Big Wins in Alexandria City Council for Smart
Growth, Sierra Club

post from TheGreenMiles.com on 13 June 2012 07:32:00 AM. © TheGreenMiles.com

Smart growth was a big issue in Tuesday's Alexandria City Council race - and candidates who supported transit-oriented development won big:

Democrats in the city had split into factions in recent weeks leading up to the primary, with some opponents of the waterfront redevelopment plan and other development proposals throwing support behind a swath of new blood for the city council. But those forces of opposition weren't enough to carry the day.

"I had a positive message about how to deal with development pressures, and I think people appreciated that," [Tim] Lovain said.

"This anti-development attitude, I don't think was really that loud and strong," said Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille after the votes were tallied. "But yet, I think people are pleased with direction of the city simply because our quality of life, and we are doing all the right things and will continue to do all the right things."

Mount Vernon Sierra Club-endorsed Tim Lovain, Del Pepper, Paul Smedberg and Justin Wilson all won (and a fifth candidate, Sean Holihan, fell just short as he dealt with an unrelated problem).

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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Republicans are
blocking economic growth for political gain

post from Daily Kos on 13 June 2012 07:30:06 AM. © Daily Kos

newspaper headline collage

Visual source: Newseum

In the wake of this week's report that American families lost almost 40% of their net worth during the recession, The New York Times editorial board analyzes Republican obstructionism and the need for a pro-growth strategy:

While the Great Recession officially ended in 2009, the recovery, so far, has been an effort to climb out of the very deep hole it blasted in the economy. A continued struggle, or worse, backsliding, is almost inevitable, unless Congress and the Federal Reserve provide more aid. In fact, the deep recession would have been much deeper and the weak recovery much weaker but for past government support, including the Obama stimulus and the payroll tax cuts and extended jobless benefits passed in 2010 and 2011. Congressional Republicans opposed all of them.
What?s needed now is even more support, including federal spending on education and public-works projects to create jobs, targeted tax credits for hiring, programs to deliver mortgage relief that supports house prices by keeping Americans in their homes, as well as a renewed commitment to financial regulation to ensure that the system doesn?t melt down again.
The Republicans ? for reasons of ideology and self-serving election-year politics ? are determined to block all of these necessary programs.

Dick Polman at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, meanwhile, takes a closer look at that Republican obstructionism:

The Republicans' 2012 election strategy is perversely brilliant: Sabotage President Barack Obama's job-creation efforts, then blame him for the wreckage. This strategy was in action the other day, when Mitt Romney assailed Mr. Obama on the stump. Mr. Romney said that "with America in crisis, with 23 million people out of work or stopped looking for work, he hasn't put forth a plan to get us working again."
Mr. Romney conveniently omitted the fact that Mr. Obama put forth such a jobs plan last autumn. The American Jobs Act would have put as many as 2 million construction workers, cops, teachers and firefighters back to work -- so said economic forecasters -- if only congressional Republicans hadn't dynamited it.
Yes, sabotage was required. Republicans knew their prospects for beating Mr. Obama would be damaged if they signed on to a plan that got more Americans working again. They're far too invested in economic misery to let that happen. As Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell candidly remarked in 2010, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

The Olympian editorial board examines one discrete instance of GOP extortion:

Political extortion is nothing new in Washington, or even in state legislatures. But holding up a simple extension of transportation appropriations and keeping thousands of workers from the jobs they desperately need is outrageous.
Such tactics suggest Republicans are intentionally stalling economic recovery, which they will then shamelessly blame on President Barack Obama in an effort to weaken his chances at re-election in November.
That?s not just dirty politics. Stalling transportation spending hurts individuals and families who can?t make house or car payments. It hurts local businesses. It forces even more people to seek unemployment benefits, and everyone pays the cost of that. It hurts our nation.

Greg Sargent at The Washington Post analyzes Mitt Romney's health care plan in the larger context of Romney's false narrative that the government is to blame for everything:

In this mythology, government is solely to blame for the economic crisis; roll it back, and the recovery, released from Obama-bondage, will roar foward. That?s why Romney tells us that firing 145,000 government workers will put Americans back to work. And yet, Romney?s narrative is the inverse of the truth. Government jobs have declined, and that?s proven a key drag on the recovery. Some economists believe Romney?s vow of more austerity would make the crisis still worse.
Romney?s political strategy may work. Perhaps the experience of the last three years has (understandably) left swing voters so disillusioned with government and the failure to fix the economy quickly enough that they?ll be receptive to any alternative explanation of what?s gone wrong and how to fix it, without paying close attention to the details.
The true nature of the relationship between government and the economic crisis should be central to the presidential campaign. In the wake of Obama?s gaffe about the private sector ?doing fine? in relation to the public sector, and in the wake of Romney?s subsequent claim that we don?t need any more cops, firefighters or teachers, we really need more serious scrutiny of the core questions that this presidential race is about.

