What would it take…
March 2, 2010Jon Brooks 1 Comment »…for liberals to actually get up and move to Canada, as they’ve been threatening to do for decades? Lester & Charlie try to answer that question…
No funning about Bunning
March 2, 2010Jon Brooks 1 Comment »
Sen. Jim Bunning
However, if you are one of the couple of hundred thousand who is being immediately denied these funds, you are not one of them.
A comment left on EconomyBeat:
While I certainly agree with the statements about him standing his ground and there are several issues that this should be done on. But I am one of the many still unemployed (almost 2 yrs now), my EUI benefits just ran out. I was barely making it on my UE, have had no insurance, have a 7yr old–what am I going to do now??? There are many more out there like me as well.
Bunning envy
March 2, 2010Jon Brooks 4 Comments »Retiring senator Jim Bunning, Republican from Kentucky, has single-handedly blocked an extension of unemployment and COBRA benefits originally doled out in the stimulus bill. Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog! Go! has a run down of federal highway funding, which includes money for thousands of federal employees who will now be furloughed, that is also not flowing due to Bunning’s action.
While this type of obstruction is anathema to the Democratic Party, at least some of its constituents wish their own side would engage in such hardball tactics.
From blogger Taylor Marsh:
Jim Bunning Shows Democrats How It’s Done
(A)fter the Democrats’ milquetoast performance on health care leadership over the last year and counting, who doesn’t appreciate Sen. Bunning’s bluntness?
In a colloquy with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Jeff Merkley, a freshman Democrat from Oregon, was pleading for Bunning to drop his objection, when the Kentucky Republican got fed up.
“Tough s—t,” Bunning said as he was seated in the back row, overheard by the floor staff and others in attendance.
Everyone understands the importance of unemployment benefits extensions, but can you imagine any Democrat standing up to say: Tough sh–, I want the public option, because it’s the only thing that keeps down health care costs for Americans, and I won’t stop until we vote on it?
I know it’s very impolitic and counter-intuitive for me to say this given the legislation Bunning’s blocking, but I have a begrudging respect for someone who won’t take any crap from weaker politicians on the Democratic side who won’t stand and fight for anything. That’s just how sick of this sh– I am.
The moral of this story: Republicans are mean; Democrats are patsies.
Some responses to her post:
This is how Democrats should have fought on health care.
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The democrats have majority in the house and senate and they have the whitehouse and they still couldn’t get a healthcare bill passed. This is becoming a comedy show !! They might get one passed now but who knows whats going to happen. The democrats are probably never going to get this majority again. It might be years before that happens. I can’t believe how the two parties are acting today. No wonder why more people are leaving the two parties and going independent.
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I can certainly appreciate and admire leaders that take a principled stand on a position no matter how unpopular. I hope this is indeed what Jim Bunning is doing because I certainly don’t agree with him on this. I did not admire George Bush’s positions and disagreed with almost every decision he made, but I did recognize and admire that he took stands and held fast. No matter how wrong. Same with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.Saying this, I think I’d rather be known as mean than be known as a patsie. I’d rather be respected than liked. Obama and his Dems are patsies. And not only in the healthcare arena. They seem afraid to do anything. They are paralyzed. The country is not moving forward for their leadership. This is becoming increasingly clear to most Americans.
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It’s about conviction and standing up for what you believe in. So, Republicans may be crazy and evil; but Democrats have absolutely no conviction. There is nothing under the sun they will not compromise on.
“I was once a homeless meth addict…”
March 1, 2010Jon Brooks 1 Comment »Found on Reddit’s IAmA section, in which the rules are “Post what you are and have people ask you about yourself.” The initial post is called “I was once a homeless meth addict,” written by an individual who was laid off then experienced depression and drug addiction. The ensuing discussion touches on numerous psychological, sociological, and political issues.
Some excerpts:
PAST: I lived in California and worked for a startup in the tech industry. I was laid off and as a result of my depression, fell ‘deeper’ into my meth addiction as a way out. This caused me to lose my apartment, and 99% of my belongings. The result was me packing a backpack and living on the streets with my girlfriend who was also an addict. We sold (and bartered) drugs at a low level mostly to other homeless addicts to survive. My experiences as a homeless addict/dealer ranged from the funnest times in my life — to the darkest nightmares anyone could ever imagine.
Before long, I found the needle and fell in love with shooting speed into my veins –several times a day. I was a bloodstained zombie dressed in rags, wandering the streets on my BMX with my girlfriend, and diving in dumpsters. My days of selling dope were failing as I shot every bit of dope that hit my hand into my body. I was shoplifting, burglarizing cars, stealing cars, hanging out with hookers for their dope, making several enemies on the street (which will easily get you killed). Eventually, I was arrested for possession due to some really f**** weird circumstances, and did 90 days in county jail. Here I learned that my girlfriend was pregnant which changed everything in me. I was released from jail (gained about 40 pounds) and managed to scrape enough money together to get me and my girlfriend out of California –away from all our dope connections and to start over.
