MannyGoldstein's blog

NY Times: Tax Cuts Offer Most for Very Rich, Study Says

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:51:04 -0700

"The study, by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, also shows that tax rates for middle-income earners edged up in 2004, the most recent year for which data was available, while rates for people at the very top continued to decline.

Based on an exhaustive analysis of tax records and census data, the study reinforced the sense that while Mr. Bush’s tax cuts reduced rates for people at every income level, they offered the biggest benefits by far to people at the very top — especially the top 1 percent of income earners.

Fox 'News' Ratings Drop 24% in One Year

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 16:53:24 -0700

Those live by The Right, die by The Right. Ratings at Fox "News", owned by Mrs. Clinton's newest bestest friend Sir Rupert Murdoch, are dropping like Rep. Foley's jaw at a introduction of new pages.

According to an article in Media Life Magazine, Fox News' viewership dropped a whopping 24% over the last year. From the article:

"Fox News’s total audience fell 24 percent in the past year, to 1.3 million viewers from 1.7 million, and its key primetime audience, viewers ages 25-54, was down 7 percent in October on a year-to-year basis, to an average 363,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

The Bush Administration - 237 Lies About Iraq, And Still Counting

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 14:41:38 -0700

"We recently found two mobile biological weapons facilities which were capable of producing biological agents." - George W. Bush, fibbing on 6/5/2003
Sometimes it seems that it would be far simpler to catalog the truths that the Bush Administration has told about Iraq; nonetheless, Congressman Henry Waxman of California (one of my faves) has compiled Iraq On The Record, a useful list of "misleading statements" (i.e., lies) told by the Bushies in their quest to prove their collective manhoods.

Great Moments in Republican Rule, 1994-2006

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 09:40:47 -0600

I've had the idea of putting together the 52 most head-shaking moments in the Republican rule of 1994-2006, each with a photo. These could be used for a deck of playing cards, or printed on stickers to place all over as a reminder of what dumb-f%^&s the Rethugs have been. Thanks to the good people of DU, we're already way past 52!
In no particular order:

Mission Accomplished!

"It's been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack. "

The 20(?) minutes of "My Pet Goat"

Foley resigns

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Bush plays guitar while Katrina destroys NOLA

"Heckuva job, Bownie"

Cheney shoots a guy in the face while hunting captive quail, drunk

"Freedom's untidy"

Bush holding hands with Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (funders of the 9/11 attacks)

Tom Delay's mug shot

Abramoff pleads guilty.

Cunningham pleads guilty.

Ney pleads guilty.

Frist diagnosis Terri Schiavo from the Senate floor

George and Laura stand on the flag for phot op

John F. Kennedy: Conservative? Hardly.

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 07:11:15 -0600

When confronted with the evidence that Eisenhower was a flaming Liberal (by today's standards) a few on the Right have responded by claiming that John F. Kennedy was a Conservative - because he cut taxes.
It has been said that JFK's tax cuts were the greatest in history; that may be true, but I haven't seen an actual analysis that supports or refutes it. But let's put JFK's tax cuts into perspective:

JFK cut the top tax bracket on earned income (wages) from 90% to 70%. Today, Bush has cut this tax to half of that, or 35%.

JFK's tax package treated capital gains (e.g., profit from stocks, bonds, and other investments) the same as earned income - 70% tax. Bush has reduced capital gains taxes to 15%. Most of the income of the wealthy comes from capital gains, not wages.

All told the wealthy paid 70% of their income in taxes under JFK. Today, the wealthy pay less than 20% (combining wages and capital gains).

The Plaming of the NY Times

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 07:19:56 -0600

I've suspected almost from the start that the "leak" published by the NY Times (and the Wall Street Journal and others) was a setup by the Bushies: The fringe-right press was just too orchestrated in its denunciation of the Times, and the "leaked" info was actually in the public domain already, and thus the "leakers" could not get in trouble.
From the Boston Globe:
But a search of public records -- government documents posted on the Internet, congressional testimony, guidelines for bank examiners, and even an executive order President Bush signed in September 2001 -- describe how US authorities have openly sought new tools to track terrorist financing since 2001. That includes getting access to information about terrorist-linked wire transfers and other transactions, including those that travel through SWIFT.

Folk Songs of the Far Right

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 06:48:28 -0600

Two very amusing song parodies, with videos:
Papa's Got A Brand New Baghdad
Folk Songs of the Far Right

Baghdad: More Murders Than The Entire US

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 09:06:47 -0600

I just read that there were 16,912 murders in the US in all of 2005.

