GOP Welfare Queens Exposed… Guess Who’s Sucking on the Federal Tit Big-Time?

Boehner and McConnell are conscienceless hog sloppers for the oligarchs… there’s ALWAYS enough money for another war and there’s always room in the prisons for one more “terrorist”. Be grateful, you bastards! You don’t need health insurance and you don’t need unemployment compensation… you can cut the grass for a lazy futures trader in exurbia or be a maid for a Halliburton exec in Fairfield County!

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Editor’s Foreword:

There has been much crook propaganda put out by the Republican Party concerning how outsized federal payments to the unemployed, poor, and elderly caused the current depression. That’s utterly false… there are “welfare queens” out there… but they’re not in the Democratic Party. Take a look at the figures below…

BMD

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US States Ratio Taxes Paid/Federal Money Received

A. States with a Surplus (above 1.10)

New Mexico		2.03		1		S		H
Mississippi		2.02		2		S		H
Alaska		1.84		3		S		H
Louisiana		1.78		4		S		H
West Virginia		1.76		5		S		H
North Dakota		1.68		6		S		H
Alabama		1.66		7		S		H
South Dakota		1.53		8		S		H
Kentucky		1.51		9		S		H
Virginia		1.51		10		S		H
Montana		1.47		11		S		H
Hawaii		1.44		12		S		H
Arkansas		1.41		13		S		H
Maine		1.41		14		S		H
Oklahoma		1.36		15		S		H
South Carolina		1.35		16		S		H
Missouri		1.32		17		S		H
Maryland		1.30		18		S		H
Tennessee		1.27		19		S		H
Idaho		1.21		20		S		H
Arizona		1.19		21		S		H
Kansas		1.12		22		S		H
Wyoming		1.11		23		S		H

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B. States with a Balanced Inflow/Outflow (0.90 to 1.10)

Iowa		1.10		24		S		H
Nebraska		1.10		25		S		H
Vermont		1.08		26		S		H
North Carolina		1.08		27		S		H
Pennsylvania		1.08		28		S		H
Utah		1.07		29		S		H
Indiana		1.05		30		S		H
Ohio		1.05		31		S		H
Georgia		1.01		32		S		H
Rhode Island		1.00		33		S		H
Florida		0.97		34		S		H
Texas		0.94		35		S		H
Oregon		0.93		36		S		H
Michigan		0.91		37		S		H

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C. States with a Deficit (0.89 and below)

Washington		0.88		38		S		H
Wisconsin		0.86		39		S		H
Massachusetts		0.82		40		S		H
Colorado		0.81		41		S		H
New York		0.79		42		S		H
California		0.78		43		S		H
Delaware		0.77		44		S		H
Illinois		0.75		45		S		H
Minnesota		0.72		46		S		H
New Hampshire		0.71		47		S		H
Connecticut		0.78		48		S		H
Nevada		0.65		49		S		H
New Jersey		0.61		50		S		H

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Blue: Democratic governor

Red: Republican governor

Red S: 2 Republican US Senators

Blue S: 2 Democratic US Senators

Green S: split US Senate contingent

Blue H: Democratic majority in US House delegation

Red H: Republican majority in US House delegation

Green H: split US House delegation

Tax Foundation

http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html

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Unlike Rush Limboob, Sean Hannity, Anne Coulter, and others of the rightwing commentariat, we started out with an objective table of what states are getting what from the federal government. Furthermore, one can note which states have Republican or Democratic governors, and what the composition of their congressional delegations is. A “hat trick” is a governor, both US Senators, and a majority of House members of the same party.

There are 11 Republican hat trick states and 10 Democratic hat trick states. The lowest GOP hat trick state is at position 35 (Texas). There are no Republican hat trick states in the deficit category, and three are running a balance as far as federal outflow/inflow is concerned. Eight of the 23 states running a surplus are GOP hat trick states… it sure looks like there’s a whole lotta strutting and painted welfare queens out there, and they’re mostly Republican run! You see, seven of the states with split congressional delegations have Republican governors… ergo, 15 of the 23 surplus states are Republican run (compare that with 11 of the 13 states running a fed deficit that are Democratic run). Therefore, one must conclude that the GOP is the party of milking the productive Northeast, Upper Midwest, and Pacific Rim to enrich the Aaron Slicks of Pumkin Crick of this country.

In contrast, only two of the Democratic hat trick states are running a surplus, three are balanced, and five are running a deficit. Let’s put it bluntly, the GOP subsidised the Sun Belt and Old Confederacy from funds taken from the Northeast and Pacific Rim… that’s why those states can offer businesses rewards… their economies are subsidised by the feds. All of the money paid to the federal employees helps to build up their economic base. In short, the Republicans stole from productive states to prop up unviable Sun Belt states (their very physical size and crank hot climate works against them)… they gutted American industry to enrich their fatcat buddies, but there’s no more industry to gut… it’s one of the reasons for the Great Meltdown of ’08. In other words, “nigger welfare queens” and “spic gangsters” aren’t responsible for the mess that our country is in (I’ve heard both terms from more than one Republican… they think that if you’re “white”, you’re one of them).

