Under the headline “Lawmakers Aiming to Increase Civility,” the New York Times (1/17/11) reports from the front lines of the improved, post-Tucson political climate:
And the House speaker, John A. Boehner, used the phrase ”job-destroying” instead of “job-killing” in reference to the Democrats’ healthcare overhaul in a speech to colleagues on Saturday–a subtle but pointed shift in tone, though not in substance.
Change is in the air!
On a serious note, this would suggest a shift from a mean-sounding, unsupported-by-the-facts attack on one’s opponents to a slightly less mean-sounding, still fact-free attack on the Democrats and the Obama White House. As Dean Baker wrote at his Beat the Press blog today (1/18/11), many reports quote Republican politicians saying the new healthcare law is going to destroy jobs–without any suggestion that they should provide compelling evidence that this is in fact true.
Baker points to an AP “fact check” piece that does a good job of setting the evidence down–and showing that the Republicans have very little going for them. As he put it on Saturday:
In principle, reporters have the time to investigate allegations like the claim that the healthcare bill is costing jobs. Readers, on the other hand, do not. If the Republicans can make an untrue assertion and simply have it passed along as a credible statement because reporters do not do their jobs, then we should expect them to make even stronger statements. Perhaps we will soon be reading accusations from Republicans that President Obama and the Democrats are baby killers. After all, given the current practice of the national media, they would likely just pass the charge along as a reasonable statement about events in the world.
“Perhaps we will soon be reading accusations from Republicans that President Obama and the Democrats are baby killers.”
If so, it would be an extreme anomaly in truth-telling for them, wouldn’t it?
When you authorize actions that kill babies, you are, perforce, a baby killer, aren’t you?
Of course, it would be the epitome of the pot calling the kettle black.
Beyond this party bickering is a bigger problem. The media, FAIR included, refused to talk about National Hiring Day, though around 100 major and minor media outlets knew about it. Want to cover the media? Then cover that.
News show (that talk almost daily on the jobs problem) have categorically refused to talk about National HIring Day, and it was here 1.19.11. Readers need to know that the media has not and will not report fairly on the news, Their coverage is narrow unfair, and slanted.
Though the news media did not talk about it – National Hiring Day was here. This was a day that corporations were encouraged to hire new employees. The day suggested was Wednesday JANUARY 19, 2011. Corporations were called on to put patriotism ahead of excess profits and help their country in hard times, by the 18 year old art and media zine, Musea out of Dallas. Those corporations that cannot hire, were asked to stop firing for that month.
There has never been a time In American History where it is less difficult for Corporations to hire, and more helpful to all Americans if they did.
This may help us all.
Corporations were “encouraged” to hire new workers, Tom Hendricks? No kidding? Did they? Maybe next week we can encourage them to allow unions into the workplace, or encourage Wall-Mart to carry the latest editions of FAIR or The Nation. Do you really think that, outside of the force of law (say, a nice long stretch in a Federal prison), the Corporate world is going to swayed by a plea for domething as worthless (to them) as justice, or fair play, or democracy, or the law? They have nothing but deep and abiding contempt for the working class and earnest (liberal) concern on the part of the “left” for those workers.
I hereby wave my Baguette Magique and repeal the cushy benefits of the legislators who are screwing the rest of us – benefits that they voted for themselves and can take with them even if they are “fired” after a short time in office. Wave Wave. // Jean Clelland-Morin
Labeling and name-calling are cheap substitutes for honest speach. They have no use in the sober discourse of any issue.
This country will rebound when government gets out of the way, and removes the shackles on business and allows the recreation of wealth.That will happen in two years.Business will hire when there is a profit for them to do so.Unions will work when work is needed of them.GE will rebound when they get in bed with Obama(oops how did that get in there?).You will soon see obama extending a “helping hand”to big business to make the employment pic look better for his presidential run.Of course small business will get ziltch.The cooporate world and the world as a whole responds to self interest.Sorry folks. And this communist ,socialist mumbo jumbo is just that.So far- every move this president has made has made silly willy whitle Billy business man, have a whitle bit of a tummy ache.How is that?More politically correct for you libs?
labour pressure is made by economic pressure is conducted by political chess play is originated in the false money system of debt first, interest forever and internationally glued into currency games in order that all “experts” got soemthing to talk about but never touching the root.
