indicators of how we are doing as a country. Whether it is the World Health Organization's ranking the US in 37th place, our impressive 33rd place in children's ability to navigate math and science, or 39th place in our environmental quality (we're still two spots ahead of Cuba!), I simply don't understand how one can claim to love the US and blithely ignore or work to exacerbate these indicators by gutting government every day.
But then again, what should we expect from a movement whose leaders, such as that dimwitted dolt known as Texas Governor Rick Perry, openly discuss secession? Or, as I pointed out in last week's column, the blood diamond-accruing conman Pat Robertson, who has wished Sodom-like destruction on the United States, because gay couples in New York now have the right to marry?
Secession? Destruction? There used to be a term to describe people who wished these tragedies would befall their own country. Today that term is "Republican presidential candidate", whether from the recent past (Robertson in 1988) and potentially - God help us - the future (Perry in 2012).
Lest one think this list is biased, I have not even gone into the details of the outing of an undercover CIA agent (see Karl Rove) or the Right's current crusade to make the US default on its debt (and Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's incentive to profit off of this, as he has shorted US treasury bonds in his personal investment portfolio).
Humorist and writer Leo Rosten once said that "a conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead". Today, however, the love for radicals and radicalism is alive and kicking on the Right, and sadly for the US, it doesn't seem ready to die anytime soon.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Copyright 2011 Aljazeera Network
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/201171295644164740.html [with comments] [also at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Yes-I-ll-dare-call-it-tre-by-Cliff-Schecter-110714-143.html (with comment)]
===
Bank plan would help build bridges, boost jobs
Bill gains traction, but foes fear another Fannie-Freddie disaster
7/6/2011
China announced last week that it opened the world’s longest sea bridge and added a line to the world’s largest high-speed rail network. Meanwhile, on this side of the Pacific, the United States is struggling to address its crumbling roads and creaky bridges.
A bill wending its way through Congress looks to change that, and by doing so create jobs and fund projects, such as a high-speed rail line.
American has fallen to 23rd in infrastructure quality globally, according to the World Economic Forum. It will take about $2 trillion over the next five years to restore the country’s infrastructure, says the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Given America's weak economy and rising national debt, the government can’t promise anything close to an amount that dwarfs most countries' total economies. But a national infrastructure bank could help.
The idea of such a bank has been around since the 1990s but has never gained significant attention until now. In March a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate that gained the support of the US Chamber of Commerce, America’s leading business lobby, and the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation — two groups on opposite sides of most debates.
The BUILD Act, proposed by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Kay Hutchinson, R-Texas, and Mark Warner, D-Va., would create a national infrastructure bank that would provide loans and loan guarantees to encourage private investment in upgrading America’s infrastructure. There are other similar proposals circulating in Congress, but the BUILD Act has gained the most traction.
The bank would receive a one time appropriation of $10 billion, which would be aimed at sparking a total of $320 to $640 billion in infrastructure investment over the course of 10 years, Kerry's office says. They believe the bank could be self-sustaining in as little as three years.
[...]
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43606379 [with comments]
*
How to fix crumbling U.S. roads, rails and airways
Falling tax revenue is hurting U.S. shipping and prosperity
June 17, 2011
[...]
Today U.S. infrastructure investments amount to 2.4% of the nation’s GDP, versus 5% in Europe and 9% in China, according to a data from the World Economic Forum.
[...]
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-fix-crumbling-us-roads-rails-and-airways-2011-06-17 [with comments]
*
Making choices: trillions for wars while nation's vital infrastructure crumbles
Jul. 5, 2011
http://westernfarmpress.com/blog/making-choices-trillions-wars-while-nations-vital-infrastructure-crumbles [no comments yet]
===
“A Tragic Moment”: D.C. Politicians “Totally Wrong” About Spending, Galbraith Says
By Aaron Task | Daily Ticker – Thu, Jul 14, 2011 1:00 PM EDT
Ben Bernanke's pledge this week that the Fed is ready, willing and able to do more helped give stocks a lift and spurred a big rally into gold and silver.
But the financial markets are not the economy and James Galbraith, author and University of Texas Professor, is not convinced the Fed can really do more to stimulate the economy.
