truthout.org should respect its mission.

I just got an email from truthout.org with the subject "Message to Banks: Pay US Back." This caught my attention, so I opened up the email and the first thing I see is a "DONATE TODAY" button, encouraging me to give money to truthout.org. But nevermind that, I want to know about this bank business. So I scroll down and read the lead article which alludes to an accusation that banks have not paid back the bailouts we (well...Bush) gave them three years ago. Then the article goes on to say other ways the banks should repay us that aren't related to the bailout loans.

I know on good authority (LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post, the Tarp Policy Director) that the bank loans are not only repaid but making a huge profit for the Government (~$20 billion). Kudos to the fat bankers in NYC. That said, I do not think the banks are off the hook. As the article suggests, banks should be helping with costs related to their near-meltdown including picking up the tab for policing vacant and foreclosed properties, reducing principle on more underwater mortgages, and spending some of their cash on new jobs rather than keeping it in reserves.

But enough about bank policy, this email angered me! The fact that truthout.org espouses a "truthful and transparent" media in the very same email that includes an incendiary and incorrect accusation which is clearly designed to raise money (DONATE TODAY) is pathetic. Don't stoop to the level of Fox news and manufacture headlines for your bottom line. Let's be truthful here. Too much to ask from one liberal to another?

Where do you news?

Tells a lot about someone, and about how they (choose to?) see the world. My top 3 news sources:

1) Huffpost
2) WaPo
3) Facebook

Yours?

Some Sense from Fox News

I was surprised and pleased to read today an anti-tea party opinion on the fox news website. Who would have thought?

CongressWasting $30 Million - per day! WTF.

Imagine if you went to a store and bought a state of the art TV to be delivered tomorrow. Then the store owner took your money, gave it to someone else, and never delivered your TV. You're suddenly out thousands of dollars and have nothing to show for it. This is exactly how congress is treating our airline tax dollars, and we can't afford to tolerate it.

Probably the largest news story, and most embattled congressional debate of this year centered around the debt ceiling. Let's not forget that this conflict nearly took every single American into a economy of higher interest rates across the board. Do you want to pay more for your next car, TV or credit card bill? Me neither. Thank goodness our dedicated, hardworking Congress worked tirelessly to come to a compromise.

But they forgot one little thing before heading out to play on their swings for recess. Well - they forgot one big thing actually - $30 million a day in uncollected taxes. Wait, what? Yeah...I know. Congress left for vacation without passing a bill to continue to fund the FAA, which causes a few really big problems.

1) 4,000 FAA workers are furloughed until some kind of bill is passed.

2) $2.5 Billion dollars in airport construction is put on hold - meaning no one one those projects gets paid.

3) 70,000 contractors are laid of or furloughed because there is no money to pay them on those construction projects.

4) $30 million per day in tickets taxes are not allowed to be collected by the Government (but the airlines are still charging them!). It is estimated this will amount to $1 billion in lost revenue.

What kind of bullsh$t politicking is this? Everyone on the Hill spends weeks waxing poetically about saving our economy reducing our debt/income gap, but they leave $1 billion completely out of reach because they'd rather go play in their respective sandboxes than sit down and actually do their job. This is irresponsibility to the Nth degree, and none of us should stand for it.

Two Things are Back: A Recession, and This Blog

At this point I'm probably just writing for myself, but I'm back to actually writing! Real quickly, I've spent the last year basically playing - having a great time acting/playing music and making a few bucks while at it. The arts life is fun, challenging to the ego and the pocketbook, and ultimately something that we all need in our life. To what extent it will overtake my life has yet to be determined - but I've been feeling lately that it's a bit of a selfish life and the notion of living only for my own artistic passions hasn't been sitting well. Can't I touch other people's lives a little more with the time I have on this planet?

Okay, with that out of the way, let's move on to today's topic: Double Dip Recession. It's kind of a strange name - as it sounds like we intentionally got ourselves into a recession again just like we would go back for another dip of delicious guacamole! All this term means is that our economy has dipped to recession level again.

How do we know? Several key factors: access to credit is still relatively low; in housing, we have more than 28% of all single family mortgages underwater; uneployment is still very high at 9.2%; inflation is hitting us hard on all levels of spending (even late night McDonald's is costing us more!); oil prices are still well above what we remember just a few years ago; and investments are yeilding less (please don't make me look at my 401k this year).

I can't help but think, however, that this is just the ying and yang of life. We as a country lived in relative opulence for a while - buying big homes with nearly no initial investment, creating a start up and burning through cash like it was going out of style (apparently it was), and enjoying lots of credit cards and mortgages that we really shouldn't have. Now, maybe it's just the universe, or kharma, or the gods of economic equality telling us to get back into shape.

This conversation will inevitably tie into the debt ceiling crisis going on in Washington this week. No matter what side of the aisle you are on, you'll be blaming someone on the hill for getting us into this and/or not being able to get us out. I largely blame the republicans for spending ridiculous amounts of money on two wars, not enforcing oversight in defense contracting, and purposefully allowing the bankers in New York to take a gamble with our economy. I blame the democrats for not looking ahead and making changes while they had both houses of congress and the White House in their control. Is health care reform really more important than economic reform? In hindsight, I would say no.

But the real blame is shared between congress, the white house and us. We as individuals overspent, overborrowed and underplanned. We ignored the fine print in adjustable rate mortgages. We ignored common sense when purchasing homes that were simply bigger than we needed. We lived for today, without thinking of the consequences. It's human nature to do this, and we'll probably do it again and again. Now the economy is correcting itself - and hopefully doing so with the thoughtful guidance of some smart people leading the way in Washington (Insert politician joke here).

The Pope - Media Player or Servant of the Church?

Today, the Pope announced that he'll meet with more abuse victims. This comes on the same day that a letter signed by him is revealed to have stalled the defrocking of another child molester - Stephen Kiesle. In this letter, Ratzinger wrote that "the good of the universal church" needs to be considered before defrocking Kiesle. Seven years before this letter was written, Kiesle was arrested and pleaded no contest for tying up and molesting two boys. He wasn't defrocked for another two years after Ratzinger wrote this letter. Ratzinger's interpretation of "the good of the universal church" only seems to apply to the image of the church as an establishment...not its actual members.

In meeting with Abuse victims, is the Pope trying to save his image? Or is he really trying to nurture and care for his church? I want the latter to be true. I do. He's a very powerful person who can do a lot of good with the resources he has. However, he had decades to meet and pray with abuse victims, but never did so until the media started pointing out this exact problem - that he allowed a culture of half-tolerance for child abuse in the church, and worse, ignored its victims.

HRC - Chicken or Egg?

I had a conversation last night with a relatively new fundraising person at HRC who works on major donors. Andrew Sullivan's name came up, as we were talking about people who do/don't support the organization. This HRCer was annoyed that people like Andrew and me don't give HRC any money, but we complain that that the organization can't get anything done. I tried to explain to him that most people don't want to give money to an organization that they already know to be wasteful and ineffective. I suggested that he and HRC first prove to people like us that they are being fiscally conservative and making an impact, and then ask us for money. Basically, show us what you can do with a little, and we'll make sure there's more (it's how most investor-funded businesses are started, and it works) His reply (as I remember it) was "something has to come first, the chicken or the egg." Imagine approaching an investment firm and saying that.