does GOP really want to "tame federal deficits"?

according to our friends at the associated press:

"WASHINGTON (AP) — Most future retirees would pay more for health care under a new House Republican budget proposal, according to an analysis by nonpartisan experts for Congress that could be an obstacle to GOP ambitions to tame federal deficits."

this characterization of the GOP as dedicated deficit-tamers is so full of jumbo dumbo that one hardly knows where to commence picking it apart.

let us simply reflect on the last 30 years of federal spending for a start, however, roughly corresponding to the beginning of the "reagan revolution" to wreck the republic to benefit the few.

as is common knowledge, reagan during his terms in office, after taking the ax to welfare queens and the air-traffic controllers, actually tripled the federal debt. a good portion of the increase was in a military buildup against the "evil empire" -- our enemy of choice in those days -- as well as the sweetheart deals given to corporate interests. with all the genuflecting about fiscal responsibility, there was none shown in the reagan era.

after a dozen years, we got son of reagan in the form of son of a bush: dubya.

once again, with our new enemy of choice, the terrorist, fueling the profligate GOP congress to new heights of irresponsibility, we again witness double-down deficits. this go-round, the government's debt only doubled in eight years, as iraq and afghanistan drained the nation's coffers at a clip never seen before. simultaneously, the business of government was enacting laws written by corporations, which simply served to enrich the rich at the expense of working slobs.

the gathering clusterfuck of the bush years finally came to a head during the home stretch of the 2008 presidential campaign, where the dark horse candidate from chicago, barack obama, was elected supreme corporate pitchman, as the corporate oligarchy distanced itself from the trainwreck it dictated under the GOP's watch.

we now live under a deficits regime that's unlike any seen at any time in the nation's history. now that the GOP sits in opposition to obama as the ruling faction in the US house, the boner team is positioning itself as guardian of fiscal sanity, and threatening to shut down the government unless a relatively piddly chunk of social welfare programs is excised from the budget. the party of dick "deficits don't matter" cheney has now decided to play the heavy in a battle of wills against the most pliable president in history -- whose opening gambit in almost any face-off is to fold.

if not for the opportunity to score political points against the GOP, obama would surely have negotiated away the social programs by now, except to make a point to senior citizen voters that the GOP is a bunch of meanies that want to cut their medicare. that is all that prevents the deficit cutters from leading the cavalry charge against "gummint" and other nonsensical tea-party lore.

meanwhile, you will hear nary a word about the morbidly obese "defense" establishment, which can not endure even the mention of the word "cuts," unless in reference to an adversary. nor do the GOP financial whizzes ever have anything to say about the revenue side of the equation -- such as why corporations like GE pay no taxes on billions of dollars in income. the accelerating income and wealth disparities in the US are seen as sign of robust health, not a system that is teetering on the verge of collapse, so under the cutting regime of the GOP, those least able to withstand the withering assault of crony capitalism on their standard of living are precisely those who will be the victims of the new, responsible GOP.

Joe Bageant: White Underclass Crushed By Economy

joe may have moved on, but his site is percolating -- review of the new book:

Joe Bageant: White Underclass Crushed By Economy

as well as video clips of joe playing guitar and singing.

i'd never heard the man's voice until now... it's uncanny how close his dialect is to people i have known through the years.

'course, when i was a teenager visiting relatives in montreal, my cousin put me on the line with one of her friends -- who proceeded to flip over my southern twang, which i never realized i had!

order the book: rainbow pie.

it doesn't hurt if you don't care

i just read how VCU lost its game tonight. i think the team is butler -- but i'd have to go look it up and it's not that important.

i went downtown this morning and walked around for a few hours, eventually passing through the old school. i was curious what it would be like -- no surprise there's lots of school spirit.  personally, i've never quite grasped the concept -- seems a lot like nationalism, maybe its a surrogate for nationalistic fervor -- an exercise in building group identity and cohesion, and creating obligatory conformity within an institutional framework.

membership has its privileges -- but just the same, i'd just as soon not join...

i had my cameras, too. here's a sample of what i saw during my walk:

cops were towing cars left and right on broad street this afternoon -- no burning vehicles tonight!

i always thought one of the few virtues of VCU was its cultural diversity -- although there's a bit of cliquishness 

the weather was a bit bizarre, with dark clouds bringing wind, rain, hail and frenzied behavior

love those boots, and those school colors!

you'd have thought it was a weekday at rush hour with all the traffic -- but it was saturday!

