Are You in the Top One Percent?

I want to tell you about neat little web page I found today.

Then I want you to take a little test...get some idea about where you fit in on the American scale of wealth and power.

Democratic Politicians (and those further to the left), often site the uneven distribution of wealth and power in this country. You'll often hear phrases that say the Top 1% of the country holds 30, 40, 50 ...take your pick...percent of the wealth.

But one thing that seems quite clear is that, yes, larger and larger amounts of money have flowed into to a smaller and smaller number of hands since the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s. (Here is a report published by the Federal Reserve.)

It seems somewhat incredible that Americans would allow this to happen. After all, most of them have seen the good jobs head overseas, most have seen their wages (as defined by how much their dollar will actually buy) sink down through the years....

And yet, time and again, they end up voting FOR the people who argue in favor of this trickle down system, the party which promises them that they'll be better off holding the short end of the stick. If the polls are to be believed, they will AGAIN vote for the GOP and support it's efforts to redo the slight amounts of damage that the Obama administration has managed to undo.

Why?

Could it be that it is because, somehow, the GOP has convinced a significant portion of the people that THEY are in the top one percent? And that the Democrats have done a pretty poor job of communicating just exactly why THAT AIN'T SO?

So, with that in mind, check out this web site. The authors note that in 2000, Democrats warned that the Bush Tax cuts would bring benefits to only the top 1%. They write that, after the election...

a poll about this issue was conducted, and twenty percent of the people who were surveyed claimed that they were part of that richest one percent! These people clearly didn't realize how unequally wealth is distributed in this country. They were probably doing pretty well in life, at least compared with those around them that they could see, and so felt they were near the top. However, at the same time, they weren't doing well enough that they could feel totally secure, so they not only assumed (wrongly) that Gore was talking about them, but felt threatened by that talk

.

So, go on, visit and enter a few round numbers. Take the test. Are YOU in the Top one percent? When the Republicans talk about taking "OUR" money away....are they REALLY thinking of you?

Really?

Take the Test!

Republicans and Tea Partiers beware, however, you may find that you're NOT QUITE the player you think you are!

Go on...Take the Test!

http://progressiveschoolhouse.org/wealth/richest.htm

Extending Unemployment: Obama Hits the Right Note.

It's no secret that we here at Rip and Read (and when I say "we", I mean me and the mouse and my pocket.) have been less than enamored with President Obama of late. Where we've looked for the soaring rhetoric and infectious confidence of a Franklin Roosevelt, we have found instead a less than inspiring style of leadership which reminds us of something between Richard Nixon at his most bland and a package of damp saltine crackers.

Still... there is, in the end, no doubt where our loyalty lies and we WANT to find reasons to champion the President.

Today, on You-Tube, he gave us one. In his speech on the need to extend unemployment benefits, President Obama hit the nail on the head when he said:

"After years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit, the same people [Republicans] who didn't have ANY problems spending hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are now saying we shouldn't offer relief to middle class Americans...who really need help"

Unlike former Vice-President Dick Cheney, I DO believe that deficits matter. I think that it is of great importance that the United States Government remain strong and solvent.

As a concerned citizen, I am sick at the thought of how much money we have spent bailing out large corporations and banks, and, while I think that the infrastructure projects undertaken through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are long overdue, I am by no means sanguine about spending the money now, when the cupboards are bare.

However, we really have no choice. Not only is continuing to extend a hand during profoundly uncertain times the moral thing to do, it is also the economically sane thing to do.

Time and time again, in this country, we have watched as the Republicans have returned us to "Supply Side Economics". We have watched as first the Reagan Era and now the Bush Era came crashing down in a giant recession, mired by scandals and the need for massive government action to clean up the mistakes (and crimes) of the unregulated Rich. We have watched as the "Trickle Down" theory has failed to work, and the gap between rich and poor has grown...leaving the ranks of the middle class both thinned and precariously placed.

