This Could Go Either Way

I believe there has been only one occasion have I felt motivated to comment on a movie commercial. I take great pride in my calling out of how awful that stupid Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston movie was last winter. Now the resident Furriners buzzkill (Elijah Moon) will probably point out that EVERYBODY could see that was going to suck. Well, I have two points to make.

1. That movie, according to IMDB, grossed over $100m. So, clearly, not everyone knew it was going to suck!

and

2. Okay, Mr. Smartypants, did EVERYONE know that Derek Anderson was going to make the Pro Bowl when he was drafted in the 6th round?!?! I called that. (Now go get your shine box!)

But I digress. Last night was the first time I saw a commercial for a movie called Young Adult. From what I can tell, a woman played by Charlize Theron returns to her podunk hometown wanting to see how her old flame (played by Patrick Wilson) has turned out. When it turns out that he is now married with children, she goes to a bar and runs into an old classmate (played by Patton Oswalt) whom she apparently never would've acknowledged 20 years ago. It looks like they spend time together and they 'click'.


Okay. This is where I am concerned about the plausibility of where they are taking us with this plot. I sure hope they are not going to expect us to follow them to the Hollywood-ending of Charlize Theron learns a life lesson that true love/happiness can be found where you least expect it (in the arms of fucking Patton Oswalt!). YAWN!! We've seen that movie a million fucking times, Hollywood!! And it never gets more believable! If you wanted us to believe that, you should have cast Hillary Swank! Charlize Theron is much too gorgeous to sell that turd.

Now, all that said, this movie is written by Diablo Cody (Juno) and directed by Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Thank You For Smoking), so maybe it will surprise. This is not a guaranteed stinker - it's not like it's starring Cameron Diaz and David Arquette!

Take that, Elijah Moon! How many other people could see that this movie might really suck and might actually be good?!?

The Right solutions for public education

I have done a lot of research on eduction and I have yet to come across a study that finds that cutting teachers pay and lowering revenue for the schools boosts test schools or enhances learning, yet money seems to be the main focus right now of our elected officials regarding education.

In my town of Saline, the people just elected a gentleman named David Holden who, when you get to the brass tacks of his policy, wants to lower teachers compensation because he believes in the well debunked fallacy that teachers are paid too much. Here is a guy who has seen his property tax rates falls for three years straight and works for a company that just gave out a $1.171 million bonus to it's top official. His personal wealth is on the rise and his contributions to the schools are down and his idea of shared sacrifice is that the teachers must sacrifice wages so he can keep his taxes low. I assume it is coincidence that school spending needs to be addressed just as the last of his kids graduates.

Since when did we put money ahead of education? Families and students go into significant debt to pay for a college education. I'm guessing that is because they think a good education is valuable. By all accounts the early years of education are the most important years of a child's development. Yet we are making the biggest cuts in the area with the greatest potential return. If you believe in running government like a business then picking your area of best ROI for cuts is the exact opposite of a good business model. Studies show that cutting money for education hurts the economy and leads to lower earning potential for our children.

Outside of money one of the only "solutions" Republicans are offering is to fire bad teachers. But the reality is that there is no bad teacher epidemic. This is political rhetoric aimed at turning the uninformed against tenure. The statistic Republicans always use when talking about tenure is the number of teachers fired in the New York school systems in 2008. The problem is, that by it self, this statistic proves nothing. Perhaps there are so few teachers fired because the vast majority are good at their job. After all only 1.5% of teachers in the New York school system in 2008 received an unsatisfactory review.

Rather than immediately grabbing our pitch forks and burning all of the "unsatisfactory" teachers at the stake with a "bad teacher" label, wouldn't it first be prudent to understand why a teacher receives such a rating and determine if extra training could improve the areas where these teachers performance is unsatisfactory? Should the knee jerk reaction of "fire the bums" be our first response? After all, replacing teachers already costs the US $2.2 billion a year and teachers are least effective in their first year meaning hiring new teachers lowers the level of education student receive until the new teacher becomes experienced.

This of course assumes that we even have enough qualified candidates to fill all of the openings created by firing these hypothetical bad teachers. Reports indicate that there is actually a shortage of qualified candidates not an abundance.

Additionally, a study about effective teachers found that the traits of an effective teacher become apparent by year two. Most teachers don't get a chance for tenure until year three or four. Perhaps the real problem hear is the evaluation process or the administrators who grant tenure. Also 46% of new teachers leave the profession within five years. Perhaps only the good teachers who are passionate about education survive past the first five years.

Another study by the National Council on Teacher Quality found that one of the biggest problems for education is a lack of good student teaching. Being a good teacher doesn't necessarily mean you are qualified to convey to a student teacher everything that goes into being a successful teacher. If that were to case Michael Jordan would be the best coach the NBA has ever seen.

Perhaps we shouldn't focus solely on firing bad teachers but instead work on creating more good teachers. Placing student teachers with educators who have been trained or demonstrate a skill in training student teachers on the finer points of being a good teacher may be a much better and cheaper use of our resources.

To make matters worse many of the "solutions" Republicans are currently offering to improve our schools are also the exact same things that are driving quality teachers away from the profession. These include the threat of layoffs, low wages, testing pressures, and poor work conditions.

