March 14, 2010

FreakAngels | Episode 0089

FreakAngels | Episode 0089

fa0089.JPG

FREAKANGELS is a free, weekly, ongoing comic written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Paul Duffield.

Why we need a new Bull Moose Party

HuffPo | Daniel Firger | Why we need a new Bull Moose Party

A century ago, Roosevelt explained the need for his third-party candidacy:
The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly what should be said on the vital issues of the day.
These words ring truer today than they have in quite some time. ...

The Progressive platform minced no words, declaring:

"To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day." ...

Americans are ready for real reforms to the most pressing problems of the day, but the Republicans and (most) Democrats are too busy thinking small. Without a leader of Teddy Roosevelt's massive statute, a Bull Moose movement today could never survive as a viable third party, but it could wake up and mobilize a lot of disillusioned Americans.

One hundred years later, it's time to bring the Bull Moose back!

Texas rewrites history with a hard right slant

Joe. My. God.: Texas Rewrites History

Texas is one of the very few states that chooses textbooks, as opposed to local school districts choosing them. As such, Texas is a huge contract for textbook makers and the books Texas chooses end up being used all over the country. They have so much power that they are able to dictate to the textbook industry what exactly the textbooks need to say.

Recently the Texas State Board of Education has been the target of religious extremists who have wormed their way into it in order to control the education of our nation's kids, and to control their exposure to, well, the truth.

Below are some example of changes to history textbooks that the Texas SBoE have mandated, along with a general need to focus on white, Christian men and to downplay any achievements by people of color, Labor, Democrats, Progressives, etc.


-The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum's world history standards on Enlightenment thinking, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.”

-"Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state." “I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state,” said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. “I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.”

-The Board refused to require that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others.”

-McCarthyism will be taught as an example of how communism was rooted out of the federal government.

Train, the Holocaust board game

This week San Francisco has hosted the Game Developers Conference (GDC) yet again. GDC is less PR focused and more nerdy than other game conventions and they get all the good talks. Case in point: Brenda Brathwaite gave a presentation about her unique game, "Train" and Destructoid was there to cover it in the best article I've seen on "Train" yet. It answers many lingering questions I had about the game while *also* making me feel like a monster for wanting to play it.

Well done.

Destructoid - GDC 10: the Holocaust board game


Train is a board game that, at least initially, tasks players with getting as many yellow game pieces from one end of the game board to the other. In an average turn, the player can choose to move their train forward, put more people into the train, draw a card, or take a card. After reaching the end of the track with one train, the player draws a card revealing the destination they've arrived at.

All of the possible destinations are concentration camps. Auschwitz, Dachau. Brathwaite described the moment of realization as "a fall from a hundred feet up," once the now-victorious player realizes what he or she has just done.

This isn't the end of the game. Train's rules (typed up on a genuine Nazi typewriter) specify that "the game is over when it ends." After figuring out where the trains are going, you can choose to stop playing or, as some players did, try to actually rebel against the rules and sabotage the game by intentionally trying to draw derail cards.

When a train in the game gets derailed, two things happen: half the people go back to the beginning of the board, and the others refuse to board the train. The game pieces simply sit on the board, and can no longer be manipulated. Brathwaite intentionally refused to explain exactly what had happened to those pieces. Some players assume that the tokens are dead, some assume that they've escaped and gone to Denmark. This process of volunteering your own narrative isn't lazy design or metagaming, Brathwaite seemed to suggest, but an integral part of the game that makes the player feel complicit in what they're doing.
. . .

March 13, 2010

LOFI (League of Independents) - Home of the Re/Mixed Media 2010 Mashup Remix Festival, Brooklyn, NYC

Facebook friend Bruce Ronn found out we like mashups and asked me to forward the following:

LOFI (League of Independents) - Home of the Re/Mixed Media 2010 Mashup Remix Festival, Brooklyn, NYC

Video Remixers Needed! Festival Submission Deadline Extended to March 31!

The RE/Mixed Media Festival celebrates remix as a legitimate, responsible form of visual art by bringing together remix artists from all disciplines to display their works publicly. The festival will be held in Brooklyn, NY on Sunday May 30, 2010 at Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo.

We are currently soliciting videos & films from lo-fi artists that utilize remix/mashup techniques, and that are under 10 minutes in length. Selected works will be screened at the festival, judged by a panel of experts, and one winner will receive a $500 cash prize.