Ben Adler at The Nation demolishes Romney's proposed healthcare plan by pointing out there really isn't one:

When I asked for details of what he is proposing, the campaign said he laid it out last year and the program is available on the campaign website.
The healthcare page on Romney?s site does not, in fact, tell you much about what Romney would do. Instead it mostly offers vague, inoffensive sounding principles such as ?Ensure flexibility to help the uninsured, including public-private partnerships, exchanges, and subsidies? and ?Offer innovation grants to explore non-litigation alternatives to dispute resolution.?
Some of the principles are more blatantly ideological and potentially quite troubling, such as ?Limit federal standards and requirements on both private insurance and Medicaid coverage.? Those federal standards and requirements are in place to protect citizens from rapacious companies and miserly state governments that would deprive recipients of necessary treatments. Any given federal requirement might be too costly or unnecessary. But Romney doesn?t specify which federal requirements he would eliminate so as to avoid inviting scrutiny of what his policy would do to the vulnerable.

Speaking of lack of details, Dan Amira at the New Yorker points out that even though Mitt Romney has refused salaires in the past, he's playing coy on the issue this time around:

Presumably Romney, still having more money than God and Usher combined, would once again refuse his $400,000-per-year presidential salary, should the situation arise. But asked about it earlier today, Romney, oddly, wouldn't say. [...]
Romney should feel free to take his salary or not take it, but we don't see why he needs to be mysterious about it. Unless he's planning on surprising everyone by flying over his inauguration in a helicopter and showering $400,000 in singles on the scurrying masses below, but that would be a huge safety hazard and totally irresponsible. Shame on you Mitt Romney, if you're thinking that.

Steve Levine has a must-read over at Foreign Policy about the ties between Romney's campaign and Big Oil:

Calculating that clean energy is passé among Americans more concerned about jobs and their own pocketbooks, Romney is gambling that he can tip swing voters his way by embracing dirtier air and water if the tradeoff is more employment and economic growth.
Romney's gamble is essentially a bet on the demonstrated disruptive potency of shale gas and shale oil, which over the last year or so have shaken up geopolitics from Russia to the Middle East and China. Now, Romney and the GOP leadership hope they will have the same impact on U.S. domestic politics, and sweep the former Massachusetts governor into the White House with a strong Republican majority in Congress.

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undup-Republicans-are-blocking-economic-growth-for-political-gain

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Wednesday Open Thread

post from My Left Wing - Front Page on 13 June 2012 07:00:00 AM. © My Left Wing - Front Page

As I grow older and older,
And totter toward the tomb,
I find that I care less and less,
Who goes to bed with whom.

Dorothy L. Sayers

Born June 13, 1893

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http://www.myleftwing.com/diary/27979/wednesday-open-thread

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Cartnoon

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 13 June 2012 06:58:30 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

On Topic - Technology - Mobile Devices 2:55 [...]

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Bad Gamblers

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 13 June 2012 06:52:15 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Not only are the Masters of the Universe simply gamblers, they're bad gamblers who pursue sucker strategies that are doomed to fail.You can see it when they, uhh... gamble.On May 8th, 9th, and 10th, Michael Geismar (co-founder and President of the $4.6[...]

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http://www.docudharma.com/diary/30095/bad-gamblers

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Muse in the Morning

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 13 June 2012 06:00:00 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Muse in the MorningKiazi's children, their faces wet I know you have talent. What sometimes is forgotten is that being practical is a talent. I have a paucity for that sort of talent in many situations, though it turns out that I'm a pretty darn good[...]

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The Cognitive Dissonance of Joe Scarborough

post from DemConWatch on 13 June 2012 05:57:43 AM. © DemConWatch

The nice thing about Morning Joe is that I no longer need to change the channel for oppo research: Joe's always there with it Monday through Friday...and yesterday was no exception. It was one of those "friendly" conversations that Joe has with whomever is around the table as they're filling in a little time before going to commercial. The table which always has large drink cups with something in them, and sometimes has pastries in the middle.