We are to stupid to go to the bottom for real and love to talk politics and conspiracy theories. Fact is that a private group always has been in the power of the principal markets worldwide because they print the money out of nothing and violating the entire glorious and intelligent world! Since those sitting in the background of FED, world bank, IMF, central banks and institutional control points, since there doesnt exist polititian nor rpesident with true balls and brain and since there is no imagination that we could run this world honest, fair and equal lets call for more military and police to control the starving folks and kill the faithful ones. Or lets do it like the jews, pay the press not to print their crimes in Palestina and tell people that the “brave capital leaders” fixed the world again. Just watch Obama or just watch the reps, no one is above 130 IQ and thats exactly like it is needed to find out never ever. Anybody ever listened to evolutionary concepts in democracies? Anybody ever thought about we dont need those expensive parties bs under a roof of democracy which stands for opinions and desires of all? Yes we got to fix lot more than just the labour slavery to the finance slavery. Dont fall to sleep anybody!
TimN, let corporations speak for themselves. National Hiring Day will show those corporations that will hire a few to help the many. The rest will make it crystal clear to the public that patriotism is not important to them. Time for them to speak. The good businesses will see why its good for everyone, them included and by doing so little they will greatly increase the support of their customers. Think about it.
Let’s say you run a business, by hiring one person, you are a part of this. Many others hire one or more. Then because you (and others) hired one or more, thousands have gotten jobs, lost insecurity and worry, and are ready to buy from you and others. AND they have a good reason to support your company. Just one hire from enough businesses and the whole country has a big boost. You help a little and get good will from thousands that find jobs, in return.
But again, let’s let corporations talk (and the media that won’t talk about it). Let them stand up and say why they can’t be bothered to help their country by doing so little when it would mean so much to so many.â┚¬Ã‚Â
My point, Tom H., was that corporations feel no compunction whatsoever to “speak’ unless it suits them. They are short-sighted, ruthlessly (and stupidly) partisan, and would rather enjoy short-term profits than do the right thing and hire people. National Hiring Day came and went, and nothing happened. Corporations don’t care about you, or me, or democracy, or the rule of law, or anything like that. They care about profits, period. If they can make a pile by having the Chinese make their widgets, they’re going to do it. And you know what? The Major Media aren’t going to trouble them by asking for an explanation for their rank anti-American (worker) behavior. They are never, ever, going to “stand up” and “explain” why they are acting the way they are. Anybody who’s been paying attention already knows that most corporations aren’t patriotic–patriotism is irrelevant to making profits–indeed, it actually hurts the bottom line. At least that’s the way they think, and that’s all that matters. Insecurity, worry, destroyed lives–these things are irrelevant. In our new libertarian “democracy,” that’s just the way it goes; it’s every man and woman for themselves, one for one, all for none, and nothing causes anything to happen to anybody or nobody. No one is responsible for the great economic crimes of the last twenty-four months–shit just happens, and what can you do? No one knew, and no one could have known, and no one knows who did what, or why, or how, or when. So move on, don’t ask, and don’t worry.
P.S.: Wow. I must’ve gotten a bit careless in my first post here, what with the crazy mis-spellings and dropped words. I swear it wasn’t that fourth ale I quaffed just before the last period went down. Duh. My apologies.
Please, Michael E. The government removed the “shackles” from the financial industry, and look what happened. The richest 1% now control more wealth than the 99% of the rest of us. They create nothing — not products or jobs, but have rigged the system (with the collusion of our politicians) to acquire the greatest wealth.
“Or lets do it like the jews”.
I’m not sure where you’re coming from here, Luis, but a comment like that sets off alarm bells for me.
Israeli apartheid is anathema to me, as was its support for that policy in South Africa. Its government is responsible for countless crimes against the Palestinian people, with the complicity of the US, and, it needs to be said, the Palestinian Authority.
But those facts don’t justify a descent into anti-Semitism, if that’s indeed the case here. It’s true that the vast majority of Jews worldwide support Israeli policy, out of a distorted view of their history as an oppressed people, and, yes, out of racism.
Of course, the same can be said of how many Arabs and Muslims view Jews in general, can’t it? Not that anti-Semitism is the exclusive province of any particular subset of humanity.