NYC taxi drivers caught defrauding thousands of passengers

Joe. My. God.: NYC Taxi Drivers In Massive Fraud

Basically there is a switch on their toll box that allows them to add $5 or so if they are going out-of-borough, but many drivers have been caught using it all the time.


The drivers’ scheme, the commission said, involved 1.8 million rides and cost passengers an average of $4 to $5 extra per trip. The drivers, officials said, flipped switches on their meters that kicked in the higher rates, costing New York City riders a total of $8.3 million. The 1.8 million fares represent a tiny fraction of a total 360 million trips over the 26-month period in question. Agency officials said, however, that they were alarmed enough that they immediately ordered the companies that manufacture the meters to create a system to alert riders when the higher rates are being charged. That is likely to be done through the digital screens facing the back seats of the cabs. The commission said it began an inquiry after investigators, responding to a rider’s complaint, determined that a cab driver from Brooklyn, Wasim Khalid Cheema, had overcharged 574 passengers in just one month last year. Mr. Cheema’s license has been revoked. He could not be reached for comment. The commission then used GPS data, collected in every cab, to review millions of trips in New York City and found a huge number in which the out-of-city rates had improperly been charged, officials said.

Put 'em together and what have you got? Mashup essay for The Hooded Utilitarian's copyright roundtable

I did this!

Thanks very much again to Noah Berlatsky of The Hooded Utilitarian for asking me for a list of the Poor Mojo staff's favorite mashups. I know about most of these thanks to dave-o and Mojo. If you are a creator and/or care about what the concept of Intellectual Property is doing to the culture, check out the whole series of articles, won't you?

Of particular note is Noah's first published attempt at a mashup -- and this is special for dave-o: It's a Single Ladies joint! Download Single Plague and enjoy the collision of Beyonce vs. Australian female gloom metal act Murkrat, with a brief cameo by the Carter Family.

Put ‘em together and what have you got? | The Hooded Utilitarian

Noah kindly asked me to list some of the mash-ups we like to listen to over at Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k) and Newswire as part of the copyright roundtable. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive history, nor an exhaustive list, nor anything more than some of the form’s developmental high-water marks cribbed from Wikipedia’s Bastard Pop article and our personal preferences.

Trailer: Treme (from the makers of The Wire)

Poor Mojo's Almanac(k)
Issue #477 - Thurs., March 11, 2010

This post will remain here for one day. Scroll down for new news.

Fun Fact: the Russians have no word for "red."

Giant Squid: Ask the Giant Squid: The Parable of the Three Marketing Executives by the Giant Squid

... The tall marketing executive succeeded for many years in America—Cleveland, I believe—before landing a lucrative contract to promote caramel-flavored canned corn syrup in the land of China. This tall executive took his product in among the ancient Chinese secrets and decided for matters of language translation to hire a local urchin—I imagine he was much like my own typist, Jarwaun (who took umbrage upon being called an "urchin" until I explained that sea urchins are the fierce, finger-snapping, modern-dancing boy gangs of the upper depths; it is no insult). This spiny translator took the name of the man's product, "Coca Cola," and translated the individual phonemes Co and Ca and Coh and La into his native Chinese tongue. While in English the name Coca-Cola derives from the two main ingredients in the ancient ancestor of today's liquid corn swill (said two ingredients being cocaine and koala testicles) the phonetic name in Chinese spelled out the phrase, "Bite the wax tadpole" (or in some regions "female horse stuffed with wax"). ...
Fiction: The Deer Park by Connor Caddigan
... Suddenly there are too many moral crusaders in the world, each with an equally improbable scheme to lead a man to salvation, a million cures for a million vices—through prayer, repentance, self-flagellation—but when he looks through the portal that separates reality from the hereafter, de Vere sees not the promise of paradise but the fiery pools of hell. Having already dipped his toes in the scalding waters, he wonders if he can finally muster the courage to submerge himself fully in what the Jesuits warn is "total depravity." Of course most people have no way of knowing just how sublime the river of sin can be, how thrilling to be swept away and carried off to a place you never intended to go. Or maybe they do. The world is full of hypocrites. ...
Poetry: Lovecraftian Ides of March by Kevin Vorshak
The ides of March blew its deadly draft
In search of novelist prey
Stealing the soul of Howard Lovecraft

It found Caesar's self to be ill staffed
As in final 'et tu, Brute.'
The ides of March blew its deadly draft ...