So, yes, I'm worried about deficits. But the time to REALLY scream, rant and rave about them was six years ago, when George W. Bush and his tame congress where giving away money right and left. When they were not minding the store at the SEC or the Bureau of Mineral Management...laying the groundwork for disasters and deficits to come.

And all this comes years, decades, after the verdict was in supply-side economics. Trickle Down economics and an unregulated marketplace lead us into the Great Depression. Republican Herbert Hoover, clinging to his policies, was powerless to offer any relief. Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal began to put people back to work. World War Two, and the MASSIVE Government Spending that came with it, finished the job. The jury of history is so solidly in with the verdict that it seems unbelievable to me that we are evening debating it again.

We can argue how about how much we should spend, how much we should tax and when, but to waste time debating the merits of the case when Americans are out of work is ...well, it's just plain crazy.

I think that is what keeps me so near boiling point when it comes to politics these days. That those who drove this country off an economic cliff have the temerity to think that they should be allowed back at the wheel.

President Obama is right to call them out. He is right to remind both his opponents and supporters just WHOSE MESS THIS REALLY IS.

I, for one, am hoping for more of the same.

Education Spending Wasted...Cut 'em Loose.

Maybe the Mad Hatters over at the Tea Party have a point after all. The United States Census Bureau just released some data on school spending. Here are the results:

The percentage of public school funding from the federal government was highest in
Louisiana (16.8 percent),
Mississippi (16.0 percent)
and South Dakota (15.2 percent)

and lowest in:
New Jersey (3.9 percent),
Connecticut (4.2 percent)
and Massachusetts (5.1 percent).

What this means, of course, is that we in the Blue States are PAYING the taxes but we're spending them on the kids in the Red States. Obviously, it's pretty plain to see that our tax money isn't doing any good- we keep spending, but Louisiana and Mississippi remain too dumb to know what side of the bread their butter is on.

Obama's Oval Office Address: The Return of Nixonian Rhetoric

Watching President Obama's BP speech last night, all I could think was: "It's Richard Nixon. He has returned."

It pains me to say this, not only because I'm a passionate Democrat (that's no secret) but because I voted for Barak Obama. Not just as the lesser of two evils, but because I was impressed. Mr. Obama seemed to bring something back to politics that we haven't seen for decades. He seemed to bring an intelligence and eloquence that could inspire people to step up to the plate and make the tough choices America needs to make to get back on track.

And those choices will be tough. As soon as we've recovered from this recession, we need to curb spending and raise taxes to bring our debt under control. We need to begin ween ourselves off of oil. We need to give birth to entire new industries, probably "green" in nature, which will put our people back to work at jobs in which real products are made and sold to a world which cannot compete with our industry and ingenuity.

Duringt the campaign of '08, the right wing carped that Obama was "All talk" and "Just Words". But the supporters of candidate Obama knew that the BEST American ideas are just words. The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, The Gettysburg Address, the inaugural speeches of FDR and JFK, in which one leader told us we had nothing to fear but fear itself and the other exhorted us to ask not what our country could do for us, but what we could do for our country, these are all "just words"... words that inspire our people to reach deep within themselves to find the needed energy to complete the job.

My disappointment this morning is not with the President's lack of words, but in their dead and droning quality.

Last night's Oval Office speech needed to be a stirring call to action. Instead, we were treated to a laundry list of lifeless facts and figures:

From the very beginning of this crisis, the federal government has been in charge of the largest environmental cleanup effort in our nation's history -- an effort led by Admiral Thad Allen, who has almost 40 years of experience responding to disasters. We now have nearly 30,000 personnel who are working across 4 states to contain and clean up the oil. 1000s of ships and other vessels are responding in the Gulf. And I've authorized the deployment of over 17,000 National Guard members along the coast.

