Destor on Ordering a Pizza Conservatively in Texas
Ramona: Hatred in a Lovely Church
Gallup: Obama 46, Romney 46
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Destor on Ordering a Pizza Conservatively in Texas Ramona: Hatred in a Lovely Church Gallup: Obama 46, Romney 46 |
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Watching the whole debate about whether the rich (now known as Job Creators 'cause we can't call 'em RICH anymore) should pay more or less in taxes has got me thinking. And I think that maybe we've done our Job Creators a bit of a disservice.
Rich people are like German Shepherds--they're smart, they're high-strung, and if you don't give them stuff to think about and do, they'll spend all their time chewing on the furniture and biting the wrong people. Or getting a really weird color tan. Why, it's almost cruel to lower Rich People's taxes, like George Bush did, without giving them a way to justify themselves by living up to their reputation as Job Creators. It takes away their pride--they may not know it, but the Rich have sunk into a well of complacency that would put any Welfare Queen to shame. Surely, a rich person's mind is a terrible thing to waste.
So I say it's high time to put our Rich People back to work! Rich People don't want the Government creating jobs--why should they, when they can do it themselves in the private sector! I say that Democratic Politicians should sign a pledge to the Rich People of America--create X Million good private sector jobs by the end of the year, and by golly, we'll fight to extend your George Bush tax cuts for another year. That's what'll make you Rich People really appreciate them!
This is the opportunity for shared sacrifice that Rich People have been waiting for--in fact they've probably been hanging out on the sidelines sipping their foreign waters, checking their Cayman Islands accounts and waiting for the rest of us to ask. Why, if that nice Polaris CEO Scott Wine could see his way to bringing that one ATV factory back to Wisconsin, that would be, what, 40 or 50 jobs right there! And if others follow his selfless example...who knows what could happen! Can't you just see it, Rich People all over America making a special effort to employ Americans to justify the tax cuts that they keep insisting are good for the whole country. Poor Americans working for Rich Americans, in America, just like during the fabulous 50's that made this country great!
Let's think of this as a few thousand pair of really, really nice bootstraps, with no instruction manual, 'cause Rich People hate that kind of thing, just with an ultimatum attached. I'm pretty sure the idle rich will rise to the challenge and thank us for it--it'll give them a purpose other than hoarding all their profits and complaining about how nobody likes Millionaires anymore. (Think of poor Paul Ryan and his friends in that Restaurant, drinking $350/bottle wine and being laughed at by the other patrons. So sad.)
So, Democrats, what do you say? Let's send this Good Jobs for Tax Cuts pledge around the country and get our Politicians to sign it. Let's figure out how many jobs we need and get our Job Creators to strap on their good old American knowhow and start hiring instead of hoarding. We need it, but more important, the Rich People need it, because God knows a Rich Person won't work harder that she or he has to without some kind of incentive. People are people, right?
So I'm thinking 20 Million good private sector jobs by Christmas or that tax cut goes off the table and we use the revenue to run our Government all wrong, the way we poor people like to do it. Seems only fair.
What say you, everyone? It's high time to make Rich People work like everybody else!
By Elizabeth Weingarten, ForeignPolicy.com, May 23, 2012
It was 2009 in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Mossarat Qadeem was sitting on the floor of a house with about a dozen young Pakistani men -- some of whom had nearly become suicide bombers. Qadeem's goal: to undo the destructive brainwashing of the al-Qaeda and Taliban teachers who trained them in extremism, in part by asking the students to narrate their life stories.
"We were handling one of the boys, and he just came, put his head here in my lap, and he started crying and weeping," Qadeem recalls. "I was taken aback. It is very unnatural in my country that a man that tall can just sit at your feet and put his head here. [The other men] were all crying with him, and I was looking at him, and thinking, ‘my God.'"
All in a day's work for Qadeem. She's the national coordinator of Aman-o-Nisa, a coalition of Pakistani women that convened in October 2011 to combat violent extremism in Pakistan at the grassroots level. [....]
The issue of sexual assaults on American Indian women has become one of the major sources of discord in the current debate between the White House and the House of Representatives over the latest reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act of 1994.
.......
“We should never have a woman come into the office saying, ‘I need to learn more about Plan B for when my daughter gets raped,’ ” said Charon Asetoyer, a women’s health advocate on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, referring to the morning-after pill. “That’s what’s so frightening — that it’s more expected than unexpected. It has become a norm for young women.”
The difficulties facing American Indian women who have been raped are myriad, and include a shortage of sexual assault kits at Indian Health Service hospitals, where there is also a lack of access to birth control and sexually transmitted disease testing. There are also too few nurses trained to perform rape examinations, which are generally necessary to bring cases to trial.