But many Jews actively oppose these policies, within the country and abroad. That’s something the corpress ignores, since it doesn’t jibe with the dominant paradigm of a brave nation, an outpost of Western civilization, besieged on all sides by hostile heathens, does it?
My point is that no one is genetically predisposed to hate and hostility. These are learned behaviors, and ascribing these characteristics to a race or ethnicity is blatant prejudice. We can despise what some do to others without resorting to a version of blood libel, can’t we?
I’ll assume that wasn’t your intent, but your phrasing wasn’t reassuring, and I wouldn’t have felt right had I let it pass.
Edwina….we have just about the highest corporate tax rate in the world.How much higher would you like it?The so called rich already pay 87%of all taxes.How much more should they pay?To say that those who have money and businesses that have flourished, and become corporations,and yet add nothing to the employment picture is counter intuitive.Aside from government jobs(which is just money shuffled around)it IS the employment picture ….en total.
If I were to ask you and all your friends to support one child…..and that would result in an end to the need for abortion would you do it?If you ask every business to hire one person and we could end unemployment would they do it?It is not as simple as that.Even if it is accepted as fact(its not)But some answers are simple.Lower taxes and make your area business friendly and “they will build it-and they will come”.That is the creation of wealth.And until libs learn that wealth is not an intrinsic evil, we are going to have a serious disconnect in understanding Capitalist principles so ingrained in this countries success.
Doug…Thanx for saying that.It hit warning flags with me too.Imagine saying “Lets do like the BLACKS do”.Or lets do like the Puerto Ricans do.Why is it ok to say JEW?And believe me they mean it as a pejorative .
Tom Hendricks, I thought I recognized that name, you were on the Huffington Post comments, and marilyn von Savant comments sections railing about this great day. I’m afraid TimN has the situation in hand and is correct in his evaluation.
For more truth to power:
http://www.umich.edu/~thecore/doc/Friedman.pdf
Oh, and Michael e. go suck an egg, you are spewing nonsense again.
Oh, I forgot to mention in the previous post that the link is an article by Milton Friedman about social responsibility of corporations.
The title:
The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits
When Bush was in charge Corporations were given a low 5% tax rate in exchange for pledging to give investment in US jobs and factories, but reneged on the job creation promises, all the while firing employees.
Today, multinational corporations like Cisco and Oracle are doing just what they did during the Bush regime, are now lobbying the Obama administration to reinstate this flimflam tax plan.
HP moved its entire human resources department from US to Panama. This, the wonderful free market capitalistic system works great, right? No product improvement, no cheaper products, but savings are meted out not to workers, but to corporate executives and Wall Street investors. Yes, there is a wealth distribution going on, from the many to the few.
Multinationals like Dell Computer creates 10s of 1000s of jobs in China which requires that they give corporate trade secrets of the company to them in order to do business there.
JPMorgan Chase is moving telephone banking from Michigan to the Phillippines, after having gotten $25 billion from the taxpayer bailout.
The US government awarded $3 trillion to bankers and corporations to help their poor ailing free market system, which we know is so competitive and the answer for all of life’s woes.
Google, who says we should do no evil, a $24 billion company that dodges a $1 Billion ethical tax revenue to the US by profit transfers to Ireland and by funneling, prior to tax time, more profits into shell corporations then to Bermuda, where there is no corporate tax.
These multinational corporations are requesting a tax holiday for bringing home $1 trillion in profits that are squirreled away in foreign tax havens. So like rubes to a medicine show Republicans are swallowing some old snake oil pushing to legislate for the super rich corporations, and doing it to us again.
Then there is a Denver story of a hit and run by a wealth manager at MorganStanley who, with his Mercedes Benz, hits a surgeon who is on his bicycle and is the father to 2 sons. The surgeon is left for dead and ends up injured and permanently with a lifetime of pain in his future. The District Attorney in the case decides to drop felony hit and run charges and instead cites 2 misdemeaner traffic violations. The reason for the devolvement of charges against the wealth manager: because the guy is rich. The DA says”Felony convictions have serious job implications for someone in his high profile position and that made my decision for me.”
Okay, let me get this straight: So the rules don’t apply to any of us equally, the rich have no rules. Unf**kingbelievable.