The real problem with education is not the unions, tenure or teachers but the arrogance and ignorance of our elected officials who think that teaching is easy and the solutions are obvious.

If we really want to improve public education we first have to educate our elected officials so they can stop making decisions based on what they believe to be true and start making decisions based on what the data tells us is true.

Jon Stewart: Meet Chris Hayes

There was an interesting yet rather frustrating appearance on The Daily Show on Wednesday night by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (or "Princess Nancy" as she is known by Herman Cain).

It was an appearance where Jon Stewart - who many on the right feel is a hyper-partisan liberal - kind of took Mrs. Pelosi to task for some of the failures of the legislative process and the Democratic Party's role in such failures.

Here a couple questions/comments from Mr. Stewart:

JS: At every turn, what I hear from you is "well, Republicans would have filibustered" or "the Republicans didn't want to do that". As far as I can tell, the Republicans had a much smaller majority than the Democrats had over the those two years and they got to do whatever the hell they wanted!

&

JS: ...while the Republicans might've filibustered, why not make them filibuster?

I have a couple comments about this before turning over the floor to Chris Hayes.

With regards to the first issue. Jon Stewart is informed enough to realize that the Democrats do not have the same caucus discipline as do the Republicans. That is almost inevitable given the "larger tent" that the Democrats have. Some of George W. Bush's most infamous legislative "victories" were aided and abetted by Democrats. Medicare Part D, for example, got plenty of votes from conservative Democrats (including Max Baucus, Mary Landrieu, and Ben Nelson). Ben Nelson also is credited as the deciding vote to enable the passage of the 2003 Bush Tax Cuts. Contrarily, President Obama and congressional Democrats do not have such Republicans to work with.

True, on some high profile issues - the repeal of DADT, for example, they may receive the votes of the the New England Three (Snowe, Collins, Scott Brown) and/or some other random vote - but sometimes they even lose their own members on procedural votes! Last month, Jon Tester and Ben Nelson (grrr!) voted against cloture on President Obama's American Jobs Act. So, yeah, it was filibustered. Does that make Jon Stewart feel better? Did it make any difference whatsover?

It is a bad position for President Obama to be in when you got some liberal observers like a Jon Stewart criticizing the Democrats for not being able to pass legilation over a unified GOP caucus in the Senate. (IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, JON!) Then, when there is a compromise - which have consistently, in the view of the Furriners blog, been more concessions on the part of Democrats - the President gets berated. All the while, the conservative media have fostered a perception of Chicago-style thuggery on the part of the Obama Administration. (Michele Bachmann infamously refers to it as a "Gangster Government").

So I had all these disparate thoughts while watching the show on Wednesday night. Then, as it happens, Chris Hayes was a guest on The Rachel Maddow Show yesterday and he more succinctly summarized the current situation - in a way that I think Jon Stewart could learn from. He says:

(In the senate), things can either pass 94-1... or they can get blocked. It's those two options. There's nothing in the middle. There's nothing in his current political terrain that can pass by a five vote margin, or a six vote margin, or a two vote margin because the habitual use of the filibuster and the political commitment on the part of the minority caucus in the senate to politically destroy the president in the run-up to the election is so strong it means going after everything the president has his name attached to.

Ding-ding-ding! Correct! Think for example of PAY-GO. This was an idea with several Republican sponsors. Then President Obama voiced his support for the idea and every Republican rescinded his or her support. And yet Jon Stewart's confused as to why the Democrats haven't been able to follow through on their entire legislative agenda?

Come on, Jon!

(Now go home and get your shine box!)

It's Not Going To Happen!

This is another that is essentially Just For Me - at least amongst those of us in the Furriners offices.

There is a moment in the cinematic classic Mean Girls (yeah, I said it!) where the leader of "The Plastics" played by Rachel McAdams chastizes one of her friends (played by Lacey Chabert) who is trying to introduce a particular slang word into their vocabulary.

Chabert: That is so fetch!

McAdams: Gretchen, stop trying to make "fetch" happen! It's NOT going to happen!

I've thought of that recently watching Hardball where Chris Matthews is plugging his own book on his own show everyday. It's a book about JFK and Mr. Matthews clearly worships JFK and calls him a "true hero".

I just think Whatever, Chris! It's NOT going to happen! I'm not buying your g-d book and I wish you'd quit plugging it on your show. If you want to plug your book, please do a proper book tour like Herman Cain. Maybe you'll run into him on the circuit because Mr. Cain seems to be doing every show that will have him. Who know he was so permiscuous? That doesn't seem like him at all.

Herman Cain

After the fourth claim of sexual harassment Herman Cain says that the Democrat machine is out to get him.

I personally don't care about the extra circulars that our elected officials get themselves involved in. That goes for Bill Clinton, Chris Lee, Mark Sanford, Anthony Wiener and Herman Cain. I just don't think that these indiscretions have much correlation to the personals ability to govern. Should they be held to a higher standard? Sure, but in this political climate that is never done without the partisan beer goggles on.

