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Friday Reads

Posted: July 22, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: morning reads | Tags: , , , , , |66 Comments

Good Morning!!

The debt ceiling debacle continues to be the top story. Politico has some interesting takes on some a$$ chewing that both Republicans and Democrats got late yesterday.  Economists from Standard & Poors told GOP pols there would be a ‘death spiral’ if they didn’t up the debt ceiling.

House Republicans were cautioned Thursday in a closed door meeting with credit rating agency officials that a “death spiral” in the bond market was one of the possible outcomes in the event of default.

One official warned of a worst-case scenario in which a default on the nation’s credit could result in a rapid drop in bond values, sparking chaos in the markets — a dramatic warning as Washington worked on a possible deal on deficit reduction and an increase in the debt limit.

Many of the right wing republican pols didn’t appear to get it.  Read some of the take away sound bits at the link and try not to bang your head on your desk too hard.  Meanwhile, Democratic Senators told Obama’s budget director they were tired of being left out of the loop. 

The White House faced a near rebellion from senators who were blindsided by word of a possible deal between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, with Democrats worried the president would cave on taxes while Republicans complained about being left in the dark on a potentially historic deficit plan.

Furious Democrats directed their ire squarely at Obama’s budget director, Jack Lew, at a closed-door lunch meeting, while Republicans peppered their leaders with questions about the possibility of being jammed into a multitrillion-dollar bill with virtually no time for review.

The frustration was evident in virtually all corners of the Senate on Thursday as it became increasingly possible that the body where landmark deals are usually made could effectively be left out of this one.

It seems that the sticking point is still that Republicans–mostly Teabots–refuse to consider any revenue enhancing measures. Obama is still asking for revenue increases while proposing about $3 trillion in cuts.

Efforts to craft a broad $3 trillion deficit-reduction deal gained traction on Thursday as the White House and top lawmakers scrambled to sort through competing options and stave off a devastating U.S. default.

With the clock ticking toward an August 2 deadline to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, President Barack Obama and the senior Republican in Congress, House Speaker John Boehner, worked toward a budget plan that would include deep spending cuts but might leave tax reform for later, congressional aides said.

The main obstacle remained the issue of tax increases that Obama’s Democrats want and Republicans vehemently oppose. There were conflicting accounts of how and when higher revenue might kick in, and the White House vowed there would be no deal without this.

The main focus was on prospects for what congressional sources said was shaping up as $3 trillion in deficit cuts over 10 years, a figure that many in Washington hope would help salvage America’s triple-A credit rating. Rating agencies have called for a comprehensive deficit-cutting deal.

Negotiators have struggled to break their impasse and winnow options for raising the government’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Failure to reach a deal to increase U.S. borrowing authority would render the world’s biggest economy unable to pay all of its bills.

But confusion has grown amid a patchwork of proposals aimed at finding what a senior Democratic aide called the “magic formula” for resolving the crisis, which has dominated Washington’s agenda for weeks.

“Frankly, we’ve looked at a half a dozen fallback plans, none of which are all that appetizing,” Boehner — struggling with Tea Party lawmakers largely opposed to any compromise with Obama — told conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh.

Emptywheel is now a stand alone blog and still has some of the best information around.  I recommend you read:Obama DOJ Doubles Down on President’s Ability to Detain US Citizens with No Charges.

Back in February, Obama’s DOJ stopped defending Donald Rumsfeld and others in Jose Padilla’s Bivens suit against them (though we’re still footing the bill for their pricey lawyers). At the time, it seemed DOJ might have concerns about the claims Rummy’s crew wanted to make about the torture Padilla was suing for.

But DOJ just filed an amicus brief in Padilla’s appeal. In it, they basically double down on the claim the President can deprive a citizen already detained in the US of all due process simply by engaging in some specious word games (in this case, by unilaterally labeling someone an enemy combatant).

Critically, the government is dodging the question of what happens in detention; as I’ll show below, rather than addressing that torture, they simply engage in circular logic.

