A no-win situation for Obama

So President Obama has been "outed," by his own team, as a closet gay-marriage supporter.

Big surprise. He was for it in the 1990s before he was running for national office. When he ran for the Senate in 2004, he knew the issue was too toxic for rational discussion and opposed gay marriage while backing civil unions.

His called his position as "evolving," which is a double negative for the right-wing extremists in this country.

"Oh my god, he's for gay marriage and evolution!" they cry.

There isn't much upside, though, for Obama's announcement. He already had the "gay" vote and the money that goes with it. He never had the extremists out there. However, he could lose some independents in pivotal swing states. It's a risk he is willing to take. That takes guts.

You expect the extreme conservatives to wail in protest while delighting in what this could mean for Republicans in the November election.

 But, wingnut commenters at Fox News and the Wall Street Journal websites are also ticked that it took Obama so long. Go figure.

A short-lived Fox News headline read: "Obama flip flops, declares war on marriage."

But, Shep Smith, the only near-right talking head on Fox News could get fired for saying this to colleague Bret Baier:


"What I'm most curious about is whether it's your belief that -- in this time of rising debts, and medical issues, and all the rest -- if Republicans would go out on a limb and try to make this a campaign issue while sitting very firmly, without much issue, on the wrong side of history on it."


The Fox News comments were a little more low-brow:


"Perversion is perversion......calling it 'marriage' doesn't change it."

"only the stupid and racist will vote for 0bama this time a around"

"can't convince me for the umteenth time that's he's a Christian."

"Pray away the gay."

At the WSJ site, the comments were a bit more nuanced:

"But does he support gay divorce?
A lot of divorce lawyers out there, you know --
and they vote!
More to the point: they got money!"

"I am so glad Obama's daughters are in favor of gay marriage. 

Is he consulting them on the anti-missile shield for Europe and the nuclear crisis with Iran? 
I think their opinions on these issues will provide great insight..."

"What is the alternative here? We just keep treating these people different from everyone else?"

"Romney, being a good Mormon, thinks that marriage is a union between a man and one or more women."

"I suppose we now need to change the wording on the Statue of Liberty to reflect maybe something catchy like 'give your sick, illegal, and various deviants', the dems need their vote."

But, for the truly bizarre, the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay wing of the GOP, came out against President Obama's position on gay marriage. 


Obviously, to be gay and a Republican takes self-loathing to a whole new level.


Ind the end, leave it the GOP godfather, Rush Limbaugh, to put it all into perspective by declaring:

"We've Arrived at a Point Where the President of The United States is Going to Lead a War on Traditional Marriage"

By the way, Rush has been married four times and has no children. Now, that's traditional.

The mean inherit the nation -- for now

Tuesday's results in North Carolina and Indiana show that Americans have a pretty good mean streak.


Indiana ousted Republican Dick Lugar for a freakish teabagger whose views are definitely not mainstream.


Here's a sample from Richard Mourdock, who won in a landslide:


"Let's do away with the departments of Education, Energy, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development," Mourdock, 60, told ABC, adding that he also wants to dump the IRS.

He says the budget plans of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., have not gone far enough.

"I think there needs to be more partisanship" in Washington, he said.

Okay.

In North Carolina, homophobia reigns. Voters overwhelmingly banned same-sex marriage. Yes, this is the south where marrying relatives is still condoned.

Still, the marriage-equality gambit should show Democrats that this is not an issue on which to run a presidential campaign. All it does is incite the loonies and they flock like zombies to the voting booth.

For sheer insanity, a "Felon beats Obama in 10 West Virginia counties."

Meanwhile, there are a number of alarming stories out there about right-wing extremists and their threats of violence.

In Virginia, a "GOP Newsletter Calls for Armed Revolution if Obama Re-Elected."

In Florida, "White supremacists trained with AK-47s, planned for 'inevitable' race war, affidavit says." 

In Missouri, a teabagger said they "have to kill the Claire bear." Naturally, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is getting additional security.

Should Obama get re-elected, it appears some Americans may go ballistic.

Charge user with alarm fee

In Seattle, 98 percent of alarm calls are bogus

The city of Bend wastes $111,000 per year on false alarms caused by  alarm systems at homes and businesses

This is yet another way those without alarm systems subsidize the people who do.

This transfers tax money from the many to the few.

For great background on this topic check out award-winning, investigative reporter David Cay Johnston's terrific book called "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill)."

Home alarm systems are generally for the rich and the paranoid, which are sometimes one and the same.

Alarm systems for retail businesses make sense since these stores are usually vacant overnight and have lots of stuff worth stealing.

But, one of the reasons why people move to a place like Bend is that, compared to a big city, there is little crime here.

The extra expense of a home alarm system really isn't needed in Bend unless the house is vacant much of the year or is in foreclosure, which is a common occurrence these days.

The alarm companies, like ADT, make a killing on home alarm systems because they provide no security at all, but transfer it to the local government police agency. They just collect the monthly fee but saddle the local cops with the bill.

Throughout the country, like in Seattle, millions are wasted every year on false burglar alarm calls. In fact, almost all burglar alarm calls are false.

Not only that, but time and manpower wasted on false alarms means that real crimes are not being solved. A classic lose-lose proposition for the taxpayer, but a win-win for big alarm companies like ADT.