Baghdad alone had 1,398 murders last month, not including soldiers or civilian victims of explosions - so that number does not include car bombs and IEDs. If we assume only (only!) 15 more deaths by bombs or of soldiers per month (and 50 people were killed in Baghdad in just one day of car bombing in February, and 5 more just today, so it's a conservative guess), that brings the total to 1413 last month - and rising monthly.
Extrapolating that to a full year, this comes to 16,956 per year. By itself, Baghdad's surpasses the entire US in murders. Not just murder rate - but number of murders. (The murder rate is 50 times higher in Baghdad vs. the entire US).

Baghdad, a city of 6 million people, now has more murders than our entire 300-million-person country. And it's getting worse by the month.

Why haven't we seen this in the media?

Violent Death Rate in Baghdad: 35 times Higher Than New York City

Fri, 26 May 2006 18:44:08 -0600

Apparently a Republican Congressman from Iowa, Steve King, is wandering around claiming that Iraq currently has a lower violent death rate than many US cities. He claims a violent death rate of 25.71 for Iraq, which would put the death rate lower than New Orleans (56.0 per 100,000 in 2004), Baltimore (43.5), Detroit (42.1), Washington D.C. (35.8) and Atlanta (26.0).
If King's number was accurate, that is.
It is occasionally the case that statistics (particularly Right-wing statistics) are inaccurate, so, being a numbers guy, I decided to roll up my sleeves and dig into his number. So I spent a few minutes going over the Iraq Index to count the number of violent deaths in Iraq last month (April). I then divided that into the population of Iraq, and I got around 40 deaths per 100,000 per year, almost twice what King claims.

Betting on Abramoff

Sat, 06 May 2006 18:30:37 -0600

Did Jack Abramoff give money to any Democrats or Democratic causes? Some time back, irritated by attempts to paint the Abramoff shenanigans as a bipartisan scandal, I offered a small sum ($10) on the Far-Right newsbusters.org site to anyone who could find that Jack Abramoff gave money to any Democrat or any Democratic cause. I've received some flack from some of the NewsBusters netizens, who claim that I've lost the bet. I think I won. Welcher or winner? Here's the facts, you be the judge:
First the the facts on the Abramoff case with regard to Democrats and cash:

Canada Warned not to Emulate U.S. Drug Policy

Thu, 04 May 2006 12:32:56 -0600

From the Toronto Globe and Mail, a pretty scathing arrticle:
Vancouver — Governments in Canada should steer completely clear from adopting or emulating any current drug policies in the United States, an outspoken New York state prosecutor said Tuesday.
“My advice to Canada is stay as completely far away from U.S. drug law policy as possible,” said David Soares, the district attorney for Albany County in the state of New York. “You (Canada) are headed in the right direction.”

In a blunt and scathing condemnation of his state and country's ineffective drug war, Mr. Soares said lawmakers, judges and prosecutors in the U.S. know their system is ineffective.

How Much Dope Did Rush Eat? A LOT!

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 21:20:55 -0600

Let's take a look at what Mr. Limbaugh was really up to.
According to police records of his prescriptions, El Rushbo was dropping about 10 of the highest-strength hydrocodone (e.g., Norco, Oxycontin) tablets available. Each pill that he was taking was 4 times the strength of what's typically prescribed. He was taking more twice the maximum prescribed dosage each day - and this is the heaviest duty stuff available - it's used for the worst pain imaginable.
So, in short, he was taking a dosage that no legitimate physician would ever prescribe.

Big Companies That Paid 0 Tax

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 14:31:37 -0600

Here's an interesting list of 83 big corporations that paid no corporate tax in at least one year from 2001 through 2003. A $250 billion loss to the US coffers over that three-year period. A lot of these folks paid negative tax - I assume that means the Fed gave them money - nice work if you can get it.
http://www.ctj.org/corpfed04an.pdf

Children, Gay Marriage, and Education

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 08:14:39 -0600

I was listening to a call-in show while driving, the topic was schools teaching kids about gay marriage. There's been a bit of controversy about the school system teaching young'ns about homosexuality, and about gay marriage. I hadn't really thought much about it until yesterday.
The first few callers were against teaching this stuff to young kids - even to adolescents. "After all", one reasoned, "they're already confused enough at that age - no need to make things worse". It amazes me that people still think that homosexuality is a choice - they really think that exposing kids to the concept of gay marriage will transform them into homosexuals? It would be like trying to turn a cow into a carnivore by showing it pictures of a lion eating a gazelle.

I'm The Decider! (Koo-Koo-Ka-Choo)

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 10:46:23 -0600

A fantastic new Bush parody song, to the tune of "I am the Walrus".
"Sitting on my own brain - waiting for the end of times... "