Remember why Padilla is suing: he’s arguing that Rummy’s crowd violated his constitutional rights by seizing him from a civilian jail, designating him an enemy combatant, using that designation to deprive him of due process, and while he was detained on those terms, torturing him. He’s arguing the government violated his constitutional rights both by depriving him of due process and then torturing him. Illegal detention to enable illegal torture. The government wants to pretend they can separate those issues and argue just the basis for detention.

Think Progress has a great bit of information up on how one of Rep. Darrell Issa’s top staffers is a lobbyist for the financial industry with continued close contacts and associations.  There’s your congressional ethics for you!

When he became chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) hired a large new staff to assist him with investigations. As reporters from the Watchdog Institute noted, many of Issa’s recruits came from industry or with lobbying backgrounds. However, a ThinkProgress investigation has found that at least one of Issa’s hires still maintains a financial relationship with the lobbying group he left to become a federal employee under Issa.

Last year, as Issa began recruiting for his committee, he selected Peter Warren, a lobbyist for the student loan industry. Warren had been president and executive vice president of government affairs of the Education Finance Council (EFC), a trade association for student loan companies and nonprofits, since 2004. He left EFC for the Karl Rove front group American Action Forum for a brief stint in 2010 before joining Issa as the policy director of the House Oversight Committee.

Many lobbyists burrow into government to write laws or regulations, then leave to take even higher paid positions back in the private sector. This phenomenon — the so-called “revolving door,” or reverse revolving door in this case — has plagued government for years. While examples of such corruption are boundless on both sides of the aisle, Warren is particularly interesting given his continued relationship with his lobbying group.

Go check out the evidence.  Issa has to be one of the most corrupt politicians in the country.

Okay, so now some fun stuff. Anthropologists believe that one of our human ancestors had human feet more than 3 million years ago.

Nearly four million years ago, our human relatives were very different from modern man. Australopithecus afarensis had a longer torso, a smaller brain and significantly stubbier legs – but we did have one thing in common: our feet.

After examining the ancient species’ footprints using a new type of analysis, a team of British scientists concluded that the “human” gait emerged 3.7 million years ago. The study challenges previous research, which suggests that human-like walking did not develop in homonin species until nearly 2 million years later.

In the report, which was published online Wednesday by the Royal Society Journal Interface, scientists said the species presumed responsible for those tracks had feet that were strikingly similar to those of modern humans, and less like those belonging to chimpanzees or gorillas.

Since the footprints were found in Laetoli, Tanzania more than three decades ago, they have polarized the scientific community – pitting researchers who describe the footprints as more “ape-like” against those who see in them the origins of modern bipedal motion.

It appears that there were a lot of Viking women in those Viking invasions way back when.

So much for Hagar the Horrible, with his stay-at-home wife, Helga. Viking women may have equaled men moving to England in medieval invasions, suggests a look at ancient burials.

Vikings famously invaded Eastern England around 900 A.D., notes Shane McLeod of the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Western Australia in the Early Medieval Europe journal, starting with two army invasions in the 800’s, recounted in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. The Viking invaders founded their own medieval kingdom, ‘the Danelaw‘, in Eastern England.

“There is some archaeological evidence for early Norse female settlement, most obviously oval brooches, but this evidence is minimal. The more difficult to date evidence of place names, personal names, and DNA samples derived from the modern population suggests that Norse women did migrate to England at some stage, but probably in far fewer numbers than Norse men,” begins the study.

However, McLeod notes that recently, burials of female Norse immigrants have started to turn up in Eastern England. “An increase in the number of finds of Norse-style jewellery in the last two decades has led some scholars to suggest a larger number of female settlers. Indeed, it has been noted that there are more Norse female dress items than those worn by men,” says the study.

The Pentagon is set to announce that the DADT repeal is ready.

The Pentagon will announce tomorrow that the Secretary of Defense and the heads of each military branch have certified that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the military’s controversial policy barring openly gay men and women from serving in the armed forces, is ready to be repealed.

The leaders of each service branch have determined that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly will not harm military readiness. The move paves the way for the policy to be overturned in 60 days.

The announcement will take place in an event at the Pentagon tomorrow afternoon, just shortly after new Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is formally sworn in.

