Midterm elections

[KeithE]

I encourage anyone on BL (who want to prove they are not apathetic and uninvolved) to read the links (given several posts up and repeated here) on and and then comment specifically and meaningfully. It may take some time to overcome cognitive dissonance.

[Tim Bonney]

[KeithE]

One good outcome Tuesday is that all 5 states who tried had min wage increase amendments pass.

[Haruo]

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

All the rest of you guys may be apathetic about the languages we vote in, but not me. I voted (as I have for several years) in Vietnamese (here's proof: my ballot envelope mailed Monday)--

--in protest of the fact that only those who know English, Vietnamese or Chinese have fully informed voting rights in my county, and in solidarity with the millions (okay, not millions in the county, but worldwide) who are not able to participate in the democratic structures of their jurisdictions of residence because of language barriers.

[Sandy]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Sandy, one of the local TV Stations did interviews in the parking lots of a few malls in the Capital Area on Monday and few people had any Idea who various candidates where when shown their pictures. Most of those interviewed said whey would not be voting. As usual my vote was split party wise. I find up state NY the worse place I have ever lived to be an informed voter.

We do have a NEW Republican Representative to the house who will, at 30, be the youngest woman to ever be seated in that body. the prior record was 31. The democrats tried hard to present her as a Washington insider because she has worked for a few years as a Legislative Intern

[Sandy]

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

Certainly individuals who are being detained and deported would have complaints about their treatment, especially if they are locked up to keep them from fleeing the other way. The Texas Observer is usually pretty objective, and may be trying to be so here, but there are two sides to the story. The Obama administration has followed the law of the land with regard to immigration. But there's no conspiracy there. The fake Bin Laden death story is, frankly, just not credible, and doesn't square up with eyewitnesses. There's also no real motive there to fake it. Dubya would have given his right arm and left leg to get the guy, realizing that his administration would be evaluated as a failure if he didn't, and it was. There was no pressure on the Obama administration.

[KeithE]

[Tim Bonney]

[William Thornton]

...egad, yet another conspiracy theory? Check with Hollywood. There may be a spot for another reality show.

[Haruo]

[Sandy]

[Stephen Fox]

[Stephen Fox]

http://religiondispatches.org/big-white ... -midterms/

[Sandy]

[Dave Roberts]

I learned an interesting sidelight on the congressional redistricting of VA. The closest congressional race In VA in this election was won by 16 percentage points. No competitive races here.

[ET]

[ET]

[Sandy]

[ET]

[Sandy]

The $11 billion is conservative media stuff, not fact. The purpose of a large business loan like this is a bail out, no doubt. And it is certainly a risk. But if the banks or big financiers get involved, the profit margin kills the company borrowing it, burying them in debt and killing the jobs rather than saving them. The government has been in the low interest loan business for a long time (see: Small Business Administration) and of course conservatives chafe and buck at the very thought of someone of their ilk not being able to cash in and capitalize and profiteer on the interest. It's the taxpayers money, and we can do what we want with it.

The boost in domestic oil production is the result of tax credits and incentives put in place by the Obama administration. Bush preferrred to enrich his buds in the business who refined foreign oil, and that drove our dependence on them up, as well as the price, increasing profits for the corporate entities, and enriching some of his good, personal friends in the process. Some mid sized American producers, like Marathon and Sunoco, are enjoying the benefits of domestic drilling and production.

The deficit is spending that is allocated, but not covered by government revenue, thus it is always calculated as a percentage of whatever budget is passed. Spending and revenue are variable, so comparing one budget to another is apples and oranges comparison, and you can twist that to make it look however you want it to look. And yeah, those dropping unemployment numbers are hard to swallow for Republicans, considering what theirs have been pretty much every time one of them gets hold of the White House, so we have this "dropping out of the workforce" crap that gets spread around. The real story, though, is that the stock market has soared to record heights, indicating booming economic growth, and the job creation numbers indicate pretty clearly that the pool of those who dropped out of sight has been shrinking considerably. And it's also hard to argue that people are just dropping out of the job market, when the addition of new jobs is increasing exponentially, and the work force is larger than it ever has been. Can't be too many people out there who have given up looking for work, except, perhaps, chronically unemployed.