Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category

State Dept Says Modified Keystone Would Have Negligible Impact? (updated)

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Last May, after the original Keystone XL Pipeline proposal had been rejected by the Obama Administration, TransCanada submitted a new modified proposal for a shorter, more direct route for the same pipeline to pipe saturated tarsands “oil” from Alberta, Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. After a ten-month review, the U.S. State Department released a preliminary report on Friday concluding that the revised […]

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March 4, 2013
Posted in: Economy, Energy Independence, Environment, Global Warming, Jobs, myth busting

Can You still Call It a “Response” If You Wrote It in Advance?

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I‘ll try to be brief. I just finished listening to President Obama’s first State of the Union speech of his second term. Great as always, he seemed to hit on every topic, from ending America’s longest war (sounding at times like he was about to call for its conclusion by the end of this year, […]

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February 13, 2013
Posted in: Economy, Partisanship, Politics, voting

Mugsy’s Predictions for 2013. Fight, fight, fight.

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Well, as the cliche’ goes: “It’s that time of year again” for my annual “Predictions” edition of Mugsy’s Rap Sheet, when we look back at how well I did last year, a little schadenfreude examining just how badly the so-called “psychics” did, and ending with my own predictions for the coming year. My own record (with all […]

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December 31, 2012
Posted in: Economy, Environment, General, Guns & Violence, Healthcare, Jobs, Middle East, Money, Partisanship, Politics, Predictions, Taxes, Unconstitutional, War

Fiscal Cliff Divers (or, We’re being held hostage by a bunch of childish morons)

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It’s not that I hate being broke. In fact, I kind of enjoy many of the freedoms that come with not being a wage-slave. My needs are few, and I don’t live on Credit beyond my means. If I can’t afford something, I don’t buy it. Period. Not that I’m not smart enough to be rich. Because in […]

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December 10, 2012
Posted in: Economy, Election, Healthcare, Jobs, Money, Politics, Taxes

“Fiscal Cliff” Negotiations Preview Importance of Filibuster Reform

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As you probably know, the first day of each legislative session (ie: every two years) the House & Senate can set the rules for how that session operates with a simple majority vote. This is the ONLY day such changes can be made. After that, whatever rules are in place, Congress is stuck with for the next two […]

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December 3, 2012
Posted in: Economy, fake scandals, Money, Partisanship, Politics, Taxes

Tax Rate Reality: Under Obama, Filers Up To $284,000 Would Still Pay Less.

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The Bush Tax Cuts were only supposed to be temporary. Let’s get that out of the way up front. I starting writing this op/ed weeks ago, but mothballed it because I didn’t have enough for a story at the time. But recent events… by which I mean the hysteria over “the looming Fiscal Cliff” (insert scary hand-gestures here)… […]

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November 26, 2012
Posted in: Economy, Money, myth busting, Politics, Taxes

Closing Arguments: Some thoughts on Romney

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Over the past 18 months (since the first Republican debate in May of last year… yes, it has been that long), two things have always been clear: one, Mitt Romney would be the GOP nominee and two, Republicans hate him. This will be the first “post Citizens United” presidential race. And because of that, not only […]

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November 5, 2012
Posted in: Economy, Election, General, Jobs, Money, Politics, Predictions, Rants, Taxes, voting

Why Would Anyone Vote for Someone With This Record (Romney)?

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This past week, I’ve listened incredulously to reports that President Obama’s lead over Governor Mitt Romney has continued to shrink following Romney’s impressive first debate performance despite his embarrassing second debate humiliation and VP Biden also being seen as “the winner” in his debate performance. Team Romney is 1-for-3 (and likely 1-for-4 tonight), and “fact checkers” have not been kind to Romney’s […]

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October 22, 2012
Posted in: Economy, Election, Energy Independence, Environment, Guns & Violence, Healthcare, Jobs, Middle East, Money, myth busting, Politics, Taxes, War

Who’s Better at Running the Economy (part deux)? A startling graph.

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Last week, my mother… as she does almost weekly… sent me another one of the Right-Wing chain letters that her Republican friends send her, asking me to debunk it so she can send it back. I’ve had to tell her on more than one occasion to cut back on the amount of “nonsense” she sends […]

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October 8, 2012
Posted in: Economy, Election, Jobs, myth busting, Politics

A Compilation of Fact-Checks following first Debate

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If you’re like me, you were probably stunned by the lack of push-back by President Obama during the first presidential debate. It seemed (and not just to me) that Romney was allowed to backtrack just about every position he’s ever held, make assertions he couldn’t back up with figures, distort the President’s record, and basically […]

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October 5, 2012
Posted in: Economy, Election, Jobs, Money, Politics

Flash Commentary on the First Debate (UPDATED)

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At this writing, the first presidential debate has just ended and the early opinion is that Romney did better (whether than translates into a “win” only the polls will tell). The biggest disappointment was the number of openings President Obama let slip by that he could have hammered Governor Romney on, yet didn’t. NO mention […]

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October 4, 2012
Posted in: Economy, Election, Politics

August Unemployment Up in 26 States. But BLS shows Rope-a-Dope AGAIN (updated)

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Last May, I reported that the “States most likely to REJECT austerity to lower unemployment are Republican”, which surprised me, because I started my investigation expecting to find that Republican governors were laying off a massive number of public sector workers out of a Zealot-like belief in “Austerity”. What I found instead was shocking (well, not really. GOP-hypocrisy doesn’t […]

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September 21, 2012
Posted in: Economy, Election, Jobs