As I listened to Mr. Obama drone through his address, all I could think of was the enumeration in Richard Nixon's famous Checker's speech:

First of all, we've got a house in Washington, which cost 41,000 dollars and on which we owe 20,000 dollars. We have a house in Whittier, California which cost 13,000 dollars and on which we owe 3000 dollars. My folks are living there at the present time. I have just 4000 dollars in life insurance, plus my GI policy which I've never been able to convert, and which will run out in two years. I have no life insurance whatever on Pat. I have no life insurance on our two youngsters, Tricia and Julie. I own a 1950 Oldsmobile car. We have our furniture. We have no stocks and bonds of any type. We have no interest of any kind, direct or indirect, in any business. Now, that's what we have.

I've noticed this alarming Nixonian tendency in the President before- one of his catch phrases seems to be: "Let me be clear"...how different is that from Dick Nixon's famous..."Now, Let me be perfectly clear".

But more dangerous than the hackneyed rhetorical style is a tendency toward the disingenuous.

In his speech last night, Mr. Obama referred to his action in March, authorizing drilling off the American East Coast. He said:

A few months ago, I approved a proposal to consider new, limited offshore drilling under the assurance that it would be absolutely safe –- that the proper technology would be in place and the necessary precautions would be taken.

That obviously was not the case in the Deepwater Horizon rig, and I want to know why.

As if there was some big mystery. On what possible grounds could the president believe that drilling, just off of our billion dollar fishing and tourist beaches, would be "absolutely safe"? If he'd said "worth the risk", I might have bought it. But "Absolutely Safe?"...even a lowly blogger with 10 or 11 readers could have guessed that it was not "absolutely safe"...and this one did, back in March.

Mr. President...cut the crap. You've still got me (and I'm just one of millions), but if anyone else out there is feeling as I do, the depth of your support is drying up. It goes without saying that I prefer you to a Republican Party which spews intolerance, voodoo economics, and just plain yokelism, but I don't want to go to the polls this fall out of a sense of resigned duty...I'd prefer to be inspired to do great things. It's hard to do that when your speeches are of a Nixonian level of dullness, and your actions are even less inspiring.

Sorry, but it needs to be said.

We know you can do much better, and it's time to start.

HItting the Nail on the Head: How Liberals Have helped Right wingers

I have to admit, I'm not always a huge fan of Micheal Moore...from what I've seen, he tend to use cheap film making tricks to illicit emotion. Cold hard facts, a la PBS' Frontline, bring you to the same conclusions, but give you more of a leg to stand on.

Maybe it's because last night, I had to listen to a cousin, whom I'm very fond of, imply that ALL six hundred and fifty thousand of the people who've been put to work by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act this year are all welfare cheats and/or drug addicts....

In the face of such blind suspicion and anger, it's worth remembering what liberals have actually done, and this piece, posted on the website of lefty propagandist Micheal Moore actually does a pretty good job of that..

Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican

by John Gray

Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised.

Read the Rest...

Silly Facebook Arguments: The Oil Spill....

Yesterday, I saw a great idea on Facebook, and posted it as my status.

Alex: just joined the "Stop the Spill by Using Sarah Palin to plug the pipe"....awesome idea!

I got a fair number of positive responses, but a good friend of mine, who also happens to be a die hard Republican wrote back:

GOPFriend: Oh sure... Your boy has sat back with his arms crossed for a month and yet you feel the need to throw Palin in the drink? Hmmm....

Here's my answer to my friend. I don't make any claims for scholarship or style...but in substance, it seems about right on the nose:

Alex: Sorry, buddy, I know you GOP types want your Katrina moment...and I'll even admit that I give Obama a pretty low grade on his response to this. But that does NOT change the fact that BP was allowed to put a dangerous rig in place with out adequate safety plans, etc.
On who's watch did THAT happen?
Why George W. Bush...of course.
Now, who campaigned on DRILL Baby DRILL?
Why...Sarah Palin, of course.