I do, however, find Cain's claim that the Democrat machine is out to get him laughable. This guy may be the least electable candidate the Republicans have trotted out so far. I'm not sure I could pick an easier opponent for Obama. To think that Democrats want to bring down a guy who has arguably the worst formulated tax plan in the history of this country is beyond ridiculous.

Herman. If your listening. We are not laughing with you. We are laughing at you and the Republican party that currently has you leading the polls.

Cain 2012!

Second Amendment? YES! Fifth Amendment? Meh.

I caught a few minutes of Fox News coverage on the elections last night. They were surprisingly rational about what happened - they acknowledged the "overreach" of Gov. Kasich in Ohio and that Republicans would be wise to heed the will of the electorate as it was being expressed in Ohio and in other states.

One comment that I did take note of was by some d-bag named Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard (a conservative rag). He mentioned some ballot initiative in Mississippi that restricted eminent domain. I had not heard of the initiative and have no opinion on it. All I wish to point out was his rationale for the lopsided vote was that Mississippi voters were indicating "that private property rights were important and need to be protected". I think that is reasonable observation. HOWEVER, let us not forget that it is the right-wing of the Republican Party who like to pull out their pocket Constitutions and hold them up like they're traffic cops. I just want to make sure they know that the U.S. Constitution grants the federal government the power of eminent domain as long as there is "just compensation". Moreover, Wikipedia research indicates that power was extended to the states with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Does that make the Mississippi law unconstitutional? Good question, furriners! How the heck should I know? I'm not a constitutional lawyer. I'm barely even a blogger.

Stop It, MSNBC!! You're Blowing My Mind!!

File this post under Just For Me.

Here is my pet peeve. The 3:00pm hour of MSNBC programming is held down by Martin Bashir. He is a British citizen of Indian heritage. I don't honestly know where they got this guy from - but my initial impression was that he was a serious journalist.

It seems now it was just the accent that was giving him a somewhat distinguished air - because what, over the past year, has Martin Bashir been most visible for? Well, he was all over the Royal Wedding. Seriously! And I could not have cared less about that. Now, this week, Martin Bashir is MSNBC's go-to guy on the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. More tabloid rubbish if you ask me.

MSBNC might as well bring out Tom Brokaw to talk about Kim Kardashian's divorce! It's that jarring. So stop it, MSNBC. If you're going to have a host doing tabloid fluff, you'd might as well go the FoxNews route and have it done by eye-candy like Megyn Kelly. (I might remind you that do have Contessa Brewer "in the fold" - as Mel Kiper, Jr. would say).

(CORRECTION: Contessa Brewer left MSNBC! Who knew?)

Government spending

In response to one of my recent posts a commenter (kayez) took issue with my statement that President cut government spending saying "I'm still trying to get my head around the statement that Obama has cut federal spending... that's just unreal" and "If someone blows trillions of dollars and then cuts a billion in spending, to me it's being disingenuous to describe that person on a macro level as having cut federal spending."

First, it should be noted that while the president submits a budget, Congress is in charge of putting together the appropriation bills which will become the final budget. In my previous post I linked to an article about one of President Obama's proposed cuts in Federal spending not cuts enacted by Congress. Having said that there are areas of the budget where cuts have already been made under Obama and his record on spending compares favorably to his predecessors.

The 2009 budget, put in place by President Bush, is only $237 billion less than Obama's 2012 budget. An additional $108 billion of the 2009 budget can be attributed to President Obama due to the stimulus package for a total of $345 billion in additional spending from the last Bush budget to the 2012 Obama budget. After adjusting for inflation the increase (including the 2009 stimulus spending) is only $128 billion from the last Bush budget to the 2012 Obama budget.

$156 billion ($130 adjusted) of the increase from 2009 to 2012 is interest on debt we owe. It is difficult to consider the interest we pay on our national debt as increased spending by President Obama especially given the fact that our 2011 federal revenue is below that of the 2000 revenue. Another $143 billion ($123 adjusted) in increases is due to increased spending on Defense, Medicare, Social Security. All of which the President has proposed cuts to.

If Congress were to keep Social Security and Medicare spending rates at their 2010 levels, President Obama will have decreased the budget by 1.5% per year over four years. Additionally under President Obama non-defense discretionary spending falls by a rate of 4.4% per year or a total of $239 billion.

The reality is that as President, Obama has presided over the smallest increase in Federal budget in a term since the end of World War 2, and the largest cut to discretionary spending over the past 40 years, while also proposing further cuts. Blaming him for Congress' failure to act on these proposals because Republicans have decided that their goal is to make Obama a one term president is not proof that he is some sort of big spending liberal.

Republicans Do Not Understand The Free Market

Or, at least, some of them apparently do not.

I was watching The Daily Show yesterday and they did a segment on "Moneyed-Americans" backlash (or, at least, the conservative media who protects them) over the Occupy Wall Street Movement. In the segment, a gentleman named Peter Schiff (identified as CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, Inc.) was shown lecturing a protestor saying:

If you raise my taxes, maybe I'll just decide to sell my business and fire 150 people.

Or Bill O'Reilly who said:

If Barack Obama begins taxing me at more than 50% - which is very possible - I don't know how much longer I'm going to do this.

