Gov. Scott Walker, job creator?

Wellllllllllllllllllllll, actually, no.

He promised if people let him cut taxes and go after unions, he’d show them prosperity, specifically 250,000 jobs. Note the first independent clause of the second paragraph, which states, and I quote:

Alone among the 50 states, it has lost private-sector jobs for six straight months . . . [emphasis mine].

And what do Walker and his allies at the Taxpayer Alliance point to as the reason for this? Why, the recall, for creating all that turmoil and hurting the Wisconsin brand! To which I say, dudes, you picked this fight, not the workers. Your fellow R Governor across the lake in Michigan isn’t having this problem.

I have an affection for Wisconsin. I worked there as a journalist for four years, and served her junior Senator, Russ Feingold, for 3 1/2 more. It was awful to see him swept away in the Tea Tide of 2010, replaced by a global-warming-denying doofus, but it’s even worse to see what has happened to a state known as the cradle of Midwestern progressivism. Unions are fighting back now, and Walker faces a recall. Hopefully, data like this will help seal his well-deserved political doom and give a black eye to his mentors, the Koch Brothers.

Thanks to the esteemed Charles P. Pierce for pointing this one out.

Later,

Fiscal Times describes the pass-through from taxpayers (many) to shareholders (few)

Fiscal Times, which has been posting some really good reporting on the Fed and the bank bailouts has this piece today on how and why billions of taxpayer dollars went to banks who didn’t turn around and lend it out again (to stimulate the economy) or stash it away (to protect themselves in case of another crisis) but rather paid a chunk of it out in dividends.

We – or, at least, a majority of our elected federal officials – gave them essentially carte blanche to be “innovative.” They harvested huge fees, sold risky instruments without fully disclosing the risk, turned around and bet on those instruments going down, and when the crash came, wiping out our jobs and savings, they were saved from the worst of their own arrogance and folly by us – or at least, again, a majority of our elected officials.

And the people who are charged with protecting us and our huge public investment in these institutions are often forgetting who it is they are supposed to serve.

Later,

Atlantic posts a lovely time-lapse night sky video

Sometimes, you just need to lie back and look up in awe..

I would keep the volume off, though. I find the soundtrack distracting.

Later,

Inequality, poverty, and non-sequiturs

Jared Bernstein has this post on his On the Economy blog about another debate with the Right on whether inequality and poverty matter, and if the public sector (as in “Big Gummint”) should do something about it.

Inequality is real, and growing. Poverty is real, and growing. The markets will not fix this. Public policy intervention is necessary, unless we’re willing to accept widespread economic insecurity and suffering. Period.

You go, Jared.

Later,

Late Night Listening with Mitch Ryder

The great Detroit rocker covers Prince’s “When You Were Mine.”

Here’s the album version:

This is another one of my “crank-it-up-at-midnight” DJ faves.

Ryder’s rather surrealist 1983 video:

Prince’s original:

And Cyndi Lauper’s cover:

But I like Ryder’s version best.

Later,

Oh, those Angry White Men

Richard McGregor, DC bureau chief for the respected Financial Times, has a really good, perceptive, detailed piece on “white, blue-collar, and angry” men who are likely to vote against Barack Obama in November.

Note, in particular, the hypocrisy and acknowledged racism of one Terry Minadeo, a medical equipment salesman who owes much of his income to Medicare and Medicaid. Nonetheless, he’s voting Republican:

He says his dislike of Obama is only a “little bit” to do with race, [yeah, right - my comment] although he does his best to make it sound otherwise. He has never liked the president because he thinks he has always been “slanted towards foreigners”. “I think he would like everyone to wear a turban. I will not. I will go and get my gun.”

UAW local president Mike Gammella makes this right-on-the-mark observation:

“I hear people in the plant criticise Barack Obama but the fact is, without him, we would not have a car industry today,” says Gammella. “But the Republicans are very good at isolating one or two issues that play on people. There’s a lot of anger out there and not only among the people who were laid off. They tend to vote angry and when they vote angry, they get it wrong.”

As I’ve written several times before, I grew up Republican, practically Teahead. I started my worklife in a factory. I was a loyal union member. I know this situation intimately, and lament that working people, particularly unionized workers, have been drinking the cultural poison served up by the Right since the Civil Rights movement (and Viet Nam, and feminism, and environmentalism) and going to the polls to vote for people who then turn around and vote to destroy their lives, taking aim with particular ferocity at the labor movement.

Still, all may not be lost, as Josh Kraushaar points out in National Journal. NJ’s Ron Brownstein has an analysis of the question of the auto industry bailout that seems to show Obama and Dems have an opening. Brownstein is also the one, recall, who’s description of the shifting demographic sands in America suggests to me that white anger isn’t going to buoy Republicans much longer.

Much thought to go on here.

Later,

A tale of two presidencies

Namely, those of Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan, and specifically, their fiscal performance. Note, that, other than a jump in Medicare and Medicaid spending (in part due to the Republicans’ arm-twisting insistence on putting into law that Medicare cannot negotiate prescription drug prices), they are pretty comparable.

Thanks to Brian Beutler, over at Talking Points Memo (on the blogroll to the right) for this explanation.

I would note, as well, that Brian updates with the comment that readers point out Obama inherited a larger economy than Reagan did. True, but he also inherited a far larger recession, the deepest since the 1930s, than Reagan ever had to confront.

Oh, and Dr. Krugman drops his own penny into this conversation with this chart, showing relative spending levels after the trough of the recession, under Reagan and Obama:

I have my doubts as to whether, as Brian writes, the recovery “is in full gear,” not while unemployment is stubbornly high and new manufacturing jobs – the key to growth, in my view – are being created at lower wages than before. I would also hold off on this data portending “good things.” We’re far from out of the woods, yet.

For example, oil prices were falling in 1983, and would continue to do so, while in 2010, they were rising, and continue to do so, at a breath-taking pace. Perhaps this argues for the strength of the recovery, since it is occurring despite this rise, but I’d say the jury’s still out, and will be for awhile yet.

Nonetheless, this was an important contribution to the public debate.

Oh, re: prices, it appears the jury’s also still out on who Americans blame.

Later,

Never thought I’d see the day

When that classless, ignorant oaf Limbaugh would apologize:

“For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.

I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit? In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone’s bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level.

My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.”

Of course, he qualified it, but seeing the words “sincerely apologize” from him to one of his smear victims is amazing.

In case you haven’t seen the news, this victim was Sandra Fluke, a law student at Georgetown who attempted to make herself heard in the midst of Darryl Issa’s no-girls-allowed theater-of-the-absurd hearing on contraception. Ms. Fluke immediately became a target for right-wing pundits and radio motormouths.

This, recall, from the guy who was caught by Customs back in 2009 with Viagra purchased under a prescription with another name on it. He was returning from a “vacation in the Domincan Republic.”

Blowhard Bill O’Reilly, who had to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit (sans apologia) brought by a former employee, has picked up the thread, however. In a moment of doubtless unintended Freudian irony, he asks if Ms. Fluke wants him to give up his "hard-earned money" so she can have sex.

Don’t these men have any shame? Oh, wait, stupid question . . . .

Later,

Taking tweeting and driving to a new level

So, you’re tooling along at something approaching 200 miles per hour, working your way through traffic as other racers bump and jockey for position, and you’re carrying your smart phone???

And in the past you have tweeted pictures of your injuries?

Okay, he was under a red when he did this, and NASCAR encourages drivers to engage fans with social media, but it seems to me having your phone with you in your car during the race shows an overly high level of nonchalance.

Later,

WIth Spring just around the corner, a sign of Hope

Americans believe in global warming.

Later,