This is one of the final steps in overturning the longstanding policy whereby service members are not allowed to admit they are gay and the military is allowed to ask if they are. President Obama pledged to reverse the policy, but only if military leaders agreed it is the right thing to do.

Congress repealed the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell law last December, but the Pentagon still had to complete the certification.

As part of an effort to reassure the military leadership, individual service members, and concerned members of Congress, last year the Pentagon circulated confidential surveys to members of the military and their families asking their views on gays serving openly and what effect they believed it would have on their ability to perform their duties in battle and at home.

So, what’s your on your reading and blogging list today?

66 Comments on “Friday Reads”

  1. Woman Voter says:
    July 22, 2011 at 7:13 am

    tickpolitics tick politics
    Democrats Fume on Sidelines as Obama Goes Solo on Debt Deal With Boehner – The Daily Beast
    http://bit.ly/qRDRoR

    It is a done deal, President Obama that signed the Stupak Presidential Order making every woman in the US buy separate health insurance for reproductive care, the president that lied about ALL options being on the health care debate, blocked HR 676 Single Payer, blocked the Public Option, The Medicare Buy In, has now made a deal to GUT/CUT Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid!

    Now, some Democrats are saying they are upset, I say they should show it by getting a new Minority Leader, because Pelosi hasn’t walked back the bull of God sending him to us bull…

    Well, now we know why Hillary got the popular votes, but didn’t win the primary due to Democratic rigging to the point where they didn’t count our votes and not allowing Hillary to have a Roll Call vote.

    I am sorry for all the suffering that this is going to cause and Donna Brazile, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, David Axelrod knew who they were pushing a DINO, and now we know why.

  2. bostonboomer says:
    July 22, 2011 at 7:25 am

    Good morning everyone !

    I hope I survive today. The heat here is incredible! I have four fans going in this room I’m in right now.

    • Branjor says:
      July 22, 2011 at 7:28 am

      Good luck!

    • Branjor says:
      July 22, 2011 at 7:34 am

      Make sure you open the doors or windows. You can have all sorts of fans going but still die in this heat if you don’t have ventilation.

      • bostonboomer says:
        July 22, 2011 at 8:41 am

        Thanks. My windows are all open. I don’t have air conditioning. It is already 89 outside! At 9:30AM.

        I’m not going to die. I’m just going sit here and move as little as possible until it gets dark out. LOL

      • Beata says:
        July 22, 2011 at 9:57 am

        BB, go to a library or another pleasant cool place. Don’t spend the day in a home without air-conditioning. It could be very dangerous.

        The above advice applies to everyone in the same situation.

      • bostonboomer says:
        July 22, 2011 at 10:48 am

        I’ve been doing it for years. Fans actually do make a difference, for those who have had air conditioning their whole lives. I’ve lived thru worse days than this.

    • jawbone says:
      July 22, 2011 at 12:19 pm

      I didn’t get my AC installed and it’s too damn hot to try to carry and lift the units if I’m sweating like a pig. I’m surviving, but the walls of the house have heated up by now and it’s 94 inside, 98 outside (northern NJ). Also, because of my burns still healing, I have to be completely covered up from the waist down, including tops of my feet — and that is hot today.

      Fans help, but I’m using two little ones right now, one for waist down, one for waist up.

      But I’m worried about my cat….

    • foxyladi14 says:
      July 22, 2011 at 2:20 pm

      we were like that for years and years couldn’t walk without falling over a fan.and every window had one too.and we still melted 😦

  3. paper doll says:
    July 22, 2011 at 7:35 am

    I’m still reading but wanted to highlight this

    Last year, as Issa began recruiting for his committee, he selected Peter Warren, a lobbyist for the.

    There in a nut shell is one of the problems,….student loans, instead of means to educated people for their future….is an ” industry.” That’s a sign of a socity in collapse imo.

    • paper doll says:
      July 22, 2011 at 7:37 am

      Well that’s a 1st!! lol!

      here’s what is missing

      Last year, as Issa began recruiting for his committee, he selected Peter Warren, a lobbyist for thestudent loans industry

  4. paper doll says:
    July 22, 2011 at 7:45 am

    Great round up!!

    The White House faced a near rebellion from senators who were blindsided by word of a possible deal between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner….