By the way, that is, of course, not at all possible. For one, the President does not set tax policy; that is done by Congress. Secondly, President Obama has not proposed anything close to 50%; he has merely suggested we go back to the tax rates of President Bill Clinton (with the top tax rate being 39.6%).

Regardless, for the sake of this post, we will take these gentlemen at their word.

So what happens if Bill O'Reilly quits? FoxNews will not go dark at 8pm - no matter how much many of us would like it to; some other right-wing jack-hole will fill that time slot; staff will be hired and the effect on net jobs would be negligible. Mr. O'Reilly would fade into TV history like those before him and those that will follow. History stops for no one. Not even Tim Tebow.

As for Mr. Schiff, consider first his statement that if he might "sell his business and fire 150 people". You don't have to have an MBA to realize that if he sells his business, it will no longer be his decision as to who is fired and who is retained. (By the way, if Mitt Romney were to buy it, everybody is fired!) If he does not sell, but rather just decides to "take his ball and go home" (i.e. just close the business because taxes increased by ~4%) - as far-fetched as that is - the free market would fill that void; his market share would be taken by some other business (with people employed to take on that business).

So next time your conservative uncle or father or father-in-law warns you about progressive tax policy vis-a-vis job creation. You just tell him that he should have a little faith in the free market!

Exxon Mobil's pity party

In late October a website called exxonmobilperspectives.com put together an article titled: "10 little known – or often ignored – facts about gas prices and ExxonMobil’s earnings".

I have some concerns that this site might be biased towards big oil and in particular Exxon Mobil but assuming that simply because the article is paid for an written by a the company that it defends doesn't mean the information it contains is inaccurate.

There are 5 "facts" out of the 10 that while probably factually accurate are a bit misleading.

Often ignored fact: ExxonMobil makes pennies per gallon on gasoline, diesel and petroleum products it refines and sells in the United States

According to this source Exxon Mobil only makes $0.07 to $0.08 of profit per gallon of gasoline sold. The thing they don't tell you is that there are 42 gallons of oil per barrel and Exxon Mobil, as the article points out, refines 5 million barrels a day. This means their profit is $14.7 million dollars per day on their oil refining alone. Just because using one unit of measure makes the profit seem small doesn't mean it really is. Imagine if Target said "sure we make $5 per shirt we sell but we only make $0.01 per stitch on the average shirt". How can they make any money at only $0.01 per stitch?

Little known fact: The oil and gas industry’s overall earnings per dollar of sales are significantly less than many other industries.

In the explanation of this issue the author reports that the oil industry only makes $0.095 per dollar spent which is well below the numbers by some other industries. It also happens to be twice as much as industries like iron, steel, food and paper and still significantly higher than industries like furniture, plastics, rubber , and motor vehicles. I'm not sure that the profit margin for the product that makes the motor vehicles go should be higher than the margin for the motor vehicle it self. Usually the commodities profit margin is less then that of finished goods.

Little known fact: ExxonMobil regularly invests more on energy projects in the U.S. than it earns in the U.S.

The author states this fact like Exxon Mobil's investments are not done for the benefit of the company but for America. After all if Exxon Mobil didn't stand up for the little guys with exploration for new oil sources, who would?

Often ignored fact: ExxonMobil’s U.S. tax bill is often greater than its U.S. operating earnings.

To make this little factoid work Exxon Mobil includes Federal and State gas taxes which consumers pay not Exxon Mobil. They also include payroll taxes that they pay for their employees. It is disingenuous to suggest they have a high tax burden and then include taxes that are paid for by other sources through Exxon Mobil.

Often ignored fact: The people who benefit from “Big Oil’s” earnings are hardworking Americans, from teachers to police officers to public sector workers.

Considering the fact that nearly 82% of all stocks, bonds and mutual funds are owned by the top 10%, I think it is a stretch to suggest some significant portion of Exxon Mobil's stocks are held by people in that other 90%.

I would actually respect Exxon Mobil more if they just said "this is our business model and it is successful", because unlike the rhetoric would have you believe, I and most liberals I know, don't want to "bring down" Exxon Mobil or eliminate their profit.

I do however take issue with the $85 million they spend on lobbyists over the last four years to alter legislation in their favor. I dislike that the CEO makes 247 times that of the average Exxon Mobil employee. I resent the $3 billion in subsidies given to the Oil industry from the Federal government. I wish they weren't on CNN list of companies exporting American jobs. These are all things that have an effect on me as a tax paying gasoline consumer and they make up some of the little known facts that known facts that Exxon Mobil won't be posting about anytime soon.

The Right way to create jobs

Job creation is a main talking point for politicians today. Republican's such as Mitt Romney suggest that President Obama's economic policies have hurt the economy. What I find interesting about this is how many of "Obama's" policies are just what Republicans including those running for the Republican nomination have proposed.

Cut taxes to historic lows - Check.
Get money into the hands of "job creators" (aka the rich) - Done.
Cut "job killing" Regulations - Nailed it.
Increase domestic oil production - Mission Accomplished
Cut government spending - Bull's-eye.
Provide an environment for companies to make money - Complete.