what's up, blondie?

watchdog down on clay street

not sure this is where i'd get my hair done...

those were the days... too bad governor mcdonnell didn't get the liquor business privatized...

springtime in virginia, near one of VCU behemoths on the periphery of monroe park

i'm pretty sure this isn't the same watchdog...

this was the scene at the aftermath of the ukrops monument avenue 10k

VCU brandcenter or whatever that goddamn propaganda academy is called probably came up with this incomprehensible catchphrase. can somebody please explain it?

i opted for the heavy equipment in front of the cathedral, rather than the shot of the 'go rams' banner -- isn't that sacrilegious or something? 

with all the parking decks the university is building, it's good to see at least somebody who's not driving!

another day, another deck...

these are the "ramz" apartments -- dormitory-style living on top of your favorite fast-food franchises. what a killer concept!

not another parking deck? didn't anybody tell these people about peak oil and climate change?

VCU: take this education and ram it!

i have a black-and-gold tattoo of a VCU ram on my ass. it's the mark that distinguishes me, like the hood ornament on a mercedes benz or the "manager's special" sticker on a pack of expired meat.

when i think back on my life, i recognize what a deep and lasting effect the institution we called virginia commonwealth university had on me during my formative years. besides drinking excessively and breaking desk chairs, i also came away with a solid education in medieval literature and history -- knowledge without any practical application in today's fast-paced, global service economy, but which i dug the shit out of regardless. it also launched me into a career in the newspaper business, which proved to be almost as obsolete as the medieval scribes laboring over their manuscripts.

while the university administration dreamed of one day ascending to the pretensions of ivy elites, VCU during the 1970s was still an oasis of learning retaining a small-town feel that belied it location in the center of the city. classes were held both in 1950s-style utilitarian academic buildings as well as a motley assortment of other spaces that had accrued to the university's real estate holdings over the decades. these included the magnificent brownstone, turn-of-the-century mansions along franklin street -- some of which, at the time, were actually accessible to students!

as with most everything else in american civic life, by the time ronald reagan came into the presidency the days of the VCU i knew and loved were numbered. education became a commodity as government support was curtailed and gradually replaced by a symbiotic relationship with big business. whereas once upon a time, a working-class schmuck like yours truly could attend a decent public university without going deeply into debt, higher education became yet another victim of privatization, while preparing society's next generation of leaders was a monetized and turned into an investment opportunity.

while the school has always fielded a basketball team, like everything else about the institution, it seems to have been built by the numbers. VCU never really spawned traditions so much as it manufactured them. the basketball program has been as much a part of building a megalithic education machine as are the parking decks that obliterate the landscape, and the sprawling dormitory-retail complexes built by quasi-university, corporate consortiums.

during the real estate boom of the 2000s, a series of gargantuan academic buildings transformed the downtown area in a way not seen for 100 years -- until the institution has come to virtually dominate the city center, drawing around it development and investment that dwarfs anything else going on. in effect, it seems that richmond city proper would've imploded were it not for the economic stimulus that VCU brought.

last spring i spent an afternoon visiting campus on what was the 30th anniversary of my graduation. a campus that used to encompass just a few blocks surrounding the 900 block of west franklin street has been utterly transformed -- and even more since then, with entire blocks of the old grace street strip being converted to ever more parking decks. it is the most monstrous, disgusting evisceration of a city landscape imaginable.

i may wander down there with my camera to witness the chaos that's sure to ensue, regardless of what the outcome is of tomorrow's semi-final game. the previous win, in the quarterfinals, brought out masses of black-and-gold clad kids, the post-911 generation, all whipped into a frenzy manufactured and merchandised by the owners and financiers of a dream we're all pushed into believing.

whether "we" win it all or not, the institution, the city and the investors will be the ones who come out smelling sweetly from all the sweat and exertion on the basketball court. because at places like virginia corporate university, what really counts is market share, return on investment and fat bonuses for management.

ground troops to libya?

having a blast in libya!

by way of rianovosti comes a story headlined "EU approves possible military operation for Libya."

funny, i don't recall seeing this on any other new site (though i found the link on zerohedge.org).

