Give The Hell, Tony.

I know several sites have already posted this video, but everyone should see the republicans called out for being the obstructionists that they are.

Is She The Next Senator Of California?

UPDATE: The title should have read Senator, not Governor. I have corrected it.

BP Shows Just How Cheap It Really Is

The LA Times today has an article about a new device that "promises a faster, cheaper and more efficient way to remove spilled oil than traditional skimmers...".  It is the first to be developed out of about a 120,000 suggestions that BP has received since their oil gusher appeared in the Gulf.  It is essentially a floating cage with a porous bag that collects the oil and lets the seawater flow through.

It costs about $42 per bag (they are replaced when full) and about $6000 per cage.  BP has ordered 100 of them.

The concept was developed by Gerry Matherne.  BP engineers took his original prototype, tweaked the design somewhat, and came up with the final design that they have gone ahead with.

You would think that Matherne would be in line for a big payday.  After all, he has beat out all others in coming up with a usable design;  all others including some of the best minds that the oil companies have.  Matherne developed this device on his own time.

But, you know how much money Matherne is going to get?

ZERO!

Why you ask?

He is an oil tanker captain who happens to be employed by BP.

He could have developed this device while working as an oil tanker captain for any other company and he would have gotten some money - probably.  But, because he is a BP employee, he gets nothing.

Way to watch out for your people, you big fucking corporation!

The Democratic 2012 Dream Team

Thanks to CoyotePrime over at RealityZone for the picture.

Do The Republicans Really Want To Help The Economy Recover?

I say No!

Rachel Maddow has a great segment about this very topic. I encourage you to watch the complete segment here. For those of you who do not have the time or inclination, I will summarize it below, of course with my personal bias thrown in.

The republicans are blocking extension of unemployment benefits to several million Americans because it will add to the deficit. The deficit is more important than putting food on the table of unemployed Americans to the republicans.

The republicans believe that the unemployed are unemployed because they want to be. The jobs are there. They just won't take them. They say things like:

• The unemployed are spoiled
• Unemployment payments create hobos
• The unemployed just blow the money on drugs
• Unemployment payments are dis-incentives to finding work.
  

Don't believe me? Listen below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Their other argument is the deficit. We cannot pay unemployment benefits because it will add to the deficit. The deficit is more important than people. Unemployment benefits must be paid for. Nothing we do can add to the deficit.

Don't believe me. Listen below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Do you hear that. NOTHING. NOTHING. Nothing can add to the deficit...

except one thing -- the republican number one priority -- TAX CUTS.

Don't believe me? Listen below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

That's right. Poor unemployed people. Tough shit. You don't deserve the money. The deficit is more important. But wait. You rich people. You people making over $200,000 per year...with a job (probably). Your tax cut is OK. It will add to the deficit, but that's OK.

Your tax cut will spur the economy. Right? RIGHT? Well, it will benefit the economy certainly more than giving money to unemployed Americans. Right? RIGHT?

Well, first a tax cut or unemployment benefits have the same effect on the deficit. A reduction of money coming in or an increase in money going out have the same effect. They both raise the deficit. So, if we have to choose between the two, maybe we should choose the one that has the greatest benefit to the economy. We should choose the one that stimulates the economy the most.

Want to guess which one has the biggest impact on the economy. If you are a republican, you are probably saying TAX CUTS, TAX CUTS.

You are wrong. Unemployment benefits have a bigger impact.

Don't believe me? Listen below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

That's right. It is not even close. Let me repeat the benefit in case you did not listen to the video.

For every dollar in tax cuts, you get back $1.02 in economic stimulus.

For every dollar in unemployment benefits, you get back 1.63 in economic activity.

Who does tax cuts benefit? The rich.

Who does unemployment payment benefit? All the rest of us. One, it helps those of us who are unemployed. Two, it helps the rest of us by stimulation the economy 3150% greater than the tax cut 63 cents/dollar versus 2 cents/dollar.

Let me repeat that again.

Dollar for dollar, unemployment benefits have a 3150% greater effect on the economy than tax cuts.

So, you want to tell me again how the republicans are for the little people?

This Should Be Reason Enough To End The Bush Tax Cuts

This one thing, the Bush Tax Cuts, will contribute to over 50% of the budget deficit it allowed to continue.

Micheal Steele

The gift that keeps on giving. Think he's a secret Democrat plant?

h/t to huffpo

Which Pill Would You Take

Let's say you were sick, very very sick. The doctor had two different medications to choose from. Two almost opposite medications. He showed you the following graph of their effectiveness on various patients.

Which medication would you choose?

I think most sane people would choose Medication 1. It appears to be clearly more effective than Medication 2. After all, only one subject taking Medication1 did worse than the best one on Medication 2.

OK.

Now, let's look at an identical graph but instead of medications 1 or 2, we have an increase in tax burden or a decrease in tax burden. And instead of an increase in life, we have an increase in real GDP per capita.

Same figure, different labels. This figure is based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) tables. Both of these figures are from a post at Angry Bear. I recommend that you read it.

Clearly, raising the tax burden is more beneficial to the economy than reducing the tax burden.

How To Save $45 Billion Dollars Per Year

From ThinkProgress:
BP used oil industry tax break to write off its rent for Deepwater rig

Tranocean, the owner of the rig the BP blew up in the gulf, uses well-known tax havens in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland to lower its U.S. corporate tax rate by almost 15 points. Furthermore, the US tax code allows BP to write-off the rental payment saving BP hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. So, essentially the U.S. taxpayer paid BP to lease a rig that was incorporated in a foreign country for the purpose of avoiding the U.S. corporate tax.

There are nine different subsides that we give the oil companies. NINE. We can't help unemployed Americans, but we can provide corporate welfare for oil corporations -- highly profitable oil corporations.

We could save $45 billion dollars per year if we eliminated these subsidies. That's almost half a TRILLION dollars over 10 years -- half the cost of the health care bill.

But wait, you say. We can't eliminate the oil corporation welfare. They will stop producing oil. They will stop drilling. They will stop exploring.

Well, you know what? It will affect domestic oil production. It will affect it by less than one-half of one percent.

Big Whoopy!!!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Don't things look a little out of whack here.

Do you know what this is?

This is what the top five countries in the world spent on their military in 2009.

What are we doing? What? We couldn't find $30 billion for Afghanistan and so we had to stiff unemployed Americans so we could blowup Afghans? That's so fucked!

Republican History Rewrite...Again

Micheal Steele, the gift that just keeps giving, has done it again. Accord to TalkPointsMemo, Afghanistan is Obama's war of choice. That's right. Obama's war.

Here is what he said

Steele declared that the war in Afghanistan "was a war of Obama's choosing" that America had not "actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in,"

These people will say anything. Truth is not even a consideration. I cannot believe the ridiculous statements that the republicans continue to make, and these are statements by their leadership, not some run-of-the-mill local elected official. This is the "cream of the crop" republicans.

God help us if they ever get elected again.