"The Fed reached the effective limits of what monetary policy can do quite a long time ago," he says. "These quantitative easing measures were always illusory in far as anyone thought they could actually be an effective source of economic recovery."
Rather than more monetary stimulus (a.k.a. QE3), Galbraith maintains a longstanding view that the U.S. economy needs more fiscal stimulus, i.e. more spending by Uncle Sam on infrastructure and green energy projects that create jobs today and have long-term benefits. (See: We Need a Second Stimulus Immediately, Says James Galbraith [ http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/376164/We-Need-a-Second-Stimulus-Immediately-Says-James-Galbraith ])
In addition, the professor recommends President Obama do something "bold" like lowering the retirement age, a seemingly radical plan Galbraith says will address the problems of both high unemployment among younger Americans and older Americans working longer and harder to make ends meet. (See: James Galbraith's Radical Plan to Create Jobs: LOWER the Retirement Age[ http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/james-galbraith%27s-radical-plan-to-create-jobs-lower-the-retirement-age-535572.html ])
Of course, lowering the retirement age and increasing federal spending on just about anything runs afoul of the current political climate, where the debate is over how much spending should be cut and whether taxes should be raised or not.
But Washington politicians have it "totally wrong," according to Galbraith who believes austerity measures amount to "a wanton piece of cruelty" on lower income Americans. Furthermore, he argues America's long-term deficit problems are "completely disconnected" from current U.S. borrowing costs, which he notes remain relatively (and historically) low.
"My view is we're in a tragic moment where public policy is doing real harm on a pretense of accomplishing something that's absolutely not going to be accomplished," Galbraith says.
Aaron Task is the host of The Daily Ticker. You can follow him on Twitter at @atask or email him at altask@yahoo.com
Copyright 2011 Daily Ticker / Yahoo! Inc.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/tragic-moment-d-c-politicians-totally-wrong-spending-170034293.html [with/more in embedded video of segment with Galbraith; with comments]
===
(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=64675465 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65246832 and preceding and following
US infrastructure has been decaying over the past decade. Nevertheless, Republicans are pushing for deep budget cuts.
[EPA]
Cliff Schecter
[ http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/profile/cliff-schecter.html ; http://www.cliffschecter.com/ ]
Last Modified: 13 Jul 2011 05:32
Once upon a time, in a land that now seems to have been populated by tooth fairies and unicorns, there was a political party that had a set of core beliefs to which they actually adhered.
Among them was that actually balancing the budget, as opposed to just talking about it, was sacrosanct. Slow change, while necessary, had to be balanced against the traditions of the United States, ones that had mostly served us well over two centuries.
Foreign military adventures should be limited to our national security interests. And one of the single most important components of diplomacy was protecting the economic interests not only of an elite few, but of the great many Americans who toiled in our factories and fields.
This party was known as the Republican Party, and while one might have disagreed with them on their policy prescriptions to cure any particular US ill, one could at least see some logic in their beliefs and understand that they - with some obvious exceptions from time to time (ahem, Joseph McCarthy, ahem) - were doing what they thought was right for the United States of America.
Today, this once respectable organization has turned into nothing so much as a collective id the size of a David Vitter Pampers shopping spree. When facing changes to this nation that make them uncomfortable, they choose national hate. When facing ideological worship versus the greatness of the US, the former always wins the day. When facing a choice of what is good for the US or their personal bank accounts, they inevitably go with the latter.
Every. Single. Time.
In simple terms: We, the people of the United States, are the maid. The GOP is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Any questions?
The one caveat is that it's not Republicans, so much as the forces of the anti-American, gun-toting, religious and corporate Right that have taken over the GOP who are responsible for papa's brand new bag. The Right is Darth Sidious to the GOP's Anakin Skywalker, Angelina Jolie to foreign-born children.
And yes, sadly, the Dark Lord has also sunk his hooks into quite a few in the Democratic Party, just somewhat less in number and relevance.
