>In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
>”It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/09/23/bailout-paulson-congress-biz-beltway-cx_jz_bw_0923bailout.html
Okay. We’re fucked.
I’ve heard a couple of people I know on the right describe their beliefs as “Libertarian”, but the policies they support seem to me to be a lot closer to Neo-Conservatism. There is a big gulf between Ron Paul and John McCain, so I decided to make a chart, so people know the difference:
· Libertarians are uber-doves. Neo-Cons are uber-hawks.
· Libertarians fear our government. Neo-Cons fear foreign governments.
· Libertarians are for isolationism. Neo-Cons are for expanding the empire.
· Libertarians believe we should not have entered the Second World War. Neo-Cons blame the Left for losing the Vietnam War.
· Libertarians are for getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Neo-Cons are for going into Iran and Georgia.
· Libertarians are obsessed with civil liberties. Neo-Cons are obsessed with demonizing Communism, despite the fact that their intellectual father, Irving Kristol, was a former Trotskyist.
· Libertarians inherited their tolerance for sexual taboos from Robert Heinlein and the hippie movement. Neo-Cons are 60s reactionaries who believe homosexuality and pornography brought down the Roman Empire.
· Libertarians are for ending the war on drugs. Neo-Cons believe the border patrol should shoot Mexican drug smugglers on sight while protecting inflated drug prices so that it can be used to fund an illegal war in Nicaragua or support Afghani poppy-growers.
· Libertarians are against sending foreign aid to Israel, along with every other country. Neo-Cons are for destroying any probable future threat to Israel.
· Libertarians are for completely opening the borders. Neo-Cons are for building a giant wall along the border and financing a mass relocation of illegal aliens.
· Libertarians believe it should be legal to burn the flag. Neo-Cons believe it’s un-American to not wear a flag pin made in China.
· Libertarians follow the Austrian school of economics based on Carl Menger’s Prinicples of Economics. Neo-Cons follow Supply Side economics based on a line graph Arthur Laffer scribbled on a napkin for Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
· Libertarians believe in balancing the budget and want to go back to the gold standard, which would entail a massive gold buying program that would cause the value of the dollar to fall and the price of gold to rise, amounting to a massive transfer of wealth from the United States to those who own gold. Neo-Cons believe tax cuts increase government capital and spend more than Libertarians or Liberals on military budgets.
· Libertarians are hard-line economic Darwinists who would allow the banks to fail despite the financial consequences. Neo-Cons are corporate socialists who want to bail out all of Wall Street but allow the lax regulation that helped cause it to continue unabated.
Here’s a quick list of priorities for the four political positions:
Liberal: Save lives (capital punishment, etc.), help the poor, save money, defeat evil
Conservative: Save lives (pro-life, etc.), save money, defeat evil, help the poor
Libertarian: Save money, save lives, help the poor, defeat evil
Neo-Conservative: Defeat evil, save lives, help the poor, save money
“[Conservatism] is so influenced by business culture and by business modes of thinking that it lacks any political imagination, which has always been, I have to say, a property of the Left…. What’s the point of being the greatest, most powerful nation in the world and not having an imperial role? It’s unheard of in human history. The most powerful nation always had an imperial role…. [Previous empires were not] capitalist democracies with a strong emphasis on economic growth and economic prosperity…. It’s too bad, I think it would be natural for the United States… to play a far more dominant role in world affairs. Not what we’re doing now but to command and to give orders as to what is to be done. People need that. There are many parts of the world—Africa in particular—where an authority willing to use troops can make a very good difference, a healthy difference…. [But with public discussion dominated by accountants] there’s the Republican Party tying itself into knots. Over what? Prescriptions for elderly people? Who gives a damn? I think it’s disgusting that… presidential politics of the most important country in the world should revolve around prescriptions for elderly people. Future historians will find this very hard to believe. It’s not Athens. It’s not Rome. It’s not anything.” -Irving Kristol, Father of Neo-Conservatism and William Kristol
“The hard part of the supply-side tax cut is dropping the top rate from 70 to 50 percent—the rest of it is a secondary matter. The original argument was that the top bracket was too high, and that’s having the most devastating effect on the economy. Then, the general argument was that, in order to make this palatable as a political matter, you had to bring down all the brackets. But, I mean, Kemp-Roth was always a Trojan horse to bring down the top rate.” -David Stockman, Ronald Reagan’s budget director
“None of us really understands what’s going on with all these numbers…” -David Stockman
“Do you realize the greed that came to the forefront? The hogs were really feeding. The greed level, the level of opportunism, just got out of control. [The Administration’s] basic strategy was to match or exceed the Democrats, and we did.” -David Stockman
“Mr. David Stockman has said that supply-side economics was merely a cover for the trickle-down approach to economic policy—what an older and less elegant generation called the horse-and-sparrow theory: If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.” -John Kenneth Galbraith, economist
“The extreme promises of supply-side economics did not materialize. President Reagan argued that because of the effect depicted in the Laffer curve, the government could maintain expenditures, cut tax rates, and balance the budget. This was not the case. Government revenues fell sharply from levels that would have been realized without the tax cuts.” – Karl Case & Ray Fair, Principles of Economics (2007), p. 695
“You know, Paul, Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter. We won the mid-term elections, this is our due.” -Dick Cheney
“It is also a fact that our tax cuts have fueled robust economic growth and record revenues.” -George W. Bush
“You are smart people. You know that the tax cuts have not fueled record revenues. You know what it takes to establish causality. You know that the first order effect of cutting taxes is to lower tax revenues. We all agree that the ultimate reduction in tax revenues can be less than this first order effect, because lower tax rates encourage greater economic activity and thus expand the tax base. No thoughtful person believes that this possible offset more than compensated for the first effect for these tax cuts. Not a single one.” -Andrew Samwick, Chief Economist on Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2003-2004
Recent Interview With McCain on 60 Minutes:
Pelley: “In 1999 you were one of the senators who helped pass deregulation of Wall Street. Do you regret that now?”
