What is one to make of this critique? First, it should not be at all surprising. Black America is ideologically diverse, just like other communities. Moreover, as I document in “Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal,” there exists in black America a special anxiety about the loyalties of high achievers, especially when their…
Author: TRP
Canada to Rogers Cable: we want fix for game throttling by next week
Canada’s telecommunications regulator appears none too pleased with Rogers Communications explanation for the throttling of game streams over its cable ISP network. The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission wants the company to crank out out a plan for fixing the problem—and by Tuesday, September 27. Bottom line: Rogers must come up with a scheme…
White House Senior Advisor Talks Debt : NPR[audio,10min]
Valerie Jarrett discusses the viability of President Obama’s new debt plan, including cuts to entitlement spending and proposed tax increases to Americans who make more than $1 million. She speaks with host Michel Martin. via White House Senior Advisor Talks Debt : NPR.
Paul Ryan, Herman Cain Push For Tax Increases On Middle Class
Ryan, while backing a payroll tax hike, nevertheless said that tax hikes cannot be part of the deficit-cutting proposal that the super committee comes up with. As part of his explanation, Ryan made it clear that he sees no difference between raising taxes proactively and allowing tax breaks to expire. “You already have…
Andy Ostroy: You Bet It’s Class Warfare
Its called the “Millionaire’s Tax”, and it’s pure genius. Finally, President Obama and Democrats have caught on to the power and importance of branding. My God, it’s almost Rovian in its sheer simplicity and potential impact. The tax is a brilliant scheme by the president to achieve his goal of taxing the rich and creating…
Copyright Troll Righthaven Says It’s Nearing Bankruptcy
The Las Vegas copyright-trolling firm Righthaven told a Nevada federal judge Friday it might file for bankruptcy protection, or cease operations altogether. To prevent that, Righthaven is asking U.S. District Judge Philip Pro to stay his decision requiring Righthaven pay $34,000 in legal fees to an online commenter it wrongly sued for infringement. Judge Pro…
The ‘Violent Muslim’ Hysteria Goes Much Deeper Than You’d Believe
I kinda yawed a little when I read Spencer Ackerman’s scoop on the FBI’s bigoted, brain-dead Islam training. You think this is bad? As a soldier and former first responder, I’ve been sitting through this dreck for the better part of a decade. It’s just part of the noise in the system that…
DNC Pushes Obama Jobs Plan in Video Ads
The Democratic National Committee is pushing Barack Obamas jobs plan with eye-catching online video ads, as the Obama campaign targets marriage equality voters on Facebook. Both efforts display the reelection campaigns use of issue-themed ads online to build their supporter lists.Expandable ads spotted on LATimes.com yesterday from the DNC lead to a website…
Affordable Care Act is already working, Part III
Most of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act don’t kick in for a few years, but in the meantime, we’re already seeing indications that the law is working as intended. We talked yesterday about the fact that the number of young adults — those between the ages of 19 and 25 — with health…
Michigan House Moves to Ban Domestic Partnership Benefits
Domestic partners of Michigan state employees were supposed to start getting state benefits on October 1, but the Republican-controlled state House is having none of that: The bills, HB 4770 and 4771, prohibit any government entity in the state – including universities and city governments – from providing such benefits and prohibit unions from including them in collective bargaining…
House GOP Rejects Tax Cuts For Middle Class
House Republicans rejected President Obama’s week-old jobs plan, including about $240 billion in payroll tax cuts. In a memo to their caucus, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), and other leaders dismissed the bill’s largest spending and tax cutting portions, leaving little of the bill intact. via House GOP Rejects…
White House brewing its own beer
Mr. Obama and the war hero hung out together on the patio outside the Oval Office. Wondering what brand they were drinking? Are you ready? It was — the White House’s own brew, made with equipment the Obamas bought with their own money — the first beer ever made at the White House, according to…
Wind Power Without the Blades: Big Pics
Noise from wind turbine blades, inadvertent bat and bird kills and even the way wind turbines look have made installing them anything but a breeze. New York design firm Atelier DNA has an alternative concept that ditches blades in favor of stalks. Resembling thin cattails, the Windstalks generate electricity when the wind sets…
Strict eavesdropping law ruled unconstitutional in Illinois case
An Illinois judge ruled the state’s eavesdropping law unconstitutional as applied to a man who faced up to to 75 years in prison for secretly recording his encounters with police officers and a judge.Share: · Facebook· LinkedIn· EmailPrintLink“A statute intended to prevent unwarranted intrusions into a citizen’s privacy cannot be used as a shield for…
N.Y. Worker Accuses State of Illegal GPS Spying
A New York state worker has accused government officials of violating the state constitution after they installed a GPS tracker on his private car and recorded its whereabouts for a month. The state Department of Labor placed the device secretly on the worker’s car without a warrant and tracked the vehicle 24 hours a…
Study: Privatizing government doesn’t actually save money
The theory that the federal government should outsource its operations to private firms usually rests on a simple premise: It saves money. But why should we believe it saves money? Often the argument is made by pointing to salaries for public- and private-sector employees in comparable jobs and noting that the private-sector employees make less….
Why Americans stopped relocating, in one graph
Migration from state to state increased sharply in the wake of World War II. It continued to creep up through the 1960s and 1970s, too. But moving started slowing down in the 1980s — and never stopped. “By most measures, internal migration in the United States is at a 30-year low,” the NBER authors Raven…
Obama signs patent reform bill
President Barack Obama signed legislation Friday that will overhaul the U.S. patent system for the first time since 1952. “We have to do everything we can to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit wherever we find it,” Obama said at a signing ceremony at a high school in Arlington, Virginia. This measure “cuts away the red tape…
Obama Reaches Out To Nervous Dems, Puts 2012 Into Perspective
Speaking to small audience of Democrats Thursday night, Obama acknowledged the jitters on his side, and jokingly reminded his audience of just how improbable their conversation was in the first place. “Now, I know that, over the last couple of months, there have been Democrats who voiced concerns and nervousness about, well, in…
Perry Brags About Texas’ Tax System That Charges The Poor Four Times As Much As The Rich
As Matt Yglesias has noted, in reality Perry’s tax system “has done a great job of soaking the poor.” In fact, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, someone in the poorest 20 percent of Texans can expect to face a tax rate four times as high as a Texan in…