To be completely fair, Obama said he would allow more off-shore drilling about a month before this happened...if you saw my FB posts at the time, you'll remember that I expressed displeasure with "my boy" and urged other Democrats to write to the White House.

(This by the way was on March 31- by early May, the BP created disaster had struck. It was only a matter of time...it's ironic that it came so quickly.)

But, while Mr. Obama's reversal was disappointing, when it comes to comparisons between the two parties...there isn't one.

Between the failed banking system and Republican inspired lack of regulations....the irresponsible tax cuts which have helped plunge this country further into debt (Bill Clinton had the deficit headed in the RIGHT direction...and that's not politics, that's HISTORY- you can look it up.)...and now, with what we see was an 8 year free ride for the Oil Industry to do any damn thing it wanted and take any stupid risk it cared to...

...your "boys and girls" have proven that they can't even be trusted to go to the corner store to pick up a loaf of bread...let alone run the country.

So, there is blame enough for all...the American People (and I'm included) for using a car when feet or a bike will do and the Democrats (including President Obama) who play it politically safe and give into the calls of the addicts when they cry "Drill Baby Drill"...

...but I still think we may be allowed to reserve a special circle of blame for those members of the Republican party who cheerfully, actively lead us into the mess. Don't forget, and don't let anyone else forget, that from 1994 to 2008 the GOP controlled at least TWO of the THREE branches of Government- and from 2004 to 2006 they controlled all three branches. The patterns of today were set in those years.

To be honest, I thought my friend Jennifer had the best plan...postulating that ex-Governor Palin was too skinny stop up the pipe, Jennifer suggested that we add Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Sean Hannity...sounds like a plan to me.

Freedom Isn't Free: Civilian Side

Note, this is an email I sent earlier today. I copy and paste it here, spelling mistakes and grammar glitches intact due to lack of time to fix them.

I got the following email today, and I have to admit, this kind of thing waggles me enough that I can't help but respond:

Here's the email:

Congressional Reform Act of 2010
We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American hero's..

1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.

A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

And my answer:

I just can't agree with you. Think about it for a minute. Right now, the Gulf of Mexico is going under, as oil burbles to the surface, killing the envirnment, killing tourism, killing jobs, killing the fishing industry..and...need I go on?

Now, how was that allowed to happen? Answer: Short and Sweet...NOT because of TOO MUCH GOV'T ...but too little, and what there was was BAD. Bad Gov't in that the Republican Congress of the early 2000s and the Republican administration took BP's word that they had a safe rig and adequate safty plans in place...

The economic crisis? Same thing..not too much gov't, but not enough. Where were the lawmakers? Where were the regulators...answer? Off cheerleading for big business.

The article you forwarded talks about term limits. We already HAVE term limits...they are called "Elections"...if you don't like your current Senator or Congressman, campaign against him. Knock on doors, write emails, join citizen's groups, contribute small amounts to his/her campaign. Anyone who tells you that it won't work is wrong...

But as for me, I happen to really appreciate much of the work of my current Congressman, Tim Walz, here in Minnesota. I think our Senators Amy Klobucher and Al Franken are doing a great job.

And back home in Vermont? Well, Patrick Leahy is head of the judiciary committee...and Bernie Sanders, god bless his loudmouthed soul, is raising holy hell right now, demanding that BP and not the Taxpayer be forced to pay the tab for this clean up.

Leahy has been in the Senate since the 70s and I hope he NEVER retires. Because when BP, or AIG send polished, slick, smart and crafty executives who have experience stretching back 20 to 30 years to a Senate hearing to testify about how what they are doing will be so great for the American people, I want them to be questioned and held accountable by a smart, sassy, experienced Senator who is ALSO wise in the ways of the world and who knows what questions to ask...I do NOT want my safety and quality of life left in the hands of some greenhorn who just arrived in Washington last week with 50 other greenhorns who don't know (pardon my french) shit from shinola.

Talk about the guinea pig guarding the hen house.