McCain: “No, I think the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/opinion/22krugman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Climate Change Fight “Can’t Wait”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6096084.stm
Climate Change is Not a Consensus of Opinion
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/02/27/global_warming_deniers/
Antarctic Ice Shows Earth Carbon Dioxide at an 800,000-Year High
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5314592.stm
How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic
http://scienceblogs.com/illconsidered/2008/07/how_to_talk_to_a_sceptic.php
List of Scientific Organizations That Accept Man-Made Global Warming
http://scienceblogs.com/illconsidered/2006/02/there-is-no-consensus.php
Climate Change: A Guide for the Perplexed
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462
Climate Change Questions Answered
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/302176_whatabout02.html
Climate Change FAQs
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Climate_change_FAQs
http://www.brighton73.freeserve.co.uk/gw/globalwarmingfaq.htm
Climate Change Timeline
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Climate_Change_Timeline
Guide to Fact and Fiction About Climate Change
http://royalsociety.org/downloaddoc.asp?id=1630
Climate Change Outline of Topic
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Climate_change:_outline_of_topics
IPCC Drafting Process
http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/index.htm
IPCC Summary for Policy Makers
http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/docs/WG1AR4_SPM_Approved_05Feb.pdf
IPCC 2007 Reports
http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg1.htm
IPCC Predicts Climate Change Disaster If Action Not Taken By 2012
http://climateprogress.org/2007/11/17/must-read-ipcc-synthesis-report-debate-over-delay-fatal-action-not-costly/
NASA on Global Warming
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/GlobalWarmingUpdate/
NASA Says Climate Change Approaching “Tipping Point”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070531073748.htm
NASA Study Finds World Warmth Edging Ancient Levels
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/world_warmth.html
NASA Head Looks Back on 20 Years of Climate Change Denial
http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/TwentyYearsLater_20080623.pdf
NASA Describes How Lost Arctic Ice Causes a Warming Feedback Loop
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2003/1023esuice.html
REPORT: First Identification of Model-Predicted “Fingerprint” of Tropopause Height Changes
http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Publications/PDF_Papers/santertext.pdf
REPORT: New Detection Studies Show Anthropogenic Climate Change is Detectable
https://e-reports-ext.llnl.gov/pdf/315840.pdf
Detection and Attribution of Climate Change
http://www.research.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/spot_ccdetect.html
Ice Cores Reveal Greenhouse Gases at an 800,000-Year-High
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080514131131.htm
Royal United Services Institute Warns Global Warming May Cause World Wars
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/23/eaclimate123.xml
North Pole “Melting Faster Than Ever”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/28/2349041.htm
North Pole Will Be Ice Free In 5 Years Instead of 60
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/10/climatechange.arctic
Antarctica is Losing Ice to Oceans
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4767296.stm
Rate of Greenland Ice Melting Increased 250% Between 2004 and 2006
http://climateprogress.org/2006/11/26/the-glaciers-are-melting-and-we-are-the-cause/
Drought Has Doubled in Past 30 Years
http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2005/drought_research.shtml
Fresh Water Supplies Are Already Drying Up
Studies Warn Global Warming is Rapidly Raising Sea Levels
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0323_060323_global_warming.html
2006 Was 5th Warmest Year in Century
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17553
2004: The Year Global Warming Got Respect
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1229_041229_climate_change_consensus.html
Climate Researchers Feeling Heat From White House
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/05/AR2006040502150.html
Former Surgeon General Discusses Republican Adversity Towards Science
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jul2007/surg-j17.shtml
Scientists Offered Cash to Dispute Climate Study
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/feb/02/frontpagenews.climatechange
List of 400 “Climate Skeptics” Includes the Unqualified and People Who Want Off the List
http://climateprogress.org/2008/01/16/more-on-the-laughable-padded-inhofe-400/
“Republicans have shown a marked preference for politically inspired fringe theories over the findings of long-established and world-renowned scientific bodies”
http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2005/09/chris_mooney.html
Mar. 2006: “The partisan gap on global warming seems to be shifting, according to the poll. In 1998, 31% of Republicans and independents alike were sure that global warming was happening, compared with 39% among Democrats. Today, 46% of Democrats and 45% of independents are certain, but only 26% of Republicans feel that way, according to the poll.”
