Walmart's Hype

This is really interesting, and reminds me why I would never work in advertising.

Link courtesy of MyDD.

He's at it Again

Doesn't he ever learn?

For more check out There Is No Crisis.

A Joke? Really?

Rep Sam Johnson (R-Tex) made the following comment a couple weeks ago:

"Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on 'em and I'll make one pass. We won't have to worry about Syria anymore."

According to him it was a joke (told to the president). Roll Call didn't seem to think so (otherwise Johnson would not have responded to criticism), but even if it was, why?

In the WaPo.

No More 9-5

According to Rick Santorum, 40 hours a week is not enough work (how many hours a week does he clock in?) so he wants to switch it to an 80 hour, two week system. That means 100 million people will lose overtime pay.

Even better, if you've ever been or are considering waiting or bartending, if your tips equal or exceed minimum wage your employer will no longer have to pay you anything.

His amendment to the minimum wage bill will be proposed on Monday. Details here.

Face it, if you're not in the top two tax brackets you have no business ever voting Republican. If you are in the top two tax brackets and you vote Republican on your wallet you deserve to be eaten by wolves.

Denial, Another Word Bush Doesn't Understand

From the NYT,

President Bush dismissed the notion Thursday that his campaign to create private accounts in Social Security was in serious trouble, asserting he was still "at the early stages of the process."

Not just a river in Egypt.

Uncle Alan

For those of you who still have faith in Greenspan, or even care about him any more since the 90s tech bubble burst, Paul Krugman has a thing or two to say.

On a sort of tangent on bashing Greenspan, I don't think that monetary policy is totally useless, but it depends on the kind of economy you're planning to use it in. We've had interests rates as low as Tom Delay for the past couple years and the economy hasn't recovered. As for the jobs figure this month, that's only new hires, not net gains/losses (it's a net loss if you were wondering), and this is either Chimpy's best number or close to his best. Maybe someone should start thinking about raising taxes.

Freedom of Blogging

This makes me want to have my own Boston tea party, except replace Boston with DC and tea with K-street lobbyists.

This sort of thing could affect even this poor, little blog. As Armando over at Kos comments, "yes, this is definitely a first amendment issue."

Groan

Just in from the House vote on c-span, the Scott (D-Va) amendment to the job training bill going through the house, which would have struck down the language making it legal for faith based organizations receiving federal funds to hire based on whatever qualities they deem appropriate, including religious beliefs, was not passed. The vote was pretty much along party lines.

We live in a theocracy.

Then an amendment proposed by Rep. Kildee (D-Mich) to give more job training to veterans of the current war and people who have lost their jobs to outsourcing was shot down by a Republican as "a cruel hoax" because the program would probably take a couple years to set up and not offer immediate benefits.

Remember, Republicans hate our troops, Democrats support them.

Crap

Isn't this kind of talk what got us into trouble in the first place?

Alternative Energy Done Right

By China, at Daily Kos.

Not to be a pessimist or a cynic or anything, and I'm not, what's wrong with alternative energy attempts in the US today boils down to something very simple. The incentives are not there.

Why is the US the world's largest (both absolute and per capita) emissions producer? Prices. Costs. Gas and energy (oil and coal) are cheap over here, so no one bats an eye at alternative energy. Is there a gigantic added cost to the environment that we're beginning to see already? Yes. Do people care? No. Why? Because that cost does not figure into their costs at the end of the day. For a way to rectify this, see my earlier posts on the Kyoto Protocol.

I'm not saying that everyone is like this and only cares about his bottom line. I know that there are intelligent, well-meaning people with progressive values out there who want to fix these problems. The problem is these people aren't the ones in charge of oil and coal companies. I'll give you one guess as to who those CEOs voted for, and it wasn't Nader.

Here's the problem with Republicans: they're too willing to put everyone else's interests (including their own children and long-term interests) on the line for short-term personal gain. That's not being a rational actor and looking out for yourself, that's stupid. As much as I'd love to reeducate these people with the idea that while equality does not increase efficiency it does boost the overall product, that isn't going to happen. Therefore, the answer is to discipline them into line by giving them incentives to work towards alternative energy. If you taxed gas instead of subsidizing it, it would no longer be as profitable and people would switch. If you subsidized alternative energy (because its total costs, unseen ones included, are lower than fossil fuels) and its R&D, people would switch. However, this government and the people who lobby it are short-sighted people who are only looking out for themselves.

Lakoff cites that according to the conservative model it is moral to pursue your self interest, and if you're disciplined, your self interest should enable you to prosper. This obviously ties in with Adam Smith and free market capitalism. Everyone pursuing their self interest should maximize everyone's welfare. Those who screw up this system are do gooders, because they're not looking out for their own self interest. Well here's a clear, healthy and obvious alternative to the conservative system: the progressive one. Everyone working not only for himself but also for others is going to maximize everyone's welfare. Who screws up this system? Those who only look out for themselves. They maximize their short term self interest at the expense of everyone else. These people need to be stopped for all our sakes.