    I have only seen New Dems spring into action when it looks like a deal will be made with them not in the room …which would do great harm to their future lobbying careers…

    other wise ….it’s zzzzzzz

    • Woman Voter says:
      July 22, 2011 at 7:57 am

      Yes, great, round up. Oh, I am in moderation …please let me out. I couldn’t sign in or the comment wouldn’t post and had to sign in via Twitter? It really is me.

      • bostonboomer says:
        July 22, 2011 at 8:20 am

        Sorry WV, I don’t know what happened. I’ll have to keep an eye on spammy.

        • dakinikat says:
          July 22, 2011 at 10:22 am

          Unrecognized because it was a different source sn. We always send the first comment from a new source email to moderation. She never used her twitter sn before.

  5. Woman Voter says:
    July 22, 2011 at 7:54 am

    Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (Ariz.), a leader of the House Progressive Caucus, said: “We feel like the programs we care about are on the table. The other side’s priorities that the American public thinks should be dealt with — tax cuts, corporate subsidies — are not on the table.”

    Often kept in check out of loyalty for their president, congressional Democrats have grown increasingly suspicious of Obama’s motives over the past year.
    http://wapo.st/o8KqEY

    Bold was mine, but ya think they know NOW! The Tea Party people on Twitter are all behind him? DINO, DINO, who only joined the Democratic Party in the late 90’s…DINO, DINO Tea Party President working for Wall Street.

    • jawbone says:
      July 22, 2011 at 12:15 pm

      DC Dems probably have a very good idea of Obama’s Inner, now highly visible, Republican and his St. Ronnie fixation.

      They’re contrained by 1) fear of pissing off the black base of the party, 2) need for Big Donors Big Bucks, and 3) Obama has manipulated the Dems into being the fall guys for a default.

      Unless the Tea Partiers stay bat guano crazy and won’t pass what Obama is offering.

      That puts us voters, citizens, in a very scary situation — depending on rightwing wackos.

      All because we can’t depend on Obama or most of the Dems any more.

    • paper doll says:
      July 22, 2011 at 12:48 pm

      but ya think they know NOW

      people never think they too will be shoved under the bus…even if they have helped to shove MANY others. They never think thier time will come. Suckers…as soon as you help shove the first person under the bus…your turn will come.

  6. Woman Voter says:
    July 22, 2011 at 8:10 am

    OK, I called my congress person, and told them I was not in support of Tea Party President Obama Gutting/ Cutting Social Security, Medicare and thought that Medicaid was the last safety net that wasn’t accessible (as the fellow proved that went to rob a bank to go to jail to get medical care).

  7. Woman Voter says:
    July 22, 2011 at 8:23 am

    Wish me luck, going for my breast biopsy today, and I am told they give you the news 7 to 10 days later.

  8. Woman Voter says:
    July 22, 2011 at 9:09 am

    BREAKING Oslo Explosion

    exiledsurfer exiledsurfer
    via @mpoppel: VIDEO: First video of the scene near the blast in #Oslo:
    http://j.mp/qUnPLf
    #o

  9. Miss Ayn Thrope says:
    July 22, 2011 at 9:09 am

    My associate F.N. Kafka points out that lawmakers barely have enough time to read laws, let along write them. So it’s no surprise the Koch brothers and Exxon Mobil are rushing in to help.

    Coffee! Where is my coffee?

  10. Woman Voter says:
    July 22, 2011 at 9:11 am

    Well, I wonder what the Tea Party people are going to say, about the elimination of the mortgage deduction (interest you pay for 30 + years)? The Rich, were protected….more gossip coming out.

  11. Beata says:
    July 22, 2011 at 9:44 am

    Call the DNC today and let them know what you REALLY think about Obama’s “grand bargain”.

    DNC: 877-336-7200

  12. bostonboomer says:
    July 22, 2011 at 10:42 am

    Jane Hamsher:

    There are four potential deals currently being discussed:

    1) Cut, Cap & Balance — the GOP stunt bill to appease the base that passed the House on Tuesday goes to the Senate for a vote today. It calls for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and has about as much chance of passing as a bill crowning me Queen of Muldavia.