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1176967,00.html
May 2008: “Only 49% of Republican now even believe that the earth is warming!”
http://climateprogress.org/2008/05/09/the-deniers-are-winning-especially-with-the-gop/
“In the history of global climate research, the research budget in Lindzen’s native United States has been inflated twice — once during the presidency of the first President Bush and once during that of his son, George W. Bush. In both cases the injection of funding was preceded by a sentence uttered by the president: We know too little. If climate researchers wish to secure or expand their budgets, they shouldn’t be saying: We are 90 percent certain that the lion’s share of climate change is manmade. Instead, they should say: We know too little.”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,480766,00.html
The Cruel Off-Shore Drilling Hoax
http://climateprogress.org/2008/07/10/the-cruel-offshore-drilling-hoax-part-1/
Inaction on Climate Change Will HURT Our Economy
http://climateprogress.org/2006/10/29/inaction-on-climate-change-will-hurt-our-economy/
Energy Efficiency R&D Could Return 75-to-1 on Investment
http://climateprogress.org/2008/09/08/energy-efficiency-part-5-the-highest-documented-rate-of-return-of-any-federal-program/
Mammoth Dung and Prehistoric Goo May Speed Global Warming
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1076886120070917?sp=true
Dirty Snow May Warm Arctic as Much as Greenhouse Gases
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070606113327.htm
Animals Already Evolving to Keep Pace With Global Warming
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article673034.ece
Ancient Warming Caused Chain Reaction in Temperature Growth
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071219-ancient-warming.html
Climate Change May Have Helped Bring Down Neandertals, Mammoths, and the Maya
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080103-neanderthals.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331223843.htm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080229-servir-maya.html
Ten Reasons Why Climate Change May Be More Severe Than Projected
http://climateprogress.org/2006/09/25/ten-reasons-why-climate-change-may-be-more-severe-than-projected/
Standards of Proof for Global Warming
http://climateprogress.org/2008/02/11/how-do-we-really-know-humans-are-causing-global-warming/
Sunspots at 50 Year Low
Journalistic Balance as Global Warming Bias
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1978
Global Warming or Climate Change?
http://bahumuth.bitfreedom.com/global-warming-climate-change
Global Warming Disinformation Tries to Match “Lord Monckton” With Gore
http://bahumuth.bitfreedom.com/global-warming-disinformation
Washed Up Viscount Manages to Publish Crackpot Theory on Non-Peer-Reviewed Newsletter
http://bahumuth.bitfreedom.com/lord-monckton-ur-blog-dising-ur-cred
Palin Files Ethics Complaint Against Herself
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5827023&page=1
Evidence Surmounts Against Excuse Given for Firing In-Law Trooper
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5844710&page=1
Palin’s Proposal for Online Transparency of the Government Checkbook Already Done…. By Obama
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/18/palins-transparency-proposal-already-exists-in-dc/
McCain Proposes Same Kind of Deregulation for Health Care as He Proposed for Banking
McCain Can’t Remember His Position on Condoms in Africa
Who Spent More, “Tax and Spend” Liberals or “Fiscal Conservatives”?
* Johnson: 4.1 percent
* Nixon/Ford: 5 percent
* Carter: 1.6 percent
* Reagan: 1.4 percent
* Bush I: 3.8 percent
* Clinton: 2.1 percent
* Bush II: 4.8 percent
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51342
* The economy has lost nearly 3 million private sector jobs under President Bush. His is the only Administration to lose jobs since Herbert Hoover. Despite a slight uptick in recent months, the last two and a half years are the longest period of ongoing job losses since the 1930s.
* Census Bureau data shows that poverty increased and real median household income fell last year. In both years of the Bush Administration, the number of Americans in poverty has increased while the real income of a typical household has fallen.
* The budget deficit reached a record high of $374 billion this year, with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projecting a deficit of $480 billion next year. Next year’s deficit may well climb past $500 billion since the CBO numbers do not reflect the costs of military and other activities in Iraq.
* Average annual economic growth under President Bush is 2.1 percent, less than two-thirds the average growth rate under President Clinton and rivaling his father for the weakest performance of any President in the last 50 years.
http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=fs-108-1-408
And, no, I’m not being allegorical. He actually accused a Kenyan woman of causing car accidents by magic. I don’t think Obama’s pastor was anywhere near this bad.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/uselections/2008/09/palin-linked-el.html