Motley Moose – Archive

Speaking at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy Studies, across the street from where Obama once lectured at the law school, Pawlenty contended his proposals – combining lower tax rates with an emergency freeze on spending – would be a “better deal” than what the Obama administration was offering.

“How are you enjoying your recovery summer? That’s what the president said we were having. But that was last year,” Pawlenty said. “Gas is nearly $4 a gallon. Home prices are in the gutter. Our healthcare system – thanks to ‘Obamacare’ – is more expensive and less efficient. Unemployment’s back over 9%. Our national debt has skyrocketed. Our budget deficit has grown worse. And the jobs and manufacturing reports are grim.

[….]

Later, Pawlenty told reporters if economic growth fell from his target of 5% to “4, 3, 2 or 1%, then we’re in deep doo-doo. We are in deep crap.”

Pawlenty proposed cutting the federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%, coupled with closing loopholes. For individuals, Pawlenty said he was proposing a “simpler, fairer, flatter” tax system. Those who currently don’t pay income taxes wouldn’t be affected. But he would impose a 10% tax rate on the first $50,000 of individual income and on joint income up to $100,000. Income above those levels would be taxed at 25%, well below the current maximums.

I don’t seem to have much to contribute by way of deep meaningful posts but, OMG!, I had to share some of the goodness I found via The Mudflats.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It’s a privilege and an honor to stand here before you.

Almost seven decades ago, our forefathers took to the skies and the sea in a decisive battle that would decide the fate of the Pacific Theatre in World War II. The Battle of Midway started on this day in 1942 and showed to the world the incredible toughness and resolve of the United States of America. We owe a tremendous debt to those who served and protected our freedom in those most perilous of days over the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Fast-forward to this day–June 4th, 2011. We aren’t at war with Japan or Germany, but our problems are real, and they are trying. College graduates, saddled with student loan debt, are finding it more and more difficult to land a decent job; families from Omaha to Odessa are finding it more and more difficult to pay the bills and keep their homes from foreclosure; the price of everything from health care to gasoline to lunch meat has got us wondering what more we’ll have to sacrifice simply to make ends meet and keep those dreaded creditors off the phone.

Our politicians and media personalities routinely divert our attention from one sensational claim or complaint to another, like fun-house mirrors at a carnival. But when one man or woman speaks up, and wonders aloud why we should support tax cuts for those who are already rich and living on millions; or why there are so many unemployed and homeless veterans on the streets; or why we’re spending billions of dollars per day in Afghanistan and Iraq, but hem and haw at financially supporting our neighbors when disaster strikes–those people are shouted down as naive children or vile traitors.

So many tell us that we stand for nothing; that our trials and tribulations and hard work are altogether worthless. It is prudent, then, to ask ourselves: What is it that we stand for?

Hi my moosey friends, I need some help.

It looks like I may have found a job, assuming everything goes through correctly. If it does, I will be an independent contract counselor working for a counseling agency. Sounds like something someone who just finished a counseling program should be able to handle, right?

Not exactly.

All of the time I’ve spent studying the field of psychology, I’ve planned to work with adults – ideally in a hospital setting. I have studied adults almost exclusively, and all of my internship experience was done in a clinic which took no one under the age of 19.

But the woman who hired me plans to place me primarily at an elementary school working as a counselor/behavior specialist with “problem” children for grades PK-5. I am passingly familiar with the school – and its reputation. A friend of mine tutors students there after classes, and he says it is very troubled – that a lot of the kids are difficult to teach and control. The families who send their children there are mostly low income, as evidenced by data I found on the school which indicated that over 90% of the students are eligible for free lunches. My boss says there is a total caseload at the school of 52. The school only has about 250 students, meaning that an unusually large percentage of the kids are considered problematic.  

By: Inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

When Republicans attack American liberalism, they prefer to use San Francisco as a punch bag. Indeed, San Francisco does constitute quite a liberal city; in the 2008 presidential election, 84.0% of the good folk of San Francisco preferred Democratic candidate Barack Obama over Senator John McCain.

San Francisco was far from the most Democratic-voting city in 2008, however. Mr. Obama’s percentage total was greater in several places; Washington D.C., for instance, pummeled San Francisco in the contest of who votes more loyally Democratic. In the capital of America, an astonishing 92.5% of voters supported the Illinois senator.

Most people who will hear this will probably start thinking something quite politically incorrect. The line of thought goes that “Washington is full of black people, all the blacks voted for Obama, so of course it voted that way.”

This is half true and half false.

More below.

There’s actually been some fairly news-worthy stuff happening in the world the last several days that hasn’t involved some guy’s manly parts clad in a pair of underwear.

Some of the news is actually quite unsettling, important, thought-provoking, and worth talking about.

The Tulsa Massacre and the Destruction of Black Wall Street – May 31, 1921

Funny, but when I think of Oklahoma I don’t think of black folks.

I tend to think of  the song from the Broadway show by Rodgers and Hammerstein, as a place “where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain and the wavin’ wheat can sure smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain”.

I don’t think of the stench of burned bodies and burned out homes.