Charter members of this anti-American Right include the National Rifle Association, whose executive vice president-cum-Waldo impersonator, Wayne LaPierre, pushes new and more deadly weaponry into the hands of American criminals and terrorists without a first thought of the common good of his country. Giddily referring to US law enforcement agents as "jack-booted thugs", and using fear of a black president to encourage the militia mentality among his most deranged (and armed) followers, his reign at the NRA has facilitated their retreat into revolutionary rhetoric, which has included plans by associated paramilitary groups to kill police officers and government officials.
Not so good for the US, but great for selling weapons to support LaPierre's $1.27m salary, as well as NRA board members who earn a paycheck by owning companies that pay their bonuses based on firearm sales.
It also includes the "pro-business" Right's support for finishing a four-decade quest to hollow out US manufacturing and destroy what was once, as succinctly put by polymath and top-rated progressive radio host Thom Hartmann, "the American way of life". A few elite moneymen get rich, while the United States' ability to create things that don't come with fries or an apple pie, once a source of great pride to, you know, Americans, has gone off clubbing with Casey Anthony.
No political will to fix US infrastructure
Last week, China broke the record for the longest sea bridge in the world with the opening of the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge. Quite symbolically, it passed Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which had previously held the record.
You'd think that this, in and of itself, would pain those on the Republican Right and their friends among the Blue Dog Democrats, "patriots" who never hesitate to tout American greatness. But for some reason - perhaps campaign contributions make a soothing bubble bath? - their refusal to fund the slightest hint of improvement or addition to US infrastructure is allowing it to collapse quicker than John Boehner at an all-you-can-drink Margarita marathon at Bahama Mama's.
We used to make big things in the US, often with direct government investment. Whether it was the federal highway system, the Sears Tower, or the Golden Gate Bridge - these were not small undertakings. It was a proven method of creating jobs and wealth, as well as a source of national pride.
These days, it's the historical blindness and hatred of any spending contained in a philosophy that underpins simplistic calls for "austerity". Contained in budgets written by small-minded men such as Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, it has seen corporate cybernetic organisms posing as legislators do what once would have been unthinkable: pave the way for Chinese exceptionalism.
US slipping in quality-of-life indicators
Yet perhaps right-wingers' work to undermine America is nowhere as evident as it is in the everyday indicators of how we are doing as a country. Whether it is the World Health Organization's ranking the US in 37th place, our impressive 33rd place in children's ability to navigate math and science, or 39th place in our environmental quality (we're still two spots ahead of Cuba!), I simply don't understand how one can claim to love the US and blithely ignore or work to exacerbate these indicators by gutting government every day.
But then again, what should we expect from a movement whose leaders, such as that dimwitted dolt known as Texas Governor Rick Perry, openly discuss secession? Or, as I pointed out in last week's column, the blood diamond-accruing conman Pat Robertson, who has wished Sodom-like destruction on the United States, because gay couples in New York now have the right to marry?
Secession? Destruction? There used to be a term to describe people who wished these tragedies would befall their own country. Today that term is "Republican presidential candidate", whether from the recent past (Robertson in 1988) and potentially - God help us - the future (Perry in 2012).
Lest one think this list is biased, I have not even gone into the details of the outing of an undercover CIA agent (see Karl Rove) or the Right's current crusade to make the US default on its debt (and Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's incentive to profit off of this, as he has shorted US treasury bonds in his personal investment portfolio).
Humorist and writer Leo Rosten once said that "a conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead". Today, however, the love for radicals and radicalism is alive and kicking on the Right, and sadly for the US, it doesn't seem ready to die anytime soon.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Copyright 2011 Aljazeera Network
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/201171295644164740.html [with comments] [also at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Yes-I-ll-dare-call-it-tre-by-Cliff-Schecter-110714-143.html (with comment)]
===
Bank plan would help build bridges, boost jobs
Bill gains traction, but foes fear another Fannie-Freddie disaster
7/6/2011
China announced last week that it opened the world’s longest sea bridge and added a line to the world’s largest high-speed rail network. Meanwhile, on this side of the Pacific, the United States is struggling to address its crumbling roads and creaky bridges.
A bill wending its way through Congress looks to change that, and by doing so create jobs and fund projects, such as a high-speed rail line.
