Try and reduce the federal debt!

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has an interactive "game" if I dare call it that, which allows you to check boxes next to government policies which will either increase or decrease the Federal Debt.  The goal of the game is to get the U.S. Federal debt to 60% of GDP by 2018.  I slightly failed, after all of my choices I got to 65% of GDP by 2018.  I'll give a VERY brief summary of the choices I made to try and balance our budget.  Click here and try it out!

Liberal things:

Kept Bush tax cuts only for those making less than $250K/200K - Cost - $2,095B
I reduced our troop presence in Iraq and Afghanistan to 60,000 by 2015 - Cost Savings - $350B
I enacted weapon systems cuts and canceled our missile defense program - Cost Savings - $90B
I increased food stamps funding by $140B - Cost - $140B
Enacted Carbon Tax or Cap-and-Trade system - Cost Savings - $330B

Moderate things:

With regard to most other aid for low income familes and foreign aid,
I did not increase or decrease funding for these programs. - No additional cost or savings.

Conservative things:

Lowered the Federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 30% - Cost - $390B
Raised the retirement age to 68 - Cost Savings - $110B
Reduced Social Security benefits over time - Cost Savings - $80B
Adjusted Federal COLA to a more accurate index of inflation - Cost Savings - $100B
Enacted Tort Reform - Cost Savings - $50B

Libertarian things:

Instituted a 5% VAT (includes reductions in other types of income tax) - Cost Savings - $630B

I agree with conservative Justice Clarence Thomas!

This very rarely happens, but I agree with Justice Thomas' (7-2) dissent in the United States v. Cornstock in which the Supreme Court's decision asserted that sex offenders who had finished their time in prison could be held indefinitely if the state or federal government deemed that those prisoners were likely to commit sexual offenses again.  Minority Report anyone? Justice Thomas wrote:

"to be sure, protecting society from violent sexual offenders is certainly an important end. Sexual abuse is a despicable act with untold consequences for the victim personally and society generally. … But the Constitution does not vest in Congress the authority to protect society from every bad act that might befall it."

Traditional intellectual conservatism. Weak on crime, strong on rights.  You can't be jailed for something you might do, you can only be jailed for something you have DONE.

(Unless there are CIA/FBI spies who watch you plan to do something bad...that's different)

The Onion nails it

Again.  Key quote:

Citing the billions of dollars wasted annually on flavored water and boneless buffalo wings, the number of drunk-driving deaths each year, and the lack of citizen accountability for the rise of Kim Kardashian, government officials registered extremely low opinions of the American people overall.

Political Celebrity Matters

It is very hard for a party in power during a major financial crisis and subsequent recession to maintain their majority.  They own the job losses and foreclosures whether or not these systemic forces were directly their fault (and in most cases they were). This illustrates the most salient reason why Gordon Brown's Labour party lost big last night in the U.K. just as John McCain's Republican party lost in 2008.  Both parties had overseen dramatic growth over 6-8 years and we are in the midst of a 2-year financial collapse as we all realize we were all part of an economy that didn't exist.

But there's one other factor that I think played a key role in the fall of Labour last night and that's the fact that Gordon Brown is just a really unappealing guy.  This was the first year that the U.K. had televised Prime Minister debates "American style".  And as we've learned from the Nixon-Kennedy debates in 1960, those who listened to the debate on the radio believed Nixon had won, and those who viewed the first presidential debates on their televisions believed sweaty, five o'clock shadow Nixon had lost and it was charismatic Senator Jack Kennedy that won.

If Tony Blair were still Prime Minister of the U.K. today, Labour still would be headed for major losses, but I have the strong feeling that those losses would have been mitigated significantly.  Regardless of policy, you just don't feel like voting for Brown. Britain, Britain, Britain, welcome to the vanity club.

Finally, a REAL filibuster!

Apparently, trying to get those much needed changes to the financial regulation bill aren't that important. After threatening to literally hold votes throughout the night, Republican leadership just announced that they would agree to let the bill come to the floor for debate. Senators got to get some sleep.

Let's hope the Republicans didn't succeed at getting rid of the $50B resolution authority, paid for by special taxes on big banks. They call it a "bailout fund" when it really allows the Feds to purchase the failed bank, own it for a couple of hours to a day or two and then sell the assets to another more stable banking institution (most likely at a loss) hence the need for the fund.

But again, let's say Bank of Ernie goes under. The entire board of directors gets fired, the shareholders and their investments are wiped out, all of the staff are fired -- unless the bank that's purchasing my bank wants to keep them. The $50b in the fund goes to protect the depositors who are insured under FDIC and goes to soften the debts to counterparties that would be of systemic risk to the U.S. economy as a whole. Then Bank of Ernie ceases to exist.  See? No bailout here, just a "selling a bankrupt bank probably isn't going to garner a profit" fund.

Freedom!!!!

It's time to stand up to those douchebags at www.revolutionmuslim.com who threatened Trey Parker and Matt Stone for sort of drawing the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him).

“We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid, and they will probably wind up like Theo van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”

FYI, Dutch artist and filmmaker Theo van Gogh was stabbed to death by Muslim extremists on the street. Everyone who has a blog should post this clip because it's time to stand up for OUR values and saying whatever we want is the most important value that this nation holds dear. We respect all religions by not letting one off the hook from any social commentary.

And by the way, the non-depiction of the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) was designed by Muhammed himself to follow the original Moses commandment of "Thou shall not worship false idols".  With this practice, Muhammed wanted to make clear that he was only a messenger of G-d (Jewish respect there!) and not divine in any way.  However, this restriction on his depiction has developed in such a way that has produced the exact OPPOSITE of the Prophet's intention as he has been deified by the Muslim community and his humanity (an important theological point for the Prophet (pbuh)) has decayed throughout history.

Just sayin'.

Here's another cartoon to calm down to...

Are you kidding me?!?

This afternoon, all 41 Republican Senators and Democratic Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska voted to stop cloture which would have begun the debate on Financial Reform.

This stall tactic is just an excuse to further water down the bill until a suitable "compromise" is reached, which will happen which will then allow Republicans to maneuver politically and say that they really fought to end "Too big to fail," when in reality what they're doing is trying to weaken the independent consumer protection agency and stronger regulations aimed at PayDay loans which charge exorbitant interest rates -- as much as 400% -- for advances on pay.

To be fair, some Republican senators like Bob Corker of Tennessee have been negotiating with Chairman Chris Dodd in good faith and are working on some fair compromises while trying to achieve real reform.

Let me be clear, I do not want a political win here for the Democrats.  If they craft the perfect bill with no compromises it will fail on a party-line vote and there will be NO financial reform which this country so badly needs.  This November Democrats are headed for historically consistent losses, and then some, due to the weak economic environment.  A party-line vote for solid financial reform would give them a strong narrative to paint themselves as fighting the titans of Wall Street and the Republicans who chose to defend them instead of the people they represent (How NYC Dems will vote will be an interesting thing to watch as Wall Street is their constituency!).

However, unlike the John McCain of 2010, I put my Country First and a moderate, bi-partisan financial reform bill passing sooner rather than later is better for the country.