By Ismail Kahn, New York Times, May 23/24, 2012
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A Pakistani doctor who helped the Central Intelligence Agency pin down Osama bin Laden's location under cover of a vaccination drive was convicted on Wednesday of treason and sentenced to 33 years in prison, a senior official in Pakistan said.
A tribal court here in northwestern Pakistan found the doctor, Shakil Afridi, guilty of acting against the state, said Mutahir Zeb Khan, the administrator for the Khyber tribal region [....]
By Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2012
MOSCOW — Stiff new penalties aimed at opposition protesters were given preliminary approval Tuesday by Russian lawmakers loyal to President Vladimir Putin, the target of mass rallies and demonstrations before his March election victory.
The bill, which opposition parliament members termed draconian and protested by threatening to file out of a legislative session, calls for fines of up to $50,000 and up to 200 hours of community service for organizers of rallies and demonstrations that grow violent or exceed the approved number of participants.
The sanctions were approved on first reading by parliament's lower house, which is controlled by Putin's United Russia party. They mark a return by the Kremlin to a tough stance against critics after concessions during the recent election campaign [...]
Also see:
Russians back Putin, strong leadership
Washington Post, May 22, 2012
A Pew survey of 1,000 Russians found that President Vladimir Putin is well-liked by more than 70 percent of citizens, especially older adults.
Associated Press, May 21, 2012
HAVANA — It was all sunshine, smiles and celebratory speeches as officials marked the arrival of an undersea fiber-optic cable they promised would end Cuba's Internet isolation and boost web capacity 3,000-fold. Even a retired Fidel Castro had hailed the dawn of a new cyber-age on the island.
More than a year after the February 2011 ceremony on Siboney Beach in eastern Cuba, and 10 months after the system was supposed to have gone online, the government never mentions the cable anymore, and Internet here remains the slowest in the hemisphere. People talk quietly about embezzlement torpedoing the project and the arrest of more than a half-dozen senior telecom officials.
Perhaps most maddening, nobody has explained what happened to the much-ballyhooed $70 million project....
You know, at first I took this as pure snark, but it's actually not a bad idea, assuming we set the bar high enough. So, I ask the dagblog community: what should x be such that if the rich create x million jobs by the end of the year, we extend their tax cuts? Is 20 million enough? What sort of caveats should we put on those jobs? Must they pay a "living wage"? (I would think so, but then one must define precisely what a living wage is.)
Snark! I'd almost forgotten what it's like. Love it.
Tax cuts for the rich are like prayers to God. Every one of them is answered, but the answer isn't always "yes."
I've been trying to decide myself, whether it's snark or an actual idea. I do think it makes sense to require millionaires to provide numbers that justify their tax cuts. Right now, it's all just ideology-driven and based in fear of what would happen if we asked them to pony up.
My primary goal with this was to come up with something that could put a number to what our "Job Creators" actually create and makes them responsible for creating it. If they don't want to pay taxes to the government, they oughta be willing to pay it to the American people, in the form of good private-sector jobs.
How many jobs? 10 Million? 20 Million? I agree we should set the bar high--after all, they're rich and smart--we want to challenge them!
Excellent post.
Reagan said that if we got out of their way, this class of people would be the best thing to happen to our country since the first Porsche was imported to California.
If they want to wear that escutcheon, it is time for them to stand and deliver.
I think it is a FABULOUS idea, and needs to go viral!
The repubs claim they are the only ones who can do it so I think they should have to put their money where there mouth is!
Time to talk it up guys! Back on the horn and pitch it to the networks!
Erica, you're a genius!
Lisb said to tell you she agrees w/ your post!
There is a flamboyancy to your idea which I like. Actually, Obama's call for people to call their Congressman was so far out of the norm, that something carnival-like might be tried. It reminded me of the movie--I want everyone to open their window and yell, "I'm not going to take it anymore"
Maybe a Jerry Lewis thing telethon every weekend, donate money to the long term unemployed. Turn all federal offices into hiring centers. Obama spends one day in the capitol of each state running a job fair, sleeves rolled up. Did you know you can go to a website and send the Treasury money to reduce the debt by using a credit card.
I am interested in the infrastructure bank. A small amount of, oops, government money, leveraged by loans from the private sector to repair infrastructure.
What we really need are euphemisms for the CCC and the WPA that will fool Republicans.
I like the "stand and deliver" line.
Ok, so small-government Republicans are now in charge of delivering X Million jobs by Christmas if they want to keep their tax cut!
Great idea, but mine goes a bit further. If you're going to call yourselves "job creators" doesn't that mean you have to take responsibility for the lack of jobs? I recently published a blog post about how I think we can motivate these "job creators" to do their duty. In a nutshell, it involves tying a new top marginal tax rate to the unemployment rate (and has a carrot and a stick). http://www.ragingwisdom.com/?p=185