Funny Article on Fighting Unemployment

       Love this campaign poster and the article that goes with it.

Cool game allows you to try and balance budget

      At the Committee for a responsible Federal Budget the have put together this cool game that lets you make the same type of general decisions that the President has to make on the Federal Budget and see if you can do any better. ( I did OK but not quite as well as the President) with their goal as your target and The Presidents as an alternative goal. A fun little exercise for all of us who think balancing the Federal Budget should be easy and forget in the rhetoric how much we now depend on our government to do. For a political junkie like me pretty cool way to spend 15 minutes.

Brian

New Tom Toles

Climate Change: Now Biggest Threat

     According to Elliott Negin Climate Change is the biggest threat to our economy and American way of life. I don't know that I am convinced but the real problem is that he is at Huffpost and not some paper like the Wall Street Journal so he is reaching the wrong audience. Very few deniers at Huffpost and most of them are the message board attack dogs. The real problem is there is no political dialog anymore on this subject. Threat and denial is now the conversation here in America.

 Brian

Missing Half the Solution

      I was reading Charles Murphy's The Great American Divide and I was struck by how he doesn't believe that those in the lower classes can do anything about the problem. Seems to me he is as guilty of being elitist as those he says caused the problems. Maybe he assumes that only upper middle class and rich people read the Wall Street Journal, but it seems to me that part of the problem is that this divide is caused by a lack of communication between the sides and if you propose a solution that only takes in one side then it can't be properly executed as you only are mobilizing one side. Without cooperation nothing but anger can happen. Just my take on things but at least he admits there is a problem.

Brian

Weekend Leftovers

       Didn't post but I did read a few things this weekend. These are the highlights and lowlights.
     Bernie Sanders on the Corporate Takeover of America
     Chris Lehman on the State of Books in America, not lamenting the disappearance of bookstores but the sad state of modern fiction.
     Another article on the forgotten candidate Buddy Roemer
     I have yet to see an unbiased article on the Texas Redistricting plan, this article masquerades as one
     A Huntsman staffer on how they got beat by Romney
     I think he did this one just to scare all the white people who insist they are not prejudiced: Why We Need a Malcolm X Day.

Stat Geek Politics

     I am a born stat geek. I was the kid when told to go out and play would write baseball standings in the dirt for an hour before going off to find a game somewhere. We now have a new version of stat geeks taking over the political columns and I personally love reading them. My two favorites are Nate Silver and Sean Trende. One leans Democrat the other Republican. Both tend to let the stats talk more than their heart. This gives you a better feel for what is really happening than the obvious party hacks that so often fill commentary sites. Today is a good example of both what they right and how even numbers can change quickly this year. Nate on Romney's Prevent Defense and Sean on Rick Perry's Ill-fated Campaign. Both are a different way to look at politics but very compelling.

Brian