American has fallen to 23rd in infrastructure quality globally, according to the World Economic Forum. It will take about $2 trillion over the next five years to restore the country’s infrastructure, says the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Given America's weak economy and rising national debt, the government can’t promise anything close to an amount that dwarfs most countries' total economies. But a national infrastructure bank could help.
The idea of such a bank has been around since the 1990s but has never gained significant attention until now. In March a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate that gained the support of the US Chamber of Commerce, America’s leading business lobby, and the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation — two groups on opposite sides of most debates.
The BUILD Act, proposed by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Kay Hutchinson, R-Texas, and Mark Warner, D-Va., would create a national infrastructure bank that would provide loans and loan guarantees to encourage private investment in upgrading America’s infrastructure. There are other similar proposals circulating in Congress, but the BUILD Act has gained the most traction.
The bank would receive a one time appropriation of $10 billion, which would be aimed at sparking a total of $320 to $640 billion in infrastructure investment over the course of 10 years, Kerry's office says. They believe the bank could be self-sustaining in as little as three years.
[...]
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43606379 [with comments]
*
How to fix crumbling U.S. roads, rails and airways
Falling tax revenue is hurting U.S. shipping and prosperity
June 17, 2011
[...]
Today U.S. infrastructure investments amount to 2.4% of the nation’s GDP, versus 5% in Europe and 9% in China, according to a data from the World Economic Forum.
[...]
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-fix-crumbling-us-roads-rails-and-airways-2011-06-17 [with comments]
*
Making choices: trillions for wars while nation's vital infrastructure crumbles
Jul. 5, 2011
http://westernfarmpress.com/blog/making-choices-trillions-wars-while-nations-vital-infrastructure-crumbles [no comments yet]
===
“A Tragic Moment”: D.C. Politicians “Totally Wrong” About Spending, Galbraith Says
By Aaron Task | Daily Ticker – Thu, Jul 14, 2011 1:00 PM EDT
Ben Bernanke's pledge this week that the Fed is ready, willing and able to do more helped give stocks a lift and spurred a big rally into gold and silver.
But the financial markets are not the economy and James Galbraith, author and University of Texas Professor, is not convinced the Fed can really do more to stimulate the economy.
"The Fed reached the effective limits of what monetary policy can do quite a long time ago," he says. "These quantitative easing measures were always illusory in far as anyone thought they could actually be an effective source of economic recovery."
Rather than more monetary stimulus (a.k.a. QE3), Galbraith maintains a longstanding view that the U.S. economy needs more fiscal stimulus, i.e. more spending by Uncle Sam on infrastructure and green energy projects that create jobs today and have long-term benefits. (See: We Need a Second Stimulus Immediately, Says James Galbraith [ http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/376164/We-Need-a-Second-Stimulus-Immediately-Says-James-Galbraith ])
In addition, the professor recommends President Obama do something "bold" like lowering the retirement age, a seemingly radical plan Galbraith says will address the problems of both high unemployment among younger Americans and older Americans working longer and harder to make ends meet. (See: James Galbraith's Radical Plan to Create Jobs: LOWER the Retirement Age[ http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/james-galbraith%27s-radical-plan-to-create-jobs-lower-the-retirement-age-535572.html ])
Of course, lowering the retirement age and increasing federal spending on just about anything runs afoul of the current political climate, where the debate is over how much spending should be cut and whether taxes should be raised or not.
But Washington politicians have it "totally wrong," according to Galbraith who believes austerity measures amount to "a wanton piece of cruelty" on lower income Americans. Furthermore, he argues America's long-term deficit problems are "completely disconnected" from current U.S. borrowing costs, which he notes remain relatively (and historically) low.
"My view is we're in a tragic moment where public policy is doing real harm on a pretense of accomplishing something that's absolutely not going to be accomplished," Galbraith says.
Aaron Task is the host of The Daily Ticker. You can follow him on Twitter at @atask or email him at altask@yahoo.com
Copyright 2011 Daily Ticker / Yahoo! Inc.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/tragic-moment-d-c-politicians-totally-wrong-spending-170034293.html [with/more in embedded video of segment with Galbraith; with comments]
===
(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=64675465 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65246832 and preceding and following
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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