Tuesday, May 20, 2008
High prices getting you down
And where does all the excess capital for speculation come from? Um, that's what the wealthy are doing with the tax cuts Bush and the Republicans gave them. Note that they are not creating new jobs with that money. Oops, who could've seen that coming?Greenwich Associates, which has been researching U.S. markets for 36 years, said this year's run-up in commodities seemed mainly the work of speculators, as research showed that more than a third of investors in those markets had been active for less than three years.
On a related issue, U.S. lawmakers and farm groups at a congressional hearing on Tuesday challenged recent findings by the U.S. futures markets regulator that hedge funds and other speculative players were not the main culprits for record food and energy prices.
Labels: Economy, Speculation, Stock Market, Tax Cuts
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Summer of Change 08 Video
HEALTHCARE
LOTTERY SCAM
EDCUATION
Saturday, May 17, 2008
The Hometown Strikes Back!
Here I am trying to get out the door to our Burbank Dems picnic today with sister clubs and politicos alike, on a 97-degree heatwave day.... and what greets me in the routine Democratic Senate Campaign Committee e-newsletter?
I nearly fall off my chair.
My hometown, Noble, OK--one of them, anyway--where I went all 12 years to school, where most of my dad's family lived, whose weekly paper I worked at as reporter and then editor for three years.
Oh, and it really is the "Rose Rock Capital of the World." (Seriously, it is. The white ones in China don't count).
And NOW it's in a national party video on global warming with a lot of humor and real-folks common sense, Will Rogers-style, aimed at dangerously goofy Jim Inhofe.
So, go Andrew Rice!
And go, Rose Rose Festival!
Labels: global warming, Inhofe, Oklahoma, Rice
Friday, May 16, 2008
Who's out of touch?
The following comes from "Capitol Alert," a free emailed news alert from the Sacramento Bee. I was struck by the contrast between the two parties...at least for weekend of the 17th and 18th.
So what's to come this weekend? Not much.
Legislative Democrats head to Colton to protest proposed cuts to health care.
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi plays host to the 31st annual Garamendi Basque Barbeque.
That's his low-cost annual fundraiser featuring pony rides, western dress and petting farm.
Meanwhile, it turns out former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez isn't the only wine fan in the Legislature.
GOP chiefs Mike Villines and Dave Cogdill play host to the Tour de Napa, a big-ticket fundraiser for the California Republican Party.
The Republican leaders will be leading donors through a quartet of winery tours in the Napa region, ending at the Montington Vineyards, where the fundraising invitation promises a nightcap of "port, cigars & live music under the oak trees."
Make a day trip of it for $10,000 or stay overnight for $12,500.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Karen Bass is the new Assembly Speaker
Let's talk taxes - Los Angeles Times
I believe part of that job has to involve looking at the big picture. We have to ask the question of whether a tax structure that was established in the 1930s is sufficient to meet the needs of Californians in 2008.
It's about time the State took a long hard look at increasing revenue, rather than just cutting. I know the specter of the 'tax and spend liberal' will be about the only thing the republicans will be able to say on the subject, but seriously folks, we've done it their way long enough to know with certainty that trickle down, supply side, voodoo economics don't work for the vast majority of us. Tax cuts for Exxon did not result in more American jobs, just record profits that used to come, lets not make the same mistake on the State level.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Some Good News about Smoking Bans
Smoking bans deter teens from starting habit - Addictions- msnbc.com
A Massachusetts study suggests that restaurant smoking bans may play a big role in persuading teens not to become smokers.
Youths who lived in towns with strict bans were 40 percent less likely to become regular smokers than those in communities with no bans or weak ones, the researchers reported in the May issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Looks like the Gov is an Elitist in his own party
Florez: Is governor smarter than a 12th grader?
Schwarzenegger was speaking at a conference with billionaire Michael Milken on infrastructure and answering a question about innovations he had seen in his worldwide travels and what he had tried to bring back to California.
“And that’s why I always encourage the legislators in Sacramento, because some of them come from those little towns," Schwarzenegger said. "You know what I’m saying? They come from those little towns, and they don’t have that vision yet of an airport or of a highway that maybe has 10 lanes. Or of putting a highway on top of a highway. They look at you and say, ‘Well we don’t have that in my town, what are you talking about?’ So they are kind of shocked when you say certain things."