Rant: The Shaven Kiwi
(A Poor Mojo's "The Best Recipe You'd Never Guess" Rant Contest Notable Entry)
by Kirsty Logan
... This was when I had my first shocking revelation: my girlfriend ate the skin of the kiwi. The hairy, fuzzy, chewy, repulsive skin. She bit right through it. I stood there, halfway through slicing off the skin of my kiwi, and stared at her. She stared back, chewing on the skin and clearly wondering why I was dumbstruck. She said it tasted nice and was a good source of fibre. I replied that it was utterly repulsive. She laughed at me, still chewing the skin, and decided to name her cocktail The Hairy Kiwi. I, of course, called mine The Shaven Kiwi. ...

March 12, 2010

Lady Gaga - Telephone ft. Beyonce

YouTube - Lady Gaga - Telephone ft. Beyonce

Formspring operators arrested for data phishing (UPDATED)

The Associated Press:LA-based "Formspring.me" service to reveal identities of anonymous users

UPDATE: The story of Formspring being a hoax looks itself to be a hoax. Big thanks to our own Alan for pointing this out.

Formspring.me was an anonymous service where you could submit questions to people. A ton of people used it and shared some personal, some stupid, and some douchey comments.

Except it's *not* anonymous. Instead it's an elaborate April Fool's Day prank that will reveal the identities and Facebook accounts of everyone who participated, revealing their doucheness and secrets for all the world to see.

So is it a cautionary tale about anonymity on the internet, or just a dick move?


LOS ANGELES — Twelve administrators of the website Formspring.me, including CEO Mark Baxter were arrested on Monday for data phishing and misleading the public, when the site was revealed to be a "social experiment," which will culminate in the automatic revealing of users' private data on April 1, 2010.

Baxter, 28, was sentenced in Van Nuys Superior Court for the creation of said website, which allows users to "send and receive anonymous questions, and learn more about people you find interesting by following their answers."

Over 2 million people have used the site to communicate anonymously with other users since its creation in 2009.

"We allow users to sign up for an account and ask questions anonymously, but we still store their data next to the question. For legal purposes," said Baxter, in a January interview.

Utah House Leader Admits Naked Hot-Tubbing With 15-Year Old Girl

Utah House Leader Admits Naked Hot-Tubbing With 15-Year Old Girl | TPMMuckraker

So he gets his name on a list now, right? And he has to go door to door to explain to people how he is a sex offender. And he has to move so he's more than 2,000 ft. from a school or a park. And he can't get a job in--wait, what's that? He's a rich, white, well-connected politician so it doesn't matter and he won't go on the list?

Weird.


The Majority Leader of the Utah House took a nude hot-tub with a 15-year old employee, then paid her $150,000 and had her pledge to keep quiet, he admitted yesterday.

The incident occurred in 1985, when Kevin Garn was 30, and married. In 2002, when Garn, a Republican, was running for Congress, the woman, Cheryl Maher, began contacting reporters with the story, prompting Garn to pay her and have an attorney draft a non-disclosure agreement, reports the Salt Lake Tribune.

With his wife by his side, Garn yesterday told reporters: "I expect to suffer public humiliation and embarrassment. Some lessons are hard to learn. This is something I should've done back in 2002 but I was scared. I did not want to be publicly judged by one of my life's [worst mistakes]."

Photo Gallery: Kim Jong-Il

On the Spot with Kim Jong-il - The Big Picture - Boston.com

The Colbert Report:
Karl Rove's New Book

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Karl Rove's New Book
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorSkate Expectations

The Daily Show:
Health Care:
The Ultimate Last Final Push

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Health Care: The Ultimate Last Final Push
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorHealth Care Reform

Behind the scenes at the February Tea Party Convention

U.S. unrolls national educational standards, goals

Proposed Set Of U.S. Academic Standards Unveiled : NPR

The national education standards are part of an opt-in program, but forty-eight states have opted in. Only Alaska and Texas refuse to take part.


A group of governors and school superintendents released a proposed set of academic standards Wednesday that lays out what students should be learning in math and English every year from kindergarten through high school.