The results from the implementation of these ideas enacted under President Obama? Unemployment February 2009 - 8.2%. Unemployment August 2011 - 9.1%. So Obama's economic policies have been a failure for job creation. They also happen to be the same policies that Republican candidates for President and Republican legislators suggest are the solution to our problems. If only we had got the Democrat we had voted for.

Common Sense Accountability?

Common Sense Accountability. That is the slogan for David Holden and David Zimmer as they run for the Saline School Board. After reading a number of articles about their views of Holden and Zimmer I fail to understand how their slogan fits with their rhetoric.

Just what are the common sense solutions they have presented? In a Saline Reporter article they suggest they want to address structural deficits, keep class sizes low, keep out of pocket health care costs for teachers at a minimum, and have the school district eliminate fees for parking, athletics, and activities.

My common sense thinks this agenda costs a lot of money to achieve. What is absent from their comments is how they plan to cover the costs of their goals. The cost cutting measures they do mention are the teacher's Health Care Coverage and the upcoming union contract.

What they fail the talk about is the union offer to cut health care costs, saving the district $1,000,000. A proposal that was soundly rejected. They are happy to point out where Saline teachers pay ranks yet never discuss that Scott Graden is the 3rd highest paid Superintendent in county. They claim that we have a spending problem not a revenue problem yet ignore the fact that after inflation, per pupil spending has actually gone down in Saline since the 2005-2006 school year.

In a Q&A session with students Holden said "Facts are stubborn things." yet Zimmer publicly commented "Have you seen the most recent market data comparing the average salary of a public sector employee to the private sector? Have you seen the most recent data that compares the public sector benefit package to those of the private sector?". The implication being that public employees are overcompensated. Those stubborn facts however disagree. According to Jeffery Keefe from Rutgers University "For the most part (public employees are) paid at market or slightly below market."

I guess the common sense Holden and Zimmer have in mind is misrepresenting facts and attacking teachers while taking a free pass for themselves. The city of Saline has seen a steady decrease in property tax revenue over the past few years. Corporate profits have reached record highs benefiting businessmen like Holden and Zimmer. As a matter of fact the company that Mr. Holden works for gave out a $1.171 million bonus to it's top official last year. So here we have two guys who by all accounts are bringing home and keeping more of their money than ever yet the shared sacrifice they are fighting for only includes cuts for teachers. They love their school district so much they are willing to cut someone else's wages and keep the difference for themselves.

The reality is that Holden and Zimmer have an agenda which is most similar to that of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker who has an approval rating of 37% and also happens to think his agenda is nothing but good old common sense.

Measuring Health Care Success

As a defense of our current health care system I often see quotes from those on the right about what foreign dignitary / celebrity / personality is coming to America to have their medical procedure. It seems like they think this some how proves our current system is great and that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is awful or at least unnecessary.

Unfortunately, this simplistic correlation is not supported by the reality. In a paper by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation it was reported that "Among 19 countries included in a recent study of amenable mortality, the United States had the highest rate of deaths from conditions that could have been prevented or treated successfully." and "Many Americans would be surprised by the findings from studies showing that U.S. health care is not clearly superior to that received by Canadians, and that in some respects Canadian care has been shown to be of higher quality."

In part, our failure in health care can be attributed to our free market society. In the United States 70% of our physicians are specialists. This happens because a specialist in the US can make twice that of a general practitioner. This monetary incentive gives us some of the best specialists in the world, so when some one wants the best doctor for a specific aliment the come to the US. The problem is, such a focus on specialized medicine, leads to worse outcomes. An article published in Health Affairs shows "lower mortality rates where there are more primary care physicians, but this is not the case for specialist supply."

If the belief is that higher pay gets us better doctors I wouldn't take an issue with that. I would, however, point out that if more money gets us better doctors then the same is true of teachers, yet many on the right have stated repeatedly that more money will not improve education. Either money is important in hiring the most qualified staff or it isn't. In our current system more money leads to better specialists but worse outcomes.

Another fallacy of the American health care system is the rhetoric surrounding wait times. Bloomberg Businessweek reported "both data and anecdotes show that the American people are already waiting as long or longer than patients living with universal health-care systems." If wait times are one of the biggest failings of universal health care systems then it is also a failing of our current system.

The worst result of our obsession with specialized medicine, however, is the cost. A paper by the American College of Physicians found that "The evidence for the value of primary care (general practitioners) is clear: better quality of life, more productive longevity, and lower costs as a result of reduced hospitalization improved prevention and better coordination of chronic disease care."

Of course the area where the American health care system is most inferior is coverage. Most other industrialized countries cover close to 100% of the population while the US leaves around 16% uninsured for medical care. Given that having insurance is linked to improved health, a lack of coverage is yet another area that diminishes the claim that "America has the best health care system in the world".

There a plenty of areas where our Health care system is the best but to use anecdotal evidence to support the fallacy of America's health care superiority is counterproductive. There is no reason that our system can't be improved. Rationalizing our health care system failures with foreign dignities proves a lack critical thinking not US dominance in health care.

