Month: July 2012

Nearly Half of All Bottled Water Comes from a Municipal Tap

Buck Banks

40%

Of all bottled water comes from a city water system (tap water), according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. According to Food and Water Watch, bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. That plastic requires up to 47 million gallons of oil per year to produce. While some bottles do get recycled, over 80% of plastic bottles are simply thrown away.

NYT: California Republican Party ‘Caught in Cycle of Decline’

Jon Ponder

The slow-mo death spiral of the California Republican Party may have accelerated last week with the release of three separate economic reports. First, a new jobs report found that 38,300 net new jobs were added in California in June, with gains in most industries, including construction and professional services. Next, a report from Zillow indicated that house prices nationwide appear to have bottomed out and have risen slightly over the past four months, while another report found that the number of California homes entering foreclosure was down to 2007 levels. And finally, an assessment of commercial real-estate trends suggests that the office market appears to be bouncing back in Southern California.

Analysts predict the California Republican Party could drop to No. 3 in six years, behind Democrats, who currently make up 43 percent, and independent voters, with 21 percent.

This is all worrisome news for state GOP leaders who have pinned their strategy for turning around their party’s woes on hopes that the state will continue to suffer under a stagnant economy. Unfortunately for California Republicans, they do not have enough seats in the Legislature to deliberately obstruct economic recovery in the state as their counterparts in Washington have done to the national economy.

Making all that just a wee bit worse, just what the California GOP didn’t need — publicity. The national media — in this case, the New York Times’ Adam Nagourney — has noticed that the state party is withering on the vine:

[…]

Romney to Olympic Athletes in 2002: ‘You Didn’t Get Here Solely on Your Own Power’

Jon Ponder

You Olympians, however, know you didn’t get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. We’ve already cheered the Olympians, let’s also cheer the parents, coaches, and communities. All right! [pumps fist].

— Mitt Romney in 2002, several shakes of the Etch-A-Sketch ago.

I Pay $20 Per Month for Satellite Radio. So What’s the Problem?

Trish

I have 300 stations on my satellite radio.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), explaining on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show why there is no need for NPR to get public funding. About 5.5% of Americans subscribe to satellite radio at a cost of from $10 to $20 per month, according to recent Nielsen figures. NPR supporters acknowledge that most rural areas of the country would not have access to the news and information currently available on public radio without government support.

That Didn’t Take Long: Star of Romney “Built It With My Hands” Ad Exposed for Getting Government Loans and Contracts

Trish

The truth is, no matter who Mitt Romney had used for his spliced and diced ad misquoting Pres. Obama and claiming that there is such a thing as making it totally on your own in America would have been shown to be…let’s call it “inaccurate,” since that’s a much nicer word than what it really is.

But quicker than you can strap a dog crate to a car roof, The New Hampshire Union Leader got the goods on Jack Gilchrist of Gilchrist Metal.

In 1999, Gilchrist Metal received $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds issued by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority “to set up a second manufacturing plant and purchase equipment to produce high definition television broadcasting equipment,” according to a New Hampshire Union Leader report at the time…

He also said his company received a U.S. Small Business Administration loan totaling “somewhere south of” $500,000 in the late 1980s.

He said his business has also received matching funds from the New England Trade Adjustment Assistance Center (NETAAC), which is federally-funded.

Gilchrist said about 10 percent of his company’s contracts are defense-related.

[…]

Skin in the Game: When It Comes to Taxes, Mitt Romney Doesn’t Have Much

Trish

TaxRates

Aside from showing how badly poor ol’ Joe Biden is getting the shaft (not to mention you and me), I love this chart, provided by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, for graphically depicting the ginormous size of Mitt Romney’s income. I mean, seriously?

TPC goes on to explain that Obama’s 23.4% tax rate is based on the fact that only $394,821 of his income is from wages. Most of the rest of it ($441,369) was royalties from book sales. Why such income is taxed at a lower rate than wages, you’ll have to ask Republicans.

Speaking of which, most of Mitt’s “reported” $21 million is taxed at the much lower capital gains rate, so he is in the 15.4% range, while you and I are (hopefully) in the 16.7% bracket.

Joe, poor working stiff, gets most of his income from wages for being vice president, so he’s paying out the ying-yang at 30.5%, or about twice as high as Mitt. But knowing Biden, he probably doesn’t even mind.

It’s amazing to realize that the way Republicans have rigged the system, Mitt Romney is paying a smaller percentage in taxes than Pres. Obama, Vice Pres. Biden, or the average two-income family of four barely clinging to the middle class.

So who’s really got skin in the game?

One Cannot ‘Politicize’ Tragedy

Buck Banks

There is no such thing as ‘politicizing’ tragedy. James Holmes did not materialize in a movie theater in Aurora this morning, free of any relationship to law and authority and the structures of power in this country; nor did he exit those relationships and structures by murdering 12 people and injuring several dozen more. Before he entered the theater, he purchased guns, whether legally or illegally, under a framework of laws and regulations governed and negotiated by politics; in the parking lot outside, he was arrested by a police force whose salaries, equipment, tactics and rights were shaped and determined by politics. Holmes’ ability to seek, or to not seek, mental health care; the government’s ability, or inability, to lock up persons deemed unstable — these are things decided and directed by politics. You cannot ‘politicize’ a tragedy because the tragedy is already political. When you talk about the tragedy you’re already talking about politics.

— Max Read, writing for Gawker.

Obama In Better Shape Than Bush I or Carter

Buck Banks

46.8%

President Obama’s average job approval during his 14th quarter in office, according to Gallup. “The recent and continuing improvement in his approval rating, though, is a positive sign for his re-election prospects, but it remains below the 50% level that virtually assures a president of a second term in office. Obama appears in much better shape now than the two recently elected presidents who were denied a second term — Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush — both of whom averaged below 40% approval their 14th quarters in office.”