The issue of profits-please read this-it shows that corporate savings are at an all time high as enterprises cut to the bone to keep from spending-including laying extra cash for pay, benefits (if any) and workman’s comp (still mandatory by law)
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/07/our-new-york-times-op-ed-on-the-corporate-savings-glut.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29
On the issue of workers being laid low by the high tide of anti-union propaganda and anti-worker (especially hourly) actions please read this where the writer shows that big business has been placing the average worker under a terrible onerous of guilt for expressing the fact that their hourly wages are so low that they are not having their needs met by the god awful pay that is proffered in the name of ‘at least it’s a J-O-B.’
http://www.slate.com/id/2266025/entry/2266031/
Finally, the government is supposed to act on the wisdom collected over the ages that shows that every time there is a huge discrepancy in the spread of wealth from high to low-every time the upper aristocracy is steeped in over consumption and exploits the sensory satisfaction of any and every imaginable kind by marketing the joys of decadence everywhere-every time the wealthy class subverts the government officials into collecting rents (campaign funds) then the society is facing a downturn into perfidy where brother will turn on brother in murderous fratricide as England did when they turned on their German cousins in WW I.
I’m quoting this line because it is so succinct.
” The Gini coefficient is a measure of the inequality of a distribution, a value of 0 expressing total equality and a value of 1 maximal inequality. ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient
Raymond and Ray
People reading your words don’t realize how far off the constitutional and capitalist principles of this country you are.You must understand that government cannot force business to do business where and when government would have it done.At a cost set by government.At a tax set by government.With hiring and pay scales set by presidential fiat.If you do ,we will not be a free country.A free marketplace.Business will flourish where a climate for business is made, or already exists.Period!
Unions are failing for simple economic reasons.They charge more than the market requires.So they try to force out competition with everything from dirty tricks to government regulation until people have no choice.(Check out the hundreds of thousands of hours phila Unions cost their convention center between 07-09 according to a government investigation.)This is in effect a shakedown at worst.A subsidizing of Unions at best.It was easy to see the downturn of unions.The minute competition is allowed to exist they die on the vine.They use their massive payrolls to bank role democratic leaders that are anti business and cut the one output Unions have.The need for highly skilled workers to WORK.No work…no need.
What do you call a guy who stops by your house for 5 minutes tightens a fitting and charges you a hundred bucks?A PLUMBER.
What do you call a guy who does the same thing for 25 bucks?A SCAB!
This socialist mumbo jumbo has seen its day.Like the 8 track.If Unions want to thrive they must adapt to new realities or disappear.
Government has to make every inch of this country more business friendly than anywhere else on earth or business will continue to disappear.
And one last thing….If the people who bring business roaring back through their own genius make a ton of green.Fantastic.None of your GD business.We need to recreate wealth.Your demagoguery against business and class warfare is, and has proven to be completely counter productive.
You want envy to become a rallying cry to tear down.Instead of a momentary feeling that charges people to create their own destiny.
“It’s only class warfare when the poor point out the truth about how the rich are screwing them.”
And Dick what is it called when those who produce(you know the half that isn’t subsidized that pays 87% of all the taxes)finds out they are being screwed by the government…….LIBERALISM.
I have never, and will never understand the Liberal mantra of sticking up for the poor by bringing the so called rich down.Its like rioter who gets so wound up he throws a brick through his own TV.A feel good moment.And thats what liberalism is.A feel good moment that doesn’t make a bit of sense, and is completely counter productive in the long run.
The next two years will be the best in living memory for many wealthy Americans to shield their income and fortunes.
Savvy wealthy Americans would be able to capitalize on an environment in which their tax rates on income and investments remain at historic lows. Also, new rules would make it possible to pass on fortunes to heirs with less fuss and lower taxes than all but a brief period of the past 80 years.
“Top rates are incredibly low from a historical perspective,” says Indiana University law professor Ajay Mehrotra.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40701302/ns/business/
PS
Your numbers are scrambled, as usual
25% of taxpayers pay 87% of all income taxes, not 87% of ALL THE TAXES.
To Michael E
Since you give no back up for what you say I’ll just have to do what my 9th grade English teacher would do and give you an F for not supporting any of your assertions except to make rhetorical remarks.
When you can back up what you say I’ll honor your statement with a response.
An ipse-dixitism or bare assertion is an unsupported or dogmatic assertion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipse-dixitism
Happy paper chasing!