KC Joyner you just made the list

KC Joyner has done some expert analysis and decided the best wide receiver in football is .... Mike Wallace.

The article takes a look at the difference between Mike Wallace of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions. Joyner meticulously pours over only the stats the support his point and completely ignores some of the obvious reasons his conclusion is asinine.

According the Joyner the only stat that really seems to matter is yards per attempt. He doesn't seem to care that Johnson faces a significantly higher number of double teams or that being targeted more in the end zone would have a negative impact on his YPA. He discounts the disparity in touchdowns and never mentions the difference in team make up that might allow Wallace more open field to work with.

For rambling on for as long as he does Joyner does a half-assed job in really comparing the two receivers. As one commenter on Joyner's article states "crunch all of the numbers you want, if you told all 32 GM's they could have Megatron or Wallace on their team tomorrow, who are they picking?"

Job killing obsession

The Republican jobs plan proves that Republican legislators have decided to go all in the on their obsession with "job killing". Odd for a group that claims the government "can't create jobs" to also believe that the government and in particular the President, can kill jobs. Either government impacts jobs creation or it doesn't.

One area that really seems to get under Republican legislators skin is government regulations. Contrary to the rhetoric, research shows that regulations have little to no impact on jobs. The same is true of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act but Republican legislators are currently against regulations and affordable health care so why let the facts get in the way of a good election strategy.

What is really baffling is why something like government regulations has suddenly become such a lighting rod. From 1995 to 2005 Republicans were in charge of two-thirds of the legislative process (Senate, House, President) with fours years of control of all three. If there were regulations that were particularly heinous and Republicans hate regulations as much as the say they do, then all of the fat should have been cut from the regulatory system in some form or another over this ten year span. Not only did the number of pages of the Federal Register (a common measuring stick for the number of regulations) not decrease during this time frame, it actually hit it's second highest number ever behind only 1980.

Of course it's not the Clinton-Bush era regulations that the Republican legislators are really after. Majority Leader Eric Cantor has a web page on important legislation that the Republicans are pushing which will help our dire jobs situation. Of these, about half of the legislation is based on regulations. Below are some examples of the "Obama" regulations that Republicans are going after.

H.R. 872: Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011

Purpose: "To amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act"

- The FIFRA was first passed in 1947 and was last amended in 1996.

H.R. 910: Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011

Purpose: "To amend the Clean Air Act"

- The CAA was first passed in 1963 and last amended in 1990.

H.R. 2018: Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011

Purpose: "To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act"

- The FWPCA was first passed in 1948 and last amended in 1987.

H.R.2587 Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act

Purpose: "Amends the National Labor Relations Act"

- The NLRA was first passed in 1935 and last amended in 1947.

H.R. 2273: Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act

Purpose: "To amend subtitle D of the Solid Waste Disposal Act"

- The SWDA was first enacted in 1965 and last amended in 1996.

If these are the "Obama" regulations that are holding back job creation why are they just being revised now? Just imagine how many jobs could have been created in the 1990's if Republicans had the where-with-all that Eric Cantor has now. We could have added tens maybe hundreds of more jobs if these critical issues had been addresses in a timely manner.

Are regulations a pain for corporations? Sometimes. Do they have a significant cost? Occasionally. Do they have a significant benefit? Absolutely. Do they affect job creation? Hardly.

Yet another example of how Republican legislators are using rhetoric to win elections at the expense of the public good.

Repatriate Jobs

In psychology if a child whines and gets attention from the whining it is considered positive reinforcement since the child received the attention he wanted by whining. Unfortunately for the parent they just reinforced a behavior that they would prefer not occur.

Back in 2004 it was thought that it would be a good idea to increase jobs and boost government revenues if we offered a corporate tax holiday. It turns out this is a behavior the government should not reinforce since it cost the government billions in lost revenue and adversely affected job growth. This failure has been documented plenty of times by The Wall Street Journal, The Heritage Foundation, The Christian Science Monitor, The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, and the Institute for Policy Studies, but Republicans have again made it a centerpiece to their jobs bill.

Ironically this idea also runs counter to one of the main talking points I often hear from the Right that corporations need certainty. The only certainty that offering a one time tax break offers is that Republican legislators are certain to be oblivious to their failures of the past and continue to offer the same tired retread legislation and expect different results.

The reality is the multinational corporations have already become very adept at avoiding the tax burden of bringing money back to America. This new legislation just makes it easier.

Instead of rewarding multinational corporations for hiding their money for years we should reward them for bringing jobs back to America. During the 2000's these corporations cut 2.9 million jobs in America while creating 2.4 million jobs overseas. While emerging markets make it impossible to do everything in America during the 1990's these same corporations were able to create 2.7 million jobs overseas and still managed to create 4.4 million jobs in America.

I would be more than happy to offer some sort of job creation tax break for these companies to bring jobs back to America but another tax holiday is akin to giving the milk aware for free, or at least at a very discounted rate. Make these corporations consider buying the cow with smart legislation.

We need a behavior modification program that uses the governments power of taxes as a reward for the behavior we want to see from multinational corporations, investment in American jobs, instead of a reward for the behavior we don't want to see, hiding money overseas until enough votes can be bought for another massive corporate give away.