    However, Boehner was forced to go on Rush Limbaugh last night and grovel because the base was angry he was “undermining” Cut, Cap & Balance by cutting a deal with Obama on the side.

    2) Boehner-Obama – In a closed door meeting with Jack Lew yesterday, members of the Senate flayed about 3 or 4 inches off of his hyde. Lew was there to give them details of the Boehner-Obama deal. According to accounts by those who were in attendance, the encounter was scorching. The caucus was furiously pissed about 3 things:

    •Harry Reid had not been involved in the negotiations, and had only learned about them in the press
    •It blows up the Gang of 6 deal, which was the Senate’s big hope for a power grab from the House
    •In cutting this extreme austerity deal with Boehner, the President was joining with the House GOP to put the squeeze on the Democrats in the Senate, rather than the other way around.
    If the President and Boehner announce this deal, and Boehner can whip the votes, it puts the Senate Democrats in the position of being the spoiler and sending the country into default if they don’t pass it. ”The President is essentially taking the side of the Tea Party over his own party to get a bill passed,” as one person put it.

    On the House side, however, it’s unclear that the entrenched Tea Party reps will vote for anything. Bachmann, as the head of the Tea Party Caucus, has said she won’t vote for any raise in the debt ceiling limit, which is why Boehner is trying to sweeten it with triggers that blow up the health care bill if tax reform is not enacted in the future.

    So now Bush III’s precious health care “reform” is on the table too? {bitter laughter}

  13. bostonboomer says:
    July 22, 2011 at 11:04 am

    Harry Reid is very pissed off. So why didn’t he speak up sooner?

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/democrats-set-drop-dead-date-for-debt-ceiling-backup-plan.php

    • WomanVoter says:
      July 22, 2011 at 11:15 am

      Amen to that.

    • bostonboomer says:
      July 22, 2011 at 11:18 am

      From TPM link above:

      Democrats favored one proposal: if Congress failed to pass tax reform by date-certain, then the top-bracket Bush tax cuts would expire — a hefty stick that would encourage Republicans to cut a deal. Boehner never agreed to that — and now that the grand bargain has been revived, Democrats are worried that Obama has abandoned that trigger, and perhaps his insistence on a trigger of any kind.

      Multiple reports surfaced late Thursday that a trade-off might be in the works: Republicans would agree to the tax trigger if Obama and Dems would agree to nix the health care law’s individual mandate — an unpopular, but crucial component of the reforms Obama signed last year. This is precisely the sort of swap House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has argued for recently.

    • Beata says:
      July 22, 2011 at 11:24 am

      Gee, why does the image of a pissed-off Harry Reid remind me of Chicken Man?

  14. bostonboomer says:
    July 22, 2011 at 11:09 am

    Effort to stage our own Tahrir Square in Washington DC.

    http://october2011.org/welcome

    • WomanVoter says:
      July 22, 2011 at 11:19 am

      ON CHOPPING BLOCK:
      1. Social Security
      2. Medicare
      3. Medicaid
      4. Mortgage deduction (The high interest you pay on your mortgage)
      5. Tax rate increase to middle class as the mortgage deduction will put some into a higher bracket.

      The Wall Street Greedos, Millionaires and Billionaires are protected like new born babies while they push seniors, widows, orphans, disabled, and vets over the cliff into utter poverty.

      • Beata says:
        July 22, 2011 at 11:26 am

        Add Federal Housing and Food Stamps to that list.

        Memo to the homeless and hungry: Die quickly.

      • jawbone says:
        July 22, 2011 at 11:46 am

        Removing the mortgage interest deduction will result in many middle class or lower tax payers being unable to use any deductions, such as medical. Unless you have enough deductions, it’s better to take the standard deduction.

        I’ve had it with these ConervaDems and Obama.

  15. jawbone says:
    July 22, 2011 at 11:24 am

    Dean Baker writes that the Chained CPI is being use only to make cuts to SocSec and other pensions, in this HuffPo piece. (Via Susie at Suburban Guerrilla.)