TRANSITION: Moved into a small one room house on my mother’s property in the south and started working at a moving and storage company for 8 bucks an hour. I paid Mom $100 bucks a week for rent, and managed to secure a decent car for next to nothing from an auction. We had a beautiful healthy little baby girl soon thereafter.
PRESENT: F*** humping other peoples nasty furniture into a truck. I am again employed in the tech industry –doing pretty much what I was doing before all this crap happened. I have a felony on my record, and was open with this fact to my employers and straight up told them my resume speaks for itself –hire me or not (so lucky). Soon after being hired, I was able to secure a two bedroom apartment for my new family where we’re at now.
Some days I feel I cheated death — other days I wish I was back in that alley getting high.
Community colleges, another view
March 1, 2010Jon Brooks Comments OffFound on the blog of anthropologist and corporate consultant Grant McCracken:
Community Colleges, Another View
Perhaps as a reply to the TV show that now holds the community college up to ridicule, Kay Ryan, the US poet laureate, has this to say:
“I simply want to celebrate the fact that right near your home, year in and year out, a community college is quietly—and with very little financial encouragement—saving lives and minds,” said Ryan. “I can’t think of a more efficient, hopeful or egalitarian machine, with the possible exception of the bicycle.”
The bigger they are, the harder they charge
March 1, 2010Jon Brooks Comments OffHow much do you pay at your bank for overdrafts, bounced checks, and stop-payment orders?
From the Move Your Money project, this graph of average fees by size of financial institution. As you can see, banks classified as “giant” charge as much as 30% more than those deemed small for these services.
Fun With Photoshop
March 1, 2010Jon Brooks 2 Comments »Mike Licht of NotionsCapital has photoshopped up a bunch of clever — if politically partisan — graphics for his site. Many off them riff off of classic paintings or iconic images. Here are just a few:
Click on an image to see it full size.
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On the topic of extended warranties
February 26, 2010Jon Brooks Comments OffThis post on the concept of extended warranties from late last year on the blog Economists Do It With Models includes this quote from the book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein:
…the extended warranty is a product that simply should not exist. If Humans realized that they we paying twenty dollars for two dollars’ worth of insurance, they would not buy the insurance. But if they do not realize this, markets cannot and will not unravel the situation. Competition will not drive the price down, in part because it takes the salesperson a while to persuade someone to pay twenty dollars for two dollars’ worth of insurance, and in part because it is difficult for third parties to enter this market efficiently. You might think that firms could educate people not to buy the warranty, and indeed they might. But why should firms do that? If you are buying something that you shouldn’t, how do I make any money persuading you not to buy it?
The blog Thought Gadgets expands on this:
Shouldn’t exist? Well, yes. Most markets have enough competition that a $2 product priced for $20 won’t stay alive for long; but a few don’t. In the case of warranties, strange services offered only after you’ve purchased something else in the dark of an electronics store with little competitive information to guide you, the absence of knowledge allows margins to float to the sky. In this case, the friction that blocks comparative value data from competitors creates a sticking point of artificially high margins for the one company pitching the warranty.
We don’t mean to disparage the warranty industry; rather, simply to warn that price gouging of any kind always comes home to roost. Thaler calls this the point when consumers enter a “rip-off” stage of awareness…
Jeez, I have to admit, sometimes I do get the extended warranty. But I always experience an irritating cognitive dissonance when I do, because here I have just plunked down a good chunk of change for some fancy piece of electronics, and immediately the person who has just convinced or at least encouraged me to buy it is in my face telling me that there is a good chance that in the near future it may not work as it’s advertised on TV, in the newspaper, on the box, and as they themselves have just assured me it would.
Man, I need a drink, even if it’s just hot cocoa. See ya next week.
Democrats preparing to Reconcile?
February 26, 2010Jon Brooks 2 Comments »Not that kind of reconcile.
Time magazine has a good summary of a possible path to passage of the health care bill, which stalled after the Massachussetts special election last month resulted in the loss of the 60th vote for Senate Democrats to block a Republican filibuster.
Now that it is clear that yesterday’s big inter-party health summit won’t yield any breakthrough in the logjam, it looks like the Dems will have to go it alone, if they go at all. And any attempt at passing a bill will have to involve the parliamentary tactic called “reconciliation.”
From Time:
There has been much musing around town about the tricky logistics of pushing a comprehensive health care reform bill through Congress at this point. The process will require at least three big votes: The House has to pass the Senate bill. The Senate has to pass amendments to its own plan through reconciliation. And the House has to pass the same amendments.
So what, exactly, is reconciliation?