The guidelines are part of a push to iron out the jumble of state standards and raise expectations for American schools. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia joined in the effort to develop national standards, leaving Alaska and Texas as the lone holdouts.

If proponents have their way, third-graders across the country will understand the function of adjectives and adverbs, while eighth-graders will be introduced to the Pythagorean theorem. More broadly, the standards are meant to prepare kids for the possibility of college.

The proposal, backed by President Obama, was unveiled by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. It emerged with surprisingly broad agreement after years of bitter debate between the federal government and the states over who should set academic standards.

The Public Option and the Democratic Scam

The Democrats' scam becomes more transparent - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

This is today's Must Read article.

In a nutshell, the dems keep saying they don't have the fifty votes in the Senate to use reconciliation for the Public Option, but nearly 50 senators *have* signed a pledge saying they are for it. And now that it looks like they do have the votes, the Democratic leadership is feverishly working to make sure the Public Option does NOT pass.

The old question comes up again. Are they lying, cowards, or just stupid?


All of that was bad enough, but now the scam is getting even more extreme, more transparent. Faced with the dilemma of how they could possibly justify their year-long claimed support for the public option only now to fail to enact it, more and more Democratic Senators were pressured into signing a letter supporting the enactment of the public option through reconciliation; that number is now above 40, and is rapidly approaching 50. In other words, there is a serious possibility that the Senate might enact a public option if there is a vote on it, because it's very difficult for these Senators to vote "No" after pretending all year long -- on the record -- that they supported it. In fact, The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim yesterday wrote: "the votes appear to exist to include a public option. It's only a matter of will."

The one last hope for Senate Democratic leaders was to avoid a vote altogether on the public option, thereby relieving Senators of having to take a position and being exposed. But that trick would require the cooperation of all Senators -- any one Senator can introduce a public option amendment during the reconciliation and force a vote -- and it now seems that Bernie Sanders, to his great credit, is refusing to go along with the Democrats' sham and will do exactly that: ignore the wishes of the Senate leadership and force a roll call vote on the public option.

So now what is to be done? They only need 50 votes, so they can't use the filibuster excuse. They don't seem able to prevent a vote, as they tried to do, because Sanders will force one. And it seems there aren't enough Senate Democrats willing to vote against the public option after publicly saying all year long they supported it, which means it might get 50 votes if a roll call vote is held. So what is the Senate Democratic leadership now doing? They're whipping against the public option, which they pretended all year along to so vigorously support . . .

Please, read the whole thing.

Zach Galifianakis performs for preschoolers

from back when he hosted his late-night VH1 show.

YouTube - Zach Galifianakis

*via Kevin Church*

The IRS is really cracking down on tax evaders using Swiss banks

UBS says IRS has 20 Swiss banks in its sights

Is there anything more unpatriotic than *not* paying taxes?


Embattled UBS AG has warned that Switzerland's financial industry is at risk unless lawmakers approve a tax treaty with the United States, and that other Swiss banks may be next to face pressure from U.S. regulators.

n a letter to parliamentarians, the banking giant said the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has collected information on the cross-border activities of about 20 Swiss banks and may soon press for a crackdown on American tax evaders at these institutions as well.

UBS urged parliament to approve an August treaty signed by the U.S. Treasury Department and Switzerland's executive Federal Council on improving cooperation in tax evasion matters.

"The risks are very considerable for the Swiss financial center and the economy as a whole if parliament were to withhold its approval," UBS said in the letter, obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The bank confirmed its authenticity.

The Work/Music cycle

This Happens To Me Every F—king Single Day | Gizmodo Australia

Man On Internet Almost Falls Into World Of DIY Mustard Enthusiasts

Man On Internet Almost Falls Into World Of DIY Mustard Enthusiasts | The Onion - America's Finest News Source



DES MOINES, IA—When Steve Gibson first became casually involved with an online community of mustard makers, he had no idea his mild interest in the condiment would, within a few short months, spiral dangerously out of control.

But Gibson, unlike so many others, managed to get out before the hobby consumed his entire life.

"I don't know how I wound up at that point, but thank God I escaped when I did," Gibson, 41, said Friday. "There I was, a grown man, planning a trip to the Mustard Museum in Wisconsin, when suddenly I heard a voice deep within me say, 'This is not what you want your life to be about.'"