As for the pay issue...again...the United States is the biggest organization in the world. If you expect intelligent, qualified people to do the job, then you've got to pay them what they are worth. As it is, the monetary compensation of gov't work are such they are already paid MUCH less than their counterparts in the private sector...

This note talks about the founding fathers wanting "citizen" legislators. Okay, there may be some truth to that actually, but keep in mind that with VERY few exceptions most of the founders were VERY wealthy men. They did not envision that anyone BUT the very wealthy would ever participate in government...so they could afford to be "citizen legislators....but as for the idea of Term Limits? Forget it. The founders KNEW they were the most qualified boys on the block to run the show, and do any less but continue to serve throughout their adult lives would have been repugnant to them.

George Washington was first elected to the Virgina House of Burgesses in 1758...he ended his political career in 1797 That's a political career just short of 40 YEARS...

John Adams, who perhaps did more, politically, to get the Declaration of Independence drafted and through the Continental Congress and who went on to be the second president, began his career as an elected official in 1770 and left the White House in 1801-- that's a political career of 31 years. He would have gladly served longer but he lost the presidency to...

...Thomas Jefferson, who began HIS political career 1769 left the White House in 1809--another 40 year political career.

Ben Franklin- first elected to city council in 1748, elected to colonial Pennsylvania Legislature in 1751, and served in various diplomatic and political roles until his death in 1790.

Let's talk about some other great Americans. Abe Lincoln is often thought of as the Log Cabin President, and most people seem to imagine that he came from nowhere...not so...Lincoln ran for office the first time in 1832, served in the state legislature, was elected to the US Congress for a term, and ran, unsuccessfuly for the US Senate...all the while remaining a very powerful political figure in his home state of Illinois...his career ended in 1865 upon his death. His political career, which was cut short, lasted 33 years.

Teddy Roosevelt? Started in 1881 with his election to the NY state assembly....left the White House in 1909...ran AGAIN for the Presidency on a third party ticket in 1912. 31 years.

None of these great American leaders would have developed the experience they needed to be great American leaders if they had been subjected to Term Limits.

Term limits is a cry taken up by two kinds of people...the far right, who just can't understand why most Americans, despite their mild conservativism, won't agree to cut their own throats and throw away all the progress that we've made...so they blame "congress" because they can't get their guys elected.

The other kind of person who espouses term limits is, in my opinion: Just Plain Lazy. They often say that "Freedom isn't Free" and usually, they are talking about the military. But it's just as true on the civilian side...as I've noted before, the US is the largest organization on the face of the earth, and as citizens- WE are actually the ones charged with running it. Sure, we have representatives, because 300 million people can't all talk at once- but it's OUR job to pay attention. It should be our job to spend at least one hour a week staying informed, going to public meetings, writing informed letters to our representatives, and volunteering for the campaigns of those who wish to represent us.

Instead, however, lazy people who don't want to watch carefully those people they've hired to represent them, want to have some kind of automatic system.in place to do the job for them....and, the biggest irony is, that system won't even work.

Memorial Day Thoughts

I never served my country in the armed forces. So not only am I in debt to those who have for my freedom, but I also hold them in awe.

It bothers me when they are used to score political points. Perhaps I am playing politics by responding, but I'd rather think that I am trying to keep their memory sacred by not allowing others to drag them down into the mud of partisan bickering.

I managed to get myself on the mailing list of the local Tea Party. Today, I received this message from them:

Remind those of our sacrifice and don't confuse arrogance with leadership.


