ups

While corporations are sitting on records amount of cash and still refusing to hire we have the reality absent GOP pushing for more tax cuts for these people. They consider to insist that their almost 30 year old failed experiment in economics is the way to go, that some how corporations will create supply without any demand. It's enough to make your head explode. 

Today Think Progress posted this chart. I have seen it before but always forgot to share it. It's a striking tell of what the Bush tax cuts did for the jobs market:

I know many on the right will be quick to dismiss this chart as some form of partisan hackery, compiled using fake numbers. To those people I ask you to look at the data source. This data comes straight from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and at the time of the data, George Bush was President. So if you honestly believe that the Bush administration would alter data to make it look like one of his keystone pieces of legislation was a failure then I'm amazed you even have the common sense to turn on a computer.

For those that do accept this data and realize it is true, especially given the fact that it was produced by the Bush administration, thank you. We can get beyond the partisan rhetoric and talk like grown ups, which is something greatly amiss in our country today.

By now I’m sure everyone has heard that Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely from MSNBC for contributing to political campaigns without disclosing those contributions to his superiors at MSNBC.

There has been a lot of back and forth over this decision in the blogosphere and twitterverse today. I have mixed feelings on the story.

In Defense Of MSNBC

MSNBC does have a policy in place:

NBC and MSNBC TV require permission of the president of NBC News. (MSNBC.com is a joint venture of NBC Universal and Microsoft.)

"Anyone working for NBC News who takes part in civic or other outside activities may find that these activities jeopardize his or her standing as an impartial journalist because they may create the appearance of a conflict of interest.  Such activities may include participation in or contributions to political campaigns or groups that espouse controversial positions.  You should report any such potential conflicts in advance to, and obtain prior approval of, the President of NBC News or his designee."

From Politico:

Alaska’s senior senator blocked legislation Thursday that would have dramatically increased liability caps on oil companies, in the wake of one of the industry’s biggest disasters.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) objected to a voice vote request by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on the bill, which would have spiked the maximum liability for oil companies after an oil spill from $75 million to $10 billion. The legislation has significant support from Democrats, and the White House has indicated it backs an increase in liability caps.

But Murkowski said the legislation is “not where we need to be right now” and would unfairly advantage large oil companies by pricing the small companies out of the market. Murkowski did signal that she would be open to "look at the liability cap and consider raising it.” Just not at this moment.

Murkowski isn’t worried about smaller oil companies, she’s worried about the big ones – the ones that do things like offshore drilling.

First off, these liabilities are never levied in full. The fact that the maximum liability would only amount to two quarters of profits from BP should also say enough. Imagine some company in another industry causing some disaster on such a scale as the oil spill in the Gulf. It would spell a most likely doom to that company. Instead, this oil spill will cost BP, but not to the point that their future is in question.

Sen. Richard Shelby was just on Morning Joe and he was, in an oh-so serious voice, expressing concern about ACORN and the possibility of “millions of tax payer dollars wasted”.

Where was Sen. Shelby when we were hearing about all the waste, fraud and abuse of Halliburton and KBR?

Where was his serious face when whistle blowers were talking about KBR feeding our troops spoiled food, so that the higher ups in the corporation could dine in better style?

Where was he when we started learning about our troops being electrocuted because of crappy work being done by U.S. contractors in Iraq?

And this doesn’t go for Shelby alone, but the entire Republican Party and right wing media. They all defended Halliburton and other contractors, and when in power refused to allow hearings.

But the most interesting thing is how the right is acting like President Obama is the CEO of ACORN or something. No he isn’t, but you know who WAS the CEO of Halliburton…Dick Cheney.

I guess for Republicans, playing politics is even more important than the well being of our troops fighting for this country.

Think Progress’ campaign against the stalking organization that O’Reilly leads has scored a victory. UPS has pulled their advertising from old Bill O.

My God could Gwen Ifill have been any more slanted towards Biden? Ok - had to get that little joke out of my system.

Despite having one hell of a cold, I managed to watch the whole thing. Honestly, it was exactly what I expected it to be. No massive screw ups from either candidate. One small thing I did notice was that Palin was looking at an awful lot of notes while answering. Perhaps I picked that up since I was watching and not trying to live blog it.

I don't see tonight's performances helping or hurting either campaign significantly. It was basically a wash. Palin may have calmed some nerves on the right, but she didn't bring anyone over. The same with Biden and his known history of gafffs. I do however think Palin fell flat on her face when she tried to play Reagan with her "there you go again Joe" line. Watching the reaction thing on CNN, it appears the focus group also thought the same thing.

So I am sure people on the left will be upset the Palin didn't totally implode, but that's not a problem. She now has a month of doing interviews and more time for Couric style blunders with no more debates to try and recoup a little comfort amongst the population.

Also I notice the polls over all are showing that Biden won. I have to agree. Yeah I am somewhat partial, but putting that aside, I saw answers out of Biden with great substance. I didn't see that so much out of Palin. It also helps restore a little faith in the American electorate since it appears they may have seen the same thing.

UPDATE:

Following up on Christian Coin-gate that I reported on yesterday, the Army is now conducting an investigation:

The US military said on Friday it was probing complaints that marines handed out coins inscribed with a verse from the Bible to a group of Sunni Muslims in Iraq, sparking outrage among local residents.

It said a service member involved in the incident in the former flashpoint city of Fallujah west of Baghdad was removed from his duties on Thursday.

"US forces initiated an investigation into reports that a coin with a Bible verse written in Arabic was distributed to Iraqi citizens as they passed through a Fallujah entry control point," the military said in a statement.

Again this needs to be looked at beyond being an individual acting on his own. I don't know of any stores in the U.S. that sells coins with biblical versus written in Arabic on them. I hope this doesn't become another Abu Gharib, where our soldiers are treated as the scapegoats for the higher ups piss poor decision making.