    …[W]e know that the elderly have different consumption patterns than the population as a whole. They spend a larger share of their income on health care and less on computers and cell phones. BLS research shows that the rate of inflation experienced by the elderly is actually somewhat higher than the standard index used to adjust Social Security benefits. This research implies that if we are interested in an accurate cost of living adjustment, as the Gang of Six claim, then we might have to increase, rather than decrease, the annual adjustment.

    The elderly cost of living index that shows they experience a higher rate of inflation is an experimental index, not a full price index like the other indexes calculated by BLS. However, it could be a full index if the Gang of Six and the rest of Congress wanted it to be. In other words, if the Gang of Six is really interested in a more accurate cost of living adjustment for Social Security, they can propose legislation that would direct BLS to construct a full elderly index. This would let them know whether it is necessary to raise, lower, or leave along the annual cost of living adjustment, to ensure that Social Security checks keep pace with the cost of living.

    However the Gang of Six shows no interest in going this route. The only possible conclusion is that the Gang of Six is scared of what a full elderly index might show. In short, the gang of six is scared of the information. They obviously have made the decision to cut Social Security and they are not going to let evidence stand in the way (My emphasis)

    Today on Market Watch, when asked if the Gang of Six's plan unfairly hit those who have the lowest incomes, Sen. Kent Conrad said no, that the pain had to be shared and it's "only" .3% (point three per cent). (Not exact words, btw)

    He freakin' well knows that .3% is precious to someone living only on SocSec and it is not even a rounding error for someone in his income bracket. And in ten years, it's 3% less in possible COLA increases. Thus, someone who makes it to his or her 90's will have effectively lost 9% — and they will be at their most vulnerable. Gee, maybe that's the plan: Hurry Up and Die! Obama really does have Dealth Panels, they're just called cuts to SocSec and Medicare, the plans of the Gang of Six! Well, actually Obama's plans….

    DC Dems are too damn removed from the people they represent.

    We MUST have a party of the people. We MUST never again support or vote for these Corporatist Dems.

    Call Conrad; burn up his phone lines. The other two Dems, as well.

    Kent Conrad: 202 224-2043

    Mark Warner: 202 224-2023

    Dick Durbin: 202 224-2152

    Senate Directory: Main # 202 224-3121

    House Directory: Main # 202 225-3121

    WH reach numbers, if you think it will help:
    Switchboard: 202 456-1414
    Comments: 202 456-1111

    Democratic National Committee: 202 863-8000

    Call your own senators, especially Dems, but Repubs as well.

    I’d suggest being nicely rational, but closing with something along the lines of “I will never vote for Democrats who (financially, if you wish) gang rape the neediest among us.”

    These Dems probably don’t even know anyone who can’t afford air conditioning during these heat waves! They probably have no concept of running out of money before the end of the month.

    Tell these Gang of Six Dems how thankful you are that people like them were not in charge of the Democratic Party when FDR and LBJ were trying to implement the great social safety nets we the people of the United States depend on, that if they and Obama had been in charge we would never have had the once vibrant middle class the programs of the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society led to. We would not have SocSec or Medicare and Medicaid.

    Toss in the idea from Dean Baker of an elderly cost of living measure — point out it’s obvious they are using the Chained CPI not because it is the best measurement, but because it results in cuts to the millions of SocSec pensioners, veterans’ pensions, leads to tax bracket creep, etc.

    Tell them we understand what they’re doing and they can’t fool us on this. And we vote. Whether it’s for Dems will depend on how Dems act toward us the non-wealthy people.

    For more good talking points, go to this David Dayen post at FDL with a video of Rep. Pete DeFazio pointing out the problems of the Chained CPI. He points out someone earning $20,000 will get a 14% tax increase through the effect of the Chained CPI.

    Tell them that if voters want Reagan style government, they don’t vote for any Dems, they go to the source–Republicans. But we do NOT want Reagan II in the WH or Bush III; we want people who represent us, from the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.

    If those kinds of Dems no longer exist, we WANT A NEW PARTY. We WILL BUILD a new party.

    Also — JOBS! If there’s time, ask why there’s no emphasis or concern about jobs and the effects of long term unemployment. Is there an agenda to lower the standard of living in the United States, but only for those who are not wealthy? Are Dems working to destroy the possibiity of a strong middle class?