The European Council on Friday approved the decision to mount an EU military operation to support humanitarian efforts in Libya, if asked to do so by the United Nations.
"The EU will, if requested by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), conduct a military operation in...order to support humanitarian assistance in the region," the council statement read.

it's not the US, and it won't happen until/unless the UN security council approves it, but it is on the table now. under the right circumstances, i can see the security council -- with a couple of abstentions -- allowing "humanitarian" intervention. and once the troops are in there, everything's on the table.

if you thought the UN was chastened whatsoever after what happened to their "workers" in mazar-i-sharif, well, think again. it's been more than obvious that the UN is simply an instrument for control of weaker nations by the powerful -- even if it's less than a rubber stamp on issues like iraq.

meanwhile, it's an article of faith that the CIA is already active in libya -- even though the US government has yet to articulate what its policy or objectives are. one thing alone is certain, this is NOT a humanitarian mission!

get a job!

the fed bureau of labor statistics has released the latest job numbers here in the US, and the numbers show an unexpected growth spurt. (from FOX latino:)

Washington – The headline unemployment rate fell to 8.8 percent last month as the U.S. economy enjoyed a net gain of 216,000 new jobs, the Labor Department said Friday.
Joblessness is at its lowest level since March 2009, a few months before the recession officially ended.
Most analysts expected 200,000 new jobs to be created in March and forecast that the unemployment rate would remain steady at 8.9 percent.
All of last month's job growth came from the private sector, which generated 230,000 positions, while government employment fell by 14,000 due to layoffs at the state and municipal levels.

 it's always important to take these numbers with a grain of salt, as they say. this is "headline unemployment," which is just a slice of the jobs picture that is meant to paint a rosy picture during hard times. when one factors in discouraged workers who've stopped looking, as well as those who are under-employed doing part-time or temp jobs and such, the numbers get quite a bit higher -- more like 16 percent.

not only is the BLS fudging the numbers for PR purposes, but we need to be aware that there are 8 million jobs gone missing since the bottom dropped out at the end of dubya's reign in 2008. we took a great fall, with the rapid deflation of the great housing bubble, leading to a deficit of jobs on a scale that -- if present rates of  growth continue -- will take us at least five years to recover from. your unemployment benefits will run out before 2016, pal.

even worse, however, is the kind of jobs that are available. this is also something that, if we don't know it statistically it's intuitively obvious: these "new" jobs suck. in the new york times today, an article by motoko rich explains:

...many of the jobs being added in retail, hospitality and home health care, to name a few categories, are unlikely to pay enough for workers to cover the cost of fundamentals like housing, utilities, food, health care, transportation and, in the case of working parents, child care.

and that's what's killer about this "improvement" in the economy. this is no knock against people doing what they have to do to survive. there is dignity in work, and all that. but when you consider the true inflation picture -- and not "headline inflation" -- that's running about 8 percent against these low-paying jobs, it's quite apparent that you just can't make it on the paycheck you're liable to get these days.

i have friends who deride this idea that times are so hard out there in the US, because signs of affluence and conspicuous consumption are all around. at least in my state -- which has fared a lot better that much of the rest of the country -- the economy didn't suffer a full-fledged blowout, as happened in rust-belt areas like michigan and ohio. it's still possible to get stuck in mega traffic jams as late-model cars snake down boulevards of ritzy condo developments, office parks and shopping malls. you would never know that people are hurting.

at the same time, a friend with medical problems is choosing between food and medicine. although she makes a decent enough salary, by the time payday rolls around her fridge is likely to be empty and there's not a dime left in her bank account. it's hard to watch a proud, hard-working person struggle -- and it's not like she spends a lot of time crying about it -- but i know that by herself, she does.

the fact is, we're getting squeezed. if you need statistics to quantify it:

According to the report, a single worker needs an income of $30,012 a year — or just above $14 an hour — to cover basic expenses and save for retirement and emergencies. That is close to three times the 2010 national poverty level of $10,830 for a single person, and nearly twice the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
A single worker with two young children needs an annual income of $57,756, or just over $27 an hour, to attain economic stability, and a family with two working parents and two young children needs to earn $67,920 a year, or about $16 an hour per worker.
That compares with the national poverty level of $22,050 for a family of four. The most recent data from the Census Bureau found that 14.3 percent of Americans were living below the poverty line in 2009.

there are plenty of people that make this kind of scratch, but for the growing number of those who aren't, it's a decidedly ugly outlook. two-income households are a necessity for most people, and the loss of one wage-earner's income can be devastating.

for white guys with some money, people who are struggling financially are dissed as lazy jerks who want a handout. people who are victims of the crony capitalist machine that runs the country as denigrated in congress as moochers trying so soak the system, and made the butt of jokes by commentators on FOX news and CNBC for not being among the winners in our casino economy.