"It was like waking up from a bad dream," Gibson added. "A bad yellow and brown dream."

Gibson's descent into the depths of mustard obsession started innocently enough, when he got involved in an Internet exchange about the best kind of mustard to use on a grilled bratwurst. When someone posted a link encouraging him to "click on this if you really want to spice things up," he took the stranger's advice and suddenly found himself on MustardMonster.com, a discussion group devoted to the cultivation, preparation, and enjoyment of the table-side condiment.

They hang demagogues, don't they? Beck, Coulter and Limbaugh: Avatars of Julius Streicher

t r u t h o u t | Beck, Coulter and Limbaugh: Avatars of Julius Streicher

At his trial in Nuremberg, the prosecution said that while [Julius] Streicher was not directly involved in the physical commission of these deadly crimes against humanity, "his crime is no less worse for that reason.... It was to the task of educating and poisoning the people with hate, and of producing murderers, that Streicher set himself. For 25 years, he continued unrelentingly the perversion of the people and youth of Germany. He went on and on as he saw the results of his work bearing fruit. In the early days, he was preaching persecution. As persecution took place, he preached extermination and annihilation and, as millions of Jews were exterminated and annihilated in the Ghettos of the East, he cried out for more and more.

"... He leaves behind him a legacy of almost a whole people poisoned with hate, sadism, and murder, and perverted by him. That people will remain a problem and perhaps a menace to the rest of civilization for generations to come."

Against that historical background, consider just a few of these sound bites:

Ann Coulter:

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. [Her suggestion for dealing with the Middle East.]

Glenn Beck:

"I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it.... No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out of him." [Responding to the question, "What would people do for $50 million?," "The Glenn Beck Program," May 17, 2005.]

Rush Limbaugh:

"If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people - I'm serious, let the unskilled jobs, let the kinds of jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do - let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work."

revolution x - Rx (2008)

Rx has created many clever mashup videos, and I guess he was also working on this movie? This is certainly thought- and emotion- provoking, especially for those of us waiting in 2010 for the war in Iraq to end and wondering why the war in Afghanistan drags on.

YouTube - revolution x

this is the trailer for the upcoming documentary about the 2008 presidential campaign.


March 11, 2010

Power - John Oswald (1975)

I'm working on a list of mashups for Noah Berlatsky's Hooded Utilitarian roundtable on copyright, and was skimming the Wikipedia article on Bastard Pop for inspiration stuff to steal, and then:

John Oswald

John Oswald has been devising illegitimate compositions since the late 1960s. His 1975 track "Power" married frenetic Led Zeppelin guitars to the impassioned exhortations of a Southern US evangelist at the same time that hip hop was discovering the potency of the same (and related) kinds of ingredients.

If there's anything I love, it's the artifact of a goddamn good idea that involves recording equipment and snottiness. The fact that the result is art just makes it even more yummy.

YouTube - Power - John Oswald 1975 (rare)

Interesting: Questions of perception and identity have shifted to being couched in terms of videogames, instead of drugs

FUTURESTATES : Play By David Kaplan and Eric Zimmerman

(via Ze Frank)

Sen. Reid writes minority leader Mitch McConnell a letter

Democrats.senate.gov - Senator Harry Reid, Majority Leader

Here is an excerpt:


“While Republicans were distorting the facts in the health care debate and inflicting delay after needless delay, millions of Americans have continued to suffer as they struggle to afford to stay healthy, stay out of bankruptcy and stay in their homes. Thousands of Americans lose their health care every day, and tens of thousands of the uninsured have lost their lives since this debate began.”

“Many Republicans now are demanding that we simply ignore the progress we’ve made, the extensive debate and negotiations we’ve held, the amendments we’ve added (including more than 100 from Republicans) and the votes of a supermajority in favor of a bill whose contents the American people unambiguously support. We will not. We will finish the job.”

As you know, the vast majority of bills developed through reconciliation were passed by Republican Congresses and signed into law by Republican Presidents – including President Bush’s massive, budget-busting tax breaks for multi-millionaires. Given this history, one might conclude that Republicans believe a majority vote is sufficient to increase the deficit and benefit the super-rich, but not to reduce the deficit and benefit the middle class. Alternatively, perhaps Republicans believe a majority vote is appropriate only when Republicans are in the majority. Either way, we disagree.”