    *Marginal Utility from Wikipedia:

    In economics, the marginal utility of a good or service is the utility gained (or lost) from an increase (or decrease) in the consumption of that good or service. Economists sometimes speak of a law of diminishing marginal utility, meaning that the first unit of consumption of a good or service yields more utility than the second and subsequent units.

    In real world terms, the first and last dollar of the poor is of great utility to the poor — of far greater utility to the poor or low income person than to the wealthy. If someone earns $15,000 a year, that person knows where their last dollar goes, and its importance. It may mean buying or foregoing a prescription, using or foregoing air conditioning and heat, having food of high nutritional value or not…or not having enough food at all.

    For someone earning, oh, $150,000, a dollar has value, but nowhere near as much as it does for the person earning one tenth of that amount. For the more well off person, a dollar is…chump change. Not even a rounding error. It’s, oh, like .3%.

    NPR covered a long term unemployed man who had been earning in the 6 figures. He finally got a temp job as a telephone rep, which he had just lost. He was taking time and using gas money to drive to his bank to contest an improper charge of just over $8 ($8.63 sticks in my mind). He said that when he had his job, he would never have bothered to contest such a small amount, but now it meant a lot to his budget.

    That in a nutshell is marginal utility. And Conrad knows that very well; he just will not consider it when it gets in the way of his Corporatist inclinations.

    Will calling to anything? I don’t know. Perhaps making several calls, emphasizing different points might work. Add to the count.

    And don’t forget postcards, but time is short and Obama is going to use the crisis of the debt ceiling to try to get as much regressive action accomplished as possible. So, now, phone calls.

  16. jawbone says:
    July 22, 2011 at 11:26 am

    Drat–lost an end tag to Baker quote. It’s still readable, however.

  17. jawbone says:
    July 22, 2011 at 11:39 am

    Krugman calls Obama the Conceder in Chief…which misses the reality. Obama is the Manipulator in Chief, and he has manipulated the country and the Dems into an unnecessary debt ceiling crisis.

    Obama could have gotten the debt ceiling included in the his December negotiations with the Repubs, back when he made the Bush Tax Cuts the Obama Tax Cuts. And gave the Repubs more than they ever dreamed they could get, while hitting the poorest tax payers with a tax increase over the previous year (small, but given the fact each dollar is vital to the poor, even a little hurts. It’s called marginal utility. And Obama stuck it to the poor.

    Obama needs this crisis to force through legislation which is anthema to Democrats and most voters. So, he made sure it wasn’t taken “off the table.” And if he doesn’t succeed with this cirsis, he will gin one up over the budget. it’s what he want’s to do.

    I was thinking about my NJ Bully Boy governor, Chris “We dasn’t tax the rich!” Christie and how he refused to even negotiate with the public employees’ unions, instead taking his changes to the legilature (and bamboozling the Senate majority leader, a Dem, who sold out and thought he had some kind of understanding with Christie — until Christie screwed him).

    Christie felt he had no need to deal with the concerns of the public employees as he figured he wouldn’t need their votes in the future.

    That’s pretty much how Obama seems to treat not only the Dem voters, but the Dems who are actually Democrats: He ignores them because he won’t need them in his future.

    Just as he ignores us, the voters. He figures he can fool enough to win against some bat guano crazy Repub — and if not, he has his future wealth prepared for him by his paymasters.

    Poor Paul, he’s so close to realizing Obama is a plain out and out conservative — but he just can’t get himself to quite go there. Yet.

  18. jawbone says:
    July 22, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    NPR hourly summary just had bit from Obama, to wit:

    In 2010, the voters chose divided government, but they did not choose dysfunctional government.:</blockquote

    And, of course, in 2008, the voters did not choose a Republican president.

    But Obama's giving us one, whether we like it or not.

    • paper doll says:
      July 22, 2011 at 12:55 pm

      And, of course, in 2008, the voters did not choose a Republican president.

      But Obama’s giving us one, whether we like it or not.

      shut up and eat your peas…while we still let you have them

  19. dakinikat says:
    July 22, 2011 at 2:28 pm

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