The American Cemetery at Aisne-Marne France .. A total of 2,289
The American Cemetery at Ardennes,Belgium A total of 5,329
The American Cemetery at Brittany,France A total of 4,410
Brookwood, England at American Cemetery. A total of 468
Cambridge, England ..3,812
Epinal, France American Cemetery.. A total of 5,525
Flanders Field, Belgium .. A total of 368
Florence, Italy.. A total of 4,402
Henri Chapelle, Belgium, .. A total of 7,992
Lorraine, France .. A total of 10,489
Luxembourg, Luxembourg .. A total of 5,076
Meuse-Argonne .. A total of 14,246
Netherlands, Netherlands .. A total of 8,301
Normandy, France .. A total of 9,387
Oise-Aisne, France .. A total of 6,012
Rhone , France .. A total of 861
Sicily, Italy .. A total of 7,861
Somme, France .. A total of 1,844
St. Mihiel, France .. A total of 4,153
Suresnes, France .. A total of 1,541

The count is 104,366 dead brave Americans.

And we have to watch an American elected leader who apologizes to Europe and the Middle East that our country is "arrogant".

HOW MANY FRENCH, DUTCH, ITALIANS, BELGIANS AND BRITS ARE BURIED ON OUR SOIL, DEFENDING US AGAINST OUR ENEMIES?

To honor those who fell in Europe helping to fend off, first German Imperialism enforced through a policy of "frightfullness" and then, later to face Nazism and defeat is ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.

But the radical right go further, as they always seem to do. They use this solemn American Day to try and an paint the president as unpatriotic, AND they accuse the French, Dutch and British of being cowards, of not having fought for "us".

Perhaps it is worth considering, as these radicals try to appropriate Memorial Day to their own ends, that it was right-wing groups in the 1930s, namely the German-American Bund and the America First Movement, who ensured that, while Great Britain began her fight against Hitler in 1939, America did not enter the war against evil until December 1941- over two years later.

So, Tea Partiers, while you are correct to honor Americans who fell on foreign fields, you are wrong, very wrong ...and arrogant...to insult our allies.

The Dutch, the French, and the British DIED where they stood to defend AMERICAN freedom to oppose the fight against fascism. While right-wingers in America had the freedom to criticize FDR for his sympathy for the struggle of England, France, Denmark, Holland and Belgium in their fight against the dark powers, our European cousins lost their homes, cities, families and lives...sacrificing ALL to buy us time to decide to do the right thing. Just as you do today, these other American right-wingers of days gone by complained about "European Arrogance".

Just as you owe the American Solider a debt today, you owe an equal debt to those from other lands who fell in their own countries to keep you safe.

So, you've said you're piece, I've answered with mine. I suggest now that EVERYBODY shut up and pay some respect to those to whom we owe everything.

War Memorial In St. Paul Minnesota

War Memorial In London, UK

Rep. James Oberstart at DFL DInner

I got to do a guest shot today as "reporter" at the Rochester Democrat...thanks Paul!

The entry is here:
http://www.therochesterdemocrat.com/index.php/test/print/rep_oberstar_offers_straight_talk_to_olmsted_dflers/

Right Wing Slap!

Recently, I've been playing a game with some young (and liberal) friends on Facebook, which I've come to call "Right Wing Slap!". This game started after my friend slapped a picture of Ronald Reagan on my FB page- not the visage upon which I wish to look while enjoying my morning coffee.

The game works like this.

SLAP a picture of a right wing figure (if playing internationally, the figure should be from THEIR country. For example, someone from the UK would slap me with Reagan, I might counter by slapping them with Margret Thatcher.)

When you've been Slapped, you must first post an antidote (example: I get slapped with Joe McCarthy, I post a picture of Edward R. Murrow as an antidote. I am THEN free to SLAP my friend with, say, David Cameron.)

When playing against people from your OWN country, of course, you are free to use figures from you political spectrum.

This game can also be played against a Right Winger...if playing against someone from the GOP- I might slap a picture of Bill Clinton on their page, they may choose George W. Bush as their antidote.

One of the benefits of this is that it provides an excuse to take a trip down memory lane... in searching for great conservative moments in recent British History, I found this awesome you tube video of Maggie Thatcher running the table against Labor's benches.

I wouldn't have voted for Maggie, but it is not to be denied that she had style!