Ten Steps to being Right

Given the spread of the Occupy movement the conservative bloggers are starting to come out of the wood works giving us their take on the protest and the protesters. One such article is by Steve Gunn of the Muskegon Chronicle. It follows a fairly routine pattern associated with conservative talking heads.

Step one: Belittle those you disagree with.

"I'm not sure what to make of all the freaky looking ... ridiculous Woodstock Wannabes"

Step two: Trivialize the current situation.

"Recessions happen from time to time, no matter how much we worry or complain about them"

Step three: Completely misrepresent what the opposition stands for.

"Blaming rich people for the state of the economy is not going to solve anything."

Step four: Make ideological statements, which you errantly think sets you apart from the opposition then completely contradict yourself.

"Whatever happened to the idea of personal responsibility? When did all of our problems suddently become someone else's fault?"

"Obama's been kicking the economic can down the street for nearly three years...the protesters should demand that Obama pursue policies that will help American business recover and create more jobs for all of us."

Step five: Give personal accounts because you think it makes your opinion sound informed and irrefutable while giving the impression that the opposition is lazy and doesn't get it.

"I was born into a low-income family with six children and only one working parent, yet I've remained perpetually employed for the past 28 years."

"Not all of my jobs were very glorious. I put in my time at a car wash, several convenience stores and two factories before I worked my way through college and earned my degree."

"Yes, I've been paid to clean my share of toilets. I not only survived the experience, but went home every night feeling proud that I did something — anything — to carry my own weight in the world."

Step six: Combine steps 1 and 3.

"I get a kick out of all the silly folks in New York calling for an overthrow of capitalism. I suppose that means they want the federal government to seize private companies and operate the economy from the nation's capital."

Step seven: State your ideological statement from step four in a slightly different way.

"I respect people who have the intelligence and drive to make millions for themselves. Good for them. I hope they're happy."


Step eight: Completely fail to understand the point the opposition is trying to make using a cliche talking point.

"Wasting time worrying about the success of others will get them nowhere."

Step nine: Combine steps 1 through 8 in a grandiose final statement.

"They need to wake up and understand a basic fact of life: If you want something, you roll up your sleeves and earn it. Waiting for Father Obama to deliver the goods on a platter is a tragic waste of precious time."


Congratulations Steve Gunn, you nailed it. You made light of something that is very important to many people while making fun of them, stood on your principles even when they have almost nothing to do with the idea that you think you oppose, and proved that your opinion and seeing your name in print matters more than facts.

This of course leads us to Step ten: Set out a theme for readers to adhere to and then fail to follow it yourself.

In a post about personal responsibility Steve doesn't concern himself with the responsibility of getting his facts Right or hold Wall Street responsible for anything.

Here, here and here for a slightly more informed view on the movement.

Economic Growth vs Republican policy

In a change of tactics, the President has decided to go to the people and ask for support for his jobs bill instead of again attempting to negotiate with Congressional Republicans only to produce a watered down bill that zero Republicans will support, including those that helped negotiate the deal.

Similar to the Health Care reform act, polls suggest the jobs bill has broad support for it's components but only moderate support for the bill as a whole. Unfortunately for Americans who want jobs, Congressional Republicans have their own goals which first and foremost include opposing the President and winning seats, followed by no tax increases for millionaires and obsessing over national debt in a austerity driven manor.

According to a new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), national debt is a factor in determining future economic growth. It happens to be the least important of all factors measured but it did change expected growth by around 2%. Other more important factors include Exchange Rate Competitiveness (9%), Foreign Direct Investment (15%), Political Institutions (25%), and Trade Openness (43%).

But the biggest of all factors in determining future economic growth was Income Distribution. The study shows that the lower the Income Inequality Gap, the higher the economic growth. So while Congressional Republicans have put all of their eggs in the basket of the smallest indicator of future economic growth they are steadfastly against the number one indicator and have actually proposed and supported the very policies that have lead to one of the highest income inequality gaps in our nations history and subsequently one of the worst economies.

That won't stop them from trying to convince the American public that it is the President's policies, which have mainly been the policies of Congressional Republicans past and present, that are to blame for our current economic conditions.

The good news is the other economic growth indicators are somewhat in our favor since Foreign Investment has never been a problem for the US and the most recent Trade Openness Index already ranks us a number 2 in the world. Given the toxic environment in Washington DC and the lack of faith in the people running the government we could probably make some strides in our Political Institutions, but we are far from an Arab Spring like revolution in this country.

In the end the free market tells us that numbers don't lie and biggest bang for our buck is a governmental system that promotes a smaller Income Inequality Gap. Republicans, however, would have you believe this is Communist plot to bring down America.

Congressional Republicans should follow their own free market rhetoric and run the country like a business since no corporation would turn down the biggest possible Return on Investment simply because it runs counter to what they though they knew was true. Corporations are number based entities and if the numbers show a clear ROI winner they don't turn up their noses, they charge full steam ahead.

If only the success of the country was more important to Congressional Republicans than the success of the party.