unfortunately, the situation can only get worse. when it comes to greedy people, there's no "off" switch for the acquisitiveness gene -- the banksters and corporate wheeler-dealers will keep soaking everything they can out of the system until the whole works comes crashing down.

i guess they assume their money will protect them. i'm not sure i'd be so confident. there's much that can go wrong, and when the dominoes start to fall, it's not easy to put things right again -- check out the situation at the fukushima reactors in japan.

sure, it's nice to see the unemployment situation easing, but like so much else in this spin- and hype-infatuated landscape we inhabit, what you read and how things really are seldom mesh. constantly fed intellectual saturated fats, government and economy are assumed to be both healthful and delicious, but that, too, is spin and bullshit. just like most of the shit we eat, we really don't want to find out how bad it is.

addendum: there's a dark undercurrent that pulls at the loose threads of the employment gains: a substantial growth in poverty in general and food stamp applications in particular:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/america-celebrates-positive-nfp-surprise-and-wealth-effect-anoher-record-foodstamp-usage. as they guys say, there's no way to spin this number.

they love us... the afghans fucking LOVE us!

what more touching, heart-rending story could we come up with to show the depth of feeling the afghan people have for the occupation of their country by the US and its allies (from the LA times):

"A mob inflamed by a mosque sermon describing the burning of the Muslim holy book by an American pastor attacked a United Nations compound in a northern Afghan city on Friday, killing at least eight foreign staffers, according to Afghan police.
A spokesman for the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, Dan McNorton, confirmed that there had been deaths of U.N. personnel in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, but said he did not have further details."

it gets you right here, doesn't it? and there...

the good and benevolent people of america come to spread their goodness and decency to the uncivilized tribes of afghanistan, bringing with them the good and beneficent hamid karzai and his government of civilization and progress to this beleaguered land -- scene of many previous imperial crusades (through none as beneficial and unselfish as ours).

we americans are just so misunderstood. to know us is to love us, as the song goes... haven't heard that one in afghanistan? we're really loving and accepting and so tolerant of others. the nice and decent and god-fearing pastor who burned the holy book intended only to stimulate interfaith dialog through his act, and had not a single shred of malice in his heart -- being a disciple of the prince of peace, love and grooviness.

christians aren't perfect, just forgiven, you know? so if the reverend does something fucked up, he's just forgiven. that's how we deal with our issues here: by shrugging them off and saying "no big deal" (unless you do it to us, in which case you get your ass mangled by rabid pit bulls).

as for what those hotheads in afghanistan did to our poor emissaries from the UN, we have a nobel peace prize winner as our president, which in case these goofy bastards aren't aware, gives him moral authority to pass judgement on what happens to people who we send to other countries to spread our gospel of peace, prosperity and corporate control:

 "I condemn in the strongest possible terms the attack on the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan today.
"The brave men and women of the United Nations, including the Afghan staff, undertake their work in support of the Afghan people. Their work is essential to building a stronger Afghanistan for the benefit of all its citizens. We stress the importance of calm and urge all parties to reject violence and resolve differences through dialogue." --barky obama

the president of the united states has spoken! we're all about rejecting violence and resolving our differences through dialog, you lousy bunch of savages! it's enough to spoil the warm NCAA tournament glow...


message to afghans: either get with the program, or we'll dispatch predator drones to take out your villages, too, and wipe out entire clans with our hellfire missiles! we'll send in the special forces and CIA contractors to break down your doors in the middle of the night, terrifying your women and children, and humiliating you guys -- that is, if we don't kill you all first.


now, where was i? oh, yeah. we don't resolve our difference with violence, so it's like, so inappropriate for these afghan mobs to kill our agents who, after all, are there only to help.


blessed are the peacemakers -- at least that's what we like to tell ourselves. that has a much nicer ring to it than, we like the force our will on you and your country, for the sake of our business interests. so if you'll please just fucking piss off and let us do what the hell we came here to do, maybe we won't send more kill teams to your country to murder you guys for sport.


addendum: hey, i'm sorry but i didn't have the whole scoop about holy-roller high priest terry jones' "trial" of the koran at his snake-pit of a church in gainesville, florida on march 20. after reading what this asshole did (here), i'm beginning to think that the afghans were -- if not justified in killing those specific people -- acting in an understandable way (given the cultural sensitivities in their part of the world). what a rank, disgusting freak this jones creep is. if he'd take the log out of his own eye, then perhaps he could see clearly enough to judge others. prick.