Joe was ranting about what a good idea Mike Bloomberg has in wanting to restrict the size of some beverages sold in NYC, talking about how bad it is to be fat. Joe was also a previous fan of Bloomberg's work to restrict smoking in public parks, and to take transfats out of restaurant food, and to post calorie counts before it was popular elsewhere. Yesterday, he was upping the ante to say that Bloomberg (and others) should also make sure that school lunches were healthy, and that there should be a special code on the cards people use to buy food with SNAP cards prohibiting the purchase of unhealthy food, and just before the commercial..."and bring back rigorous physical activity at schools."

A small chunk of my brain virtually exploded.

Here's a guy who rails day after day about how government needs to spend less money, and how government needs to get out of the way of business so business will create more jobs and how we need to tax less. And yet....

Let's forget about the questionable logic of whether a thirsty person would buy two sodas at the ball park getting his 32 ounces instead of just stopping at 16 ounces and staying thirsty. Let's just look at the business impact of the 16 ounce sizes. Whoever manufacturers the larger cups will now either need to retool, or shut several of the cup lines. In those fast food joints where they give the customer a cup and he fills his own cup, the likelihood is that he'll refill his cup instead of buying another, costing revenue to the restaurant. And above all: here is government telling manufacturers what they can and cannot make. HHMMNN.

Then there's the issue of the Republican battle cry of "free choice" - one can still buy a giant milkshake (not covered by Mayor Mike's plan) which will have all the sugar PLUS the fat that is non-existent in soda. Or a large chemical-tainted soda which still has the bone-density decreasing, osteoporosis-causing phosphorous in carbonated beverages, all the cancer-causing caramel colour, AND now the ill effects of aspartame. Not a great trade off.

And those school lunches? Hey Joe - that's tax money that pays for many of those lunches, not to mention the people who prepare and serve them. Hard to do when money to schools keeps getting cuts.

Joe is a poster child for the cognitive dissonance of the moderate wing of the GOP. On the one hand that branch wants government to leave business alone, as if "business" is some sort of sequestered thing, instead of the "people" we know corporations to be courtesy of Mitt Romney. Sorry, I digress. Seriously, they want business to be left alone to do anything its masters want, UNLESS it involves taking away rights from individual human beings. Are transfats bad? Absolutely, I wouldn't eat them. But that's a personal choice I made years ago. I don't care if restaurants want to serve them. It's my choice to not eat there. A 32 ounce soda? I personally have never consumed that amount of soda, but it's a personal choice, and shouldn't be dictated.

It was the physical fitness line, though, that honestly hurt. I expect the rest. But as idiots look for more and more ways to cut taxes, the schools keep suffering massive losses, and gym has been one of the big losers as there is nothing in gym class that fits directly into the teach-to-the-test mentality that's about all that's left of "education" in a lot of school districts. A shout-out to the 78% of voters in yesterday's North Dakota ballot initiative who chose NOT to eliminate all property taxes in yesterday's election. Finally, a group that realized that taxes are necessary. Unlike the Scarborough contingent who obviously believe teachers, firemen, police, the military, and the lunch ladies are all free....

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http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com/diary/5369/the-cognitive-dissonance-of-j
oe-scarborough

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Muted Fitch Effect

Source: Advanced Currency Markets | G10 Advancers and Decliners vs USD EUR 0.06 CHF 0.05

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SC Legislative Session Ends with Great Successes
for Reproductive Healthcare Advocates

Tell Them members protect reproductive rights of all South Carolinians
The 119th Session of the South Carolina General Assembly ended on Thursday (they will be meeting this week to discuss the budget). Over the past 2 years, Tell Them advocates and partners sent over 20,000 emails, communicating with all 170 members of the South Carolina legislature.

Tell Them focused on 8 bills and budget provisos this session. Here are some highlights from the session:

DEFEATED the Right to Refuse Act (aka the Health Care Freedom of Conscience Act) and protected patients? rights to unfiltered information and services from health care providers
HELPED TO MAINTAIN FUNDING for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) to hundreds of needy South Carolinians
WIN! Maintained coverage for services for victims of rape and incest and ensuring complete access to health care options
NEUTRALIZED the Provider Liability Burden (aka the Born Alive Bill) and allowed doctors to continue making the best medical decisions for their patients.

Tell Them?s 10,000 members have made a tremendous impact on our state. As efforts to limit access to reproductive health care continue, we will remain a powerful voice for reproductive justice and responsible health care policies in South Carolina.

Sign the Bill of Rights and show your support for uncensored reproductive health education and access to services.

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http://thepoliticsofjamiesanderson.blogspot.com/2012/06/sc-legislative-session-en
ds-with-great.html

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The real villains

Thank goodness. Yesterday I wrote about how efforts at bailing out Spanish banks were depressing investors because the wealthy just weren?t given enough money.But then the markets went up, way up.[...]

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