Who are the culprits? Ronald Reagan, for one. His voodoo-nomics led to one of the greatest income redistributions in American history, the rich now hold a proportion of the national income nearly three times as much as they did in 1980. The whole “born-again” crowd stands in the dock with him. I can’t believe that anyone with a thorough education can take credence in Creationism or read the Left Behind series… they’re certainly not Christian in the classical sense of the word. Most of all, the GOP has appeal for the Affluent Effluent New Class in the sprawl of the ‘burbs. It’s sad, in a way, for most of these people have no education… they have training in one field or another, but as far as a classical liberal education is concerned, they lack one. In any case, there’s nothing more for the GOP Visigoths to suck upon. If they slash federal spending, they cut off the lifeline for GOP-run states, which are nothing but junkies dependent on their federal fix. If there were to be real reductions, spread equally, then, the GOP states would lose their competitive edge… if it weren’t for people moving in from the Northeast and Upper Midwest, they’d be sunk… the public services of the Confederate/Sun Belt states such as education and the social safety net have the lowest standards in the nation.

There it is… there’s much more to learn from the above table… this only scratches the surface. Nevertheless, it exposes the Republican Party as liars and cheats of the first magnitude. Shall people listen? I fear not… not until the consequences of the GOP crack fest come home to haunt them. The Republicans have had thirty years to prove that deregulation “worked”… it has, but can our society take another decade of “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?” That’s the only result of properly operating Reagan voodoo-nomics. Deregulation means that the powerful prey upon the weak whilst a drooling, senescent, and toothless government does nothing. One has to preserve “Freedom of Contract”, after all.

Do read Patrick Buchanan… it’s instructive. He blames most of the ills of present society on the labour unions and government regulation. It’s not related to reality, but that’s what the wingnuts believe! Again… look at the facts. Republican-led states are the biggest suckers on the federal tit and the biggest swine feeding at the federal slop chute.

Makes ya wonder, doesn’t it? Reality IS 180 degrees removed from their rhetoric…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Saturday 5 February 2011

Albany NY

Video. Give Mark Fiore a Hand!

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RIA-Novosti on the Porous US-Mexican Border

Each year, thousands of illegal Mexican migrants flow across the US border. The protective barrier erected on the border between the two countries doesn’t protect the United States from them; they continue to overcome new obstacles in search of a better life. The US-Mexican border spans more than 3,000 kilometres (1,864 miles) of mountains, deserts, and tunnels. Over recent years, protective barriers reinforced some stretches of the border. The authorities built a wall in order to reduce the flow of drug trafficking and illegal migrants into the USA. However, it’s no hindrance for the Mexicans. In search of a better life, they use ladders to negotiate these new obstacles. The border guards admit that they don’t have enough resources to combat illegal migration; the barrier is easy to climb, and officers are unable to cope with large groups of migrants. When patrols call for reinforcements, migrants frequently escape. The sea border between Tijuana and California is even easier to cross; border guards report that it’s common for migrants to swim around the fence to the other side or paddle surfboards loaded with drugs to US territory.

Click on the URL below, it will take you to a 2-minute video in English…

5 February 2011

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/video/20110205/162451697.html

Editor’s Note:

It’s HARDER to cross the US-Canadian border than it is to cross the one with Mexico. The reason is simple… Republican businessmen want poor Mexicans to flood into the USA to depress the labour market, to drive down the pay packets of all working Americans (and increase the profits of already rich fatcats). Interestingly enough, this is boomeranging on the GOP. Greedy business owners, in general, maltreat undocumented labourers, pay them niggardly wages, ignore existing labour laws, and expose them to dangerous working conditions. When the migrant becomes a citizen (which happens more often than not), he remembers this nasty and foul treatment. Ergo, the new citizen refuses to vote for Republicans, as they supported his maltreatment. Most of the growth in the US population has been in an increase in the Mexican minority. That’s why the present Tea Party is so desperate. They fear the day when all the Mexicans in the US vote… the GOP will be a permanent “minority party”… if it doesn’t go the way of the Whigs!

I’m putting together two posts, one is how GOP-run states suck the hardest on the federal tit, the two states with the highest return from DC both have GOP governors, New Mexico (2.03 for every dollar sent to Washington) and Mississippi (2.02 for every dollar). It gives a new spin to GOP screams about “shrinking government” and “rugged individualism”, no? I shall entitle the second, Arizona: The BasKKKet case of the USA. Joe Arpaio is from Arizona, need I say any more?

Today, it’s important for all Americans to stand up and oppose the objectively evil nihilistic agenda of the Republican Party with everything that they have. It’s why I’ve written on it extensively. It’s nothing but an ideology of crass and unbridled consumerism… this crank notion is CONDEMNED by all major Christian leaders, including His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and Benedict the Pope of Rome (don’t trot out such Sectarian scummers as Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham, and the First Profit of the Mormons as “Christian leaders”… they’re not).

