SAR #10302

Oddly enough, right and wrong still matter.

Behind the Curtain:  Here's the Heritage Foundation's version of the Republican budget cuts.  Can you say 'privatization”?  Can you say “goodbye” to social programs?  Can you say “goodbye” to the country once known as America?

Bye-Partisanship:  John Boehner says the GOP would welcome Obama's involvement in governing the country only “to the extent the president wants to work with us, in terms of our goals."  I told my wife we could go anywhere she wanted to go on vacation as long as she picked from my list.

Orders, Please:  Bernanke has asked the nation's Primary Dealers how much money they want and when they would like it delivered.  Pretty much makes the Fed's Board of Governors redundant, doesn't it?

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service:  Indiana, like most states, has to cut its budget because tax revenues have fallen, thus it must cut services.  For example, the state can no longer provide care for severely disabled people and suggests that families drop the disabled off at homeless shelters when they can no longer care for them at home.  Anybody seen my country?

Cat/Bag:  Algeria has acknowledged that its oilfields are in decline, and that “quantities, production and exports will decline” in 2011.  They do not seem inclined to pencil in more reserves, unlike some of their OPEC partners.

Rooms to Rent, 50¢:  According to Republicans, government policies like extended unemployment benefits only encourage workers to pretend “their jobs” are going to come back.  Mostly, the argument goes, they will not and the unemployed should be 'encouraged' to take whatever work they can find at whatever wages are offered. Which is why they think the minimum wage needs repeal.  And the anti-slavery laws.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell:  The largest CO2 emitters in the US, including several whose advertising touts their green efforts, are fighting to keep the EPA from identifying the companies and (especially) disclosing how much CO2 they spew into the atmosphere each year.  It's not easy being green when you are not.

Nutritional Information:  Tea Party:  Contents consist of popular anger  being stolen by the Republicans who are cleverly misdirecting  it to elect the party mostly responsible for the financial mess in the first place.

Bill of Goods:  Credit Suisse says that by 2006, 49% of all mortgage originations were liars loans.  Independent studies suggest that by then some degree of fraud was present in 80 – 90% of those loans.  There was fraud every step of the way:  Borrowers lied, appraisers overvalued, brokers oversold risky loans to unqualified buyers and coached them how to lie,  securitizers sold the same loans multiple times, credit rating agencies knowingly overrated securities for fees and investment banks colluded with hedge funds.

Prosecution Rests:  Climate change is real. The average temperature of the Earth is increasing. This is almost certainly due to mankind’s influence on the environment, especially the emission of carbon dioxide. Some politicians and many industrialists deny this. They lie.

Choices:  Given the limits to oil production (peak oil flows) and the increased demand from China push is going to meet shove pretty soon. Either we get some serious energy breakthroughs (unlikely), China's growth slows (unlikely), or the standard of living in much of the developed world will drop.  Place your bets – and deploy your carrier fleets.

Bedfellows:  A lot of the objections to lowering corporate taxes come from corporations.  They are afraid that the lower rates would be accompanied by the plugging of specific tax loopholes that let them avoid taxes altogether – and no taxes is better than some taxes.

Porn O'Graph:  Koch'a