Give me a break

Since I frequently post about various topics associated with education I often get comments on these posts suggesting that more money will not improve education and that education spending is out of control thanks to greedy unions. These arguments are typically followed up with some trivial anecdotal information which I assume the commenter's believe proves their point.

I have done a considerable amount of research on the topic and have plenty of information suggesting that money is an important component to educational success but I wondered what were the arguments and statistics against it. What I found was a lot of trivial anecdotal evidence that doesn't really prove anything.

As an example, John Stossel of 20/20 fame used his "Give me a break" segment to make the claim "Money is not what schools need".

His "debunk" contains three basic arguments. The first is regarding Arnie Duncan's claim that "Districts around the country have literally been cutting for five, six, seven years in a row". The second is "Over the past 40 years, public school employment has risen 10 times faster than enrollment". And third Stossel uses one school system as an example to prove schools don't need vast sums of money to succeed.

The third item listed above would appear to be the most compelling argument but it would help if Mr. Stossel had done a little research first. The man credited with turning around the school system in question, Ben Chavis, is quoted in Stossel's argument as saying "My buildings are shacks compared to their schools, but my schools are clean, and we'll kick all their asses."

The reality is that the two schools Mr. Chavis is in charge of spend $1,791 and $3,448 more per pupil than the average public school in California. To quote Stossel from his own article "(He) may be pandering to his constituency, or he may actually be fooled by how school districts talk about budget(s)".

With regards to Arnie Duncan's comments about budget cuts, the fact that only a small percentage of districts have cut their budgets for five or more consecutive years does not prove or disprove what role money plays in education. It proves Arnie Duncan exaggerated his claims or misspoke, not that money is being wasted. If you really want to show that this statistic has some merit you would have to tie the money spent to performance. Mr. Stossel makes no such attempt at any point is his article.

Finally the statistic about public school staff may in fact be true (no supporting documentation was provided) but in logic A must equal B and B must equal C for A to equal C. The fact that staff is increasing does not mean schools are just wasting money to greedy union members or hiring unnecessary staff. There are a considerable number of statistics that explain the difference that Mr. Stossel doesn't even mention let alone investigate.

- In 1975 Congress passed the EHA statute which required schools to accept special education students. Prior to this law 1 in 5 children with special needs was accepted at public schools. By 2008, 95% of all special education students were enrolled in school.

- In 2004 special education costs were $78.3 billion.

- The expenditures for a special education student were 1.6 times that of a standard student.

- The teacher student ratio for special education students is typically 6 to 1 or lower.

- If public schools were adding 10 times as many teachers as students since 1970 then we would see a significant drop in teacher to student ratio. In 1970 the ratio stood at 17.9 to 1. By 2008 it was 15.3 to 1.

- "No Child Left Behind increased state and local governments' annual paperwork burden by 6,680,334 hours, at an estimated cost of $141 million dollars".

- Since 1970 early childhood education enrollment has increased from 37.5% of children ages 3 to 5 to 63.5% in 2009.

- Early Education programs require a higher staff to student ratio. Kentucky for example allows a maximum of 10 to 1.

- "The salaries of public school teachers have generally maintained pace with inflation since 1990–91".

- The 2012 Chicago Public Schools budget includes $51.4 million for security guards.

While public schools may be increasing staff, they are not adding a significant number of teachers for standard students and teacher salaries are in line with the modest increases of inflation. The inclusion of more special education students that require additional services combined with security staff have added significant staff and costs to public schools.

So when John Stossel says "When you look at the facts, the scam is clear." I say "Give me a break".

Michigan considering changes to No Fault insurance

In an effort to save Michigan residents money the state legislator is considering changes to the no fault insurance which would allow Michigan drivers the option to choose a lower cost, lower coverage insurance and save around 15% off of their premiums.

Unfortunately this is another case of the legislator favoring the will of big business over the good of the people.

First, it should be pointed out that this bill is yet another bill that would have a tiny "implementation" budget attached to the bill making it referendum proof. This forces Michigan residents to take extreme measures to repeal this bill if they don't like it. This is clear government overreach as the legislator limits some of the democratic rights of the people.

Second, this bill "fixes" the symptom not the problem. The reason car insurance costs are increasing has nothing to do with car insurance. It has everything to do with the cost of health care. As health care costs rise so does every form of insurance that covers you in the event of an accident. If you want to have a meaningful impact on car insurance rates you have to fix the problems with the costs of health care.

Additionally, in the end, this bill will not save Michigan residents money. What this will do is force many people to pay for their own health care costs associated with a car accident. Those who cannot pay will either go bankrupt or be put on the tax payer funded medicare system. This puts Michigan residents in the position of paying a little more now or even more later. The only savings here is for the insurance industry which is why they are fighting so hard for this bill.

Lastly, when asked about how this will affect people who have catastrophic injuries due to a car accident, a spokesman for the insurance industry basically said that the number of the catastrophic injuries from car accidents is very small. Odd that these incidents are so rare and insignificant yet the money saved by the insurance industry for not having to cover these events offers a big savings to consumers taht is worth back dooring democracy for.

Unless something is done about the costs of health care someone will pay for the 15% savings that this bill will offer. The insurance industry just doesn't want it to be them.