You CANNOT serve both God and Mammon (the “Free” Market)…

BMD

RIA-Novosti Infographics. Nine Hundred Terrible Days in the Life of Leningrad

27 January 2011

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20110127/162330422.html

RIA-Novosti Infographics. Unrest in Arab Countries

3 February 2011

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20110203/162432536.html

Europe Without Ambitions

The recent upheavals in North Africa clearly exposed that the EU lost its standing as a major international political player. This is obviously no surprise, as Europe, despite all its claims to be a global power, has been too busy fighting its internal problems in the past decade. Climate change was the last global project where Europe attempted to play a key role, but it quickly lost the lead to the United States and the large emerging economies. Today, no one expects Europe to have a serious influence on global affairs. However, North Africa is not an abstract international project, but it’s a direct neighbour to the EU, to which it has connections via historical, cultural, economic, energy, political, and human ties.

France, which has always set the political tune in the EU, still believes itself to be North Africa’s patron, especially the Francophone countries [of Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco]. For Britain, the Middle East and North Africa bring back recent memories of its imperial might and it retains interest in the region. It’s no coincidence that former Prime Minister Tony Blair worked his knuckles to the bone to become the special envoy of the Madrid Quartet to the Middle East. The situation in the region also worries Spain, which is located only a few miles from Morocco, as well as Portugal, Italy, and Greece, where immigrants from the neighbouring southern countries are flocking. In fact, there are large Middle Eastern and North African communities in the majority of West European countries, whilst EU members Malta and Cyprus are de facto inside the Middle East region.

This is why the EU has been trying to strengthen its influence in the Mediterranean and North Africa. As integration increased in the 1990s, highlighting the need for a common foreign policy, the EU started focusing on projects involving adjacent countries, such as Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (or Barcelona Process), New Neighbourhood, and Greater Europe. Lastly, it proposed the European Neighbourhood Policy, which included vastly different countries, from Morocco and Mauritania, to Moldova and Georgia. It soon became clear, however, that uniting such different countries is a bad idea, so Europe proposed an Eastern Partnership for the post-Soviet republics and the Union for the Mediterranean. French President Nicolas Sarkozy fiercely advocated the latter idea in the hope that it would strengthen his country’s leading positions in the region and in the EU as a whole. He also expected Germany to finance the project, until Chancellor Angela Merkel cut his appetite down to size. Anyway, although one could question the EU’s effectiveness in other parts of the world, it thought it had no rivals along its perimeter. However, Jordan’s Ahmad Khalaf Masa’deh, the first Secretary General of the Union of the Mediterranean, resigned a week ago. He made no high-profile statements, but few doubt that he was disappointed with the inefficiency of the union that was established to promote “stability and prosperity” in the region.

While tensions were growing in Tunisia and Egypt in the past few weeks, EU leaders and the heads of its major countries did nothing to formulate a clear-cut stand. It turned out that they didn’t expect these events to occur, and didn’t wake up to reality even when the world started speaking about the “Tunisian spark” and “Tunisia’s domino effect”. Europe had no emergency plan for such a situation, and proposals to send a crisis mission to Tunisia or Egypt were deadlocked by inability to determine the mission’s format, mandate, level, and other technical details. Statements by European politicians, including EU Foreign Minister Lady Ashton, didn’t influence events in any way, because it’s clear to everyone that the EU has neither a common stand nor an understanding of its interests or the most desirable outcomes. The current chaos is only the beginning of imminent significant problems due to the region’s “rezoning”. Any great power that wants to retain its influence must quickly draft new strategies. No matter who replaces the departing older politicians, Europe’s leading countries will have to develop relations with the new leaders of their strategic neighbours, that is, nearly all the countries of the region. At the same time, new players, primarily Iran and Turkey, will strengthen their involvement.

The events taking place to the immediate south of Europe are highly important for the major EU countries, primarily France, Spain, Italy, and Britain, which have close demographic and energy ties with the region. However, the EU is unlikely to form a coordinated policy, which means that its member countries will have to uphold their interests single-handed. A recent example of such behaviour is the US decision to “forgive” Libya several years ago, after which, the major EU countries hurried to shake hands with Colonel Gaddafi, whom they had previously avoided. This will further undermine the foundations of the EU’s political unity. Standing alone, no EU country is as strong as the United States or China. As for using the traditional EU tool… economic aid… its possibilities are also limited, because economic problems have depleted the Eurozone’s cache of disposable funds.

Luckily, the EU can demonstrate its unity by standing up against the hated Belarusian dictatorship. Nevertheless, unlike the United States, which approved economic sanctions against Belarus, the EU has so far limited itself to strong rhetoric and symbolic gestures. This is understandable, as curtailing relations with Belarus could damage European interests. Moreover, ultimately, interests are more important than principles.

3 February 2011

Fyodor Lukyanov

Editor-in-Chief, Russia in Foreign Affairs

An Uncertain World

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/columnists/20110203/162433864.html