“At the end of the process, the bill can pass only if it wins a democratic, up-or-down majority vote. If Republicans want to vote against a bill that reduces health care costs, fills the prescription drug ‘donut hole’ for seniors and reduces the deficit, you will have every right to do so.”

Nation Shudders At Large Block Of Uninterrupted Text

Nation Shudders At Large Block Of Uninterrupted Text | The Onion - America's Finest News Source


WASHINGTON—Unable to rest their eyes on a colorful photograph or boldface heading that could be easily skimmed and forgotten about, Americans collectively recoiled Monday when confronted with a solid block of uninterrupted text.

Dumbfounded citizens from Maine to California gazed helplessly at the frightening chunk of print, unsure of what to do next. Without an illustration, chart, or embedded YouTube video to ease them in, millions were frozen in place, terrified by the sight of one long, unbroken string of English words.

"Why won't it just tell me what it's about?" said Boston resident Charlyne Thomson, who was bombarded with the overwhelming mass of black text late Monday afternoon. "There are no bullet points, no highlighted parts. I've looked everywhere—there's nothing here but words."

"Ow," Thomson added after reading the first and last lines in an attempt to get the gist of whatever the article, review, or possibly recipe was about.

Illegal Israeli expansion sabotages Middle East peace talks

Informed Comment: Abbas Reported to have Withdrawn from Israeli-Palestinian talks;
Obama Mideast Policy Sabotaged by Netanyahu

Obama's Mideast policy lies in tatters this morning and US credibility as a broker of any future settlement was deeply wounded.

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, announced Wednesday that he had been informed by Palestine Authority president Mahmoud Abbas that the latter has pulled out of indirect talks with Israel. Late Wednesday, the Arab League itself reversed its earlier cautious endorsement of the proximity talks, recommending that that support be dropped.

Israeli colonization of Palestinian territory lies at the heart of the Mideast conflict. It isn't a complicated issue in the law, since Israel's actions are clearly illegal and unethical to boot. But might makes right and Israel is the most powerful country in the Middle East, so all the protests on legal and humanitarian grounds have amounted to nothing.

The talks were likely deliberately sabotaged by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who had his Interior Minister announce the construction of 1600 new households in Occupied East Jerusalem the day before they were scheduled to begin. In fact, Israel is actively planning 50,000 further housing units on occupied Palestinian territory. US Vice President Joe Biden had come to kick off the process with visits to Netanyahu and Abbas, but he has now been sent home empty-handed by Netanyahu's sheer effrontery.
. . .

The proposed Republican budget would slash Medicare, cut taxes for the rich, and run up enormous deficits

Experts: Ryan Roadmap Balloons Deficits While Taxing Middle Class, Slashing Entitlements | TPMDC

I know the Republicans and Conservatives have been talking an awful lot lately about budget deficits like it's a problem (it's not, the interest we pay on the deficit is super low) but it's all a smokescreen. Check out the budget of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), which is the only budget put forth right now by Republicans in Congress. It's a trainwreck of tax increases for the middle class, tax cuts for the rich, and slashes to Medicare and social security.

When was the last time a Republican in office balanced the budget?


The Tax Policy Center--a non-partisan think tank--did a thorough analysis on the impact of the tax changes Ryan proposes--a massive tax cut for the wealthy, paired with substantial tax increases on 90 percent of the country--and found that the so-called "Roadmap" would actually leave the federal government desperately starved for funds.

According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, "the Ryan plan would result in very large revenue losses relative to current policies."

[The Tax Policy Center] estimates that even with its middle-class tax increases, the plan would reduce federal revenues to 16 percent of GDP in 2014. Because the tax cuts for the wealthy would dwarf the tax increases for the middle class, the Ryan plan would allow the federal debt to continue growing for a number of decades to come, despite its steep cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

The result, they conclude, is ballooning, unsustainable deficits--a quirky feature for a plan touted far and wide for its potential to right the country's fiscal course. And yet, Ryan's star is on the rise in the GOP and in Washington.

By contrast to the Ryan Roadmap, President Obama's budget would increase revenues as a share of GDP from 14.5 percent in 2010 to 19.6 percent in 2020. There would still be deficits at that point--but at a much more sustainable level than under the GOP alternative.