The real solution to the problem of false alarms is to make the alarm companies, instead of local police, respond to the alarm calls. Let the alarm companies pay for a local private police force to manage all these false alarms. Or bill the alarm companies for false alarms.

Otherwise, the fines on home or businesses for false alarms should escalate proportionally to offset the cost to taxpayers.

And, if that doesn't work, assess each business or home that has an alarm system with an annual fee to offset the cost to the taxpayer.

Let's stop subsidizing corporations like ADT who make millions off the taxpayer while providing no service at all.

Bush deficit dwarfs Obama's

For the teabaggers who suddenly became concerned about the federal deficit after President Obama pushed through the $874 billion stimulus, here's some relevant news for you: The deficit run up by President Bush far exceeded anything Obama has done.

The Washington Post provides the charts to show how it's not even close. Bush added $5.1 trillion to the deficit, while Obama has added just $983 billion.

The Bush tax cuts alone added $1.8 trillion to the deficit.

The GOP-led House wants to extend those tax cuts without paying for them. In essence, Republican lawmakers could care less about deficits or teabaggers, for that matter.

On a related note, here's a story about how the Republicans hired a firm in the Philippines to make calls on behalf of Mitt-wit Romney's presidential campaign to attack "high unemployment" under Obama.

Note to the GOP, the Philippines is not a state in America. Hiring workers overseas does not help our employment situation at home.

On another related note, Real Clear Politics now projects, if the election were held today, Obama would start with 253 electoral votes and Romney with 170. To win the presidency, 270 electoral votes are needed.

RCP moved Pennsylvania and Nevada from the "toss-up" category to the "leans Obama" category.

Even the Wall Street Journal notes that Romney's chances of winning in November relies on him winning at least six states that Obama won in 2008. Ohio and Florida are still toss-up states that slightly favor Obama in the polls, but Virginia is definitely leaning towards Obama, according to the latest Washington Post poll, which has Obama up by 7 percent over Romney.

I think the more America sees of Romney, the less likable, and electable, he becomes.

They're super rich and we're not

Check out the graph to the right that shows, rather starkly, how American productivity has increased over the past 40 years, but hourly compensation has not.


It's obvious that class warfare is over. The rich won long ago.


And, like Mitt Romney, they hid their money from the country that created the conditions for accumulation of wealth that can't possibly be used in one's lifetime.


Check out this graph below of where Mitt has sheltered his wealth, estimated at $250 million.

The growing economic inequality is seen as a good thing by a former colleague of Mitt's at Bain Capital. Check out this long-form story for some insight.


Edward Conard retired at the age of 51 after accumulating hundreds of millions in wealth, like Mitt, in the buying and selling of companies.

Conard's mother was a kindergarten teacher. His father was a Ford engineer. 

He believes he took the harder path in life, by not becoming a lawyer. Maybe one day he'll realize that he had a less positive impact on society than his parents.

Conard feels, like many in his class, that he is more valuable than almost everyone else in our country. 


He has a book coming out titled: “Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong.”

As he told the Times' reporter: "Economics is counterintuitive. It just is.”

Well, to the unaware, it's counterintuitive. To those of us who know the price of a gallon of gas or of milk, it is quite intuitive. 

We lose, and they win.

There is nothing more economic than that. In order for someone to be rich beyond all reason, millions have to be poor, beyond all dignity.

How fast do you surf?

Caught this story today about the fastest internet speeds, by country, in the world.

Naturally, the U.S., where the internet was invented, doesn't crack the top 10 in download speeds.

We're No. 13 at 5.8 Mbps. South Korea is the fastest by far at 17.5 Mbps. Japan is a distant second at 9.1 Mbps.

Some of the findings from Akamai include:

• - Cities in the Asia Pacific region continued to dominate the list of the 100 fastest cities worldwide. 69 cities including 61 in Japan, six in South Korea, one in Australia, as well as Hong Kong made the top 100.
• - 24 cities in North America ranked among the top 100, including two in Canada and 22 in the United States.
• - Seven cities in Europe, including three in Sweden, two in Switzerland and one each in Romania and Latvia were included in the top 100.

I checked my BendBroadband speed at around 4 p.m. May 1 through speedtest.net. I'll test later in the evening  when more of my neighbors may be on.

My download speed measured 13.19 Mbps and BendBroadband only guarantees 12 Mbps. I tested again at 10 p.m. on my laptop which is wired via ethernet through a power line adapter. And yet I still showed 12.50 Mbps.

Also, my upload speed measured 1.81 Mbps, while only 1.5 Mbps was guaranteed by BendBroadband. At 10 p.m., my upload speed improved on the laptop to 1.84 Mbps.

So, it looks like we're getting much faster service here in Bend than in much of the country and even in Japan.

And that is good.

Mitt's Massachusetts problem

Mitt Romney served as the Republican governor of the democratic state of Massachusetts from 2003-07.

So, what do the good folks of the Bay State think of Mitt?

Well, according to the polls, not much.

Currently, Mitt trails President Obama by an average of 18.4 percent.

In big Blue States, like California and New York, Obama leads Mitt by 23.5 percent and 25 percent respectively, according to Real Clear Politics. Yet, in Texas, the biggest Red State in terms of electoral delegates, Mitt leads Obama by just 7 percent.

Apprently, Mitt has a "likability deficit."

"To know Mitt Romney, is to dislike him. That is the moral of the story," said Boston University professor Tom Whalen.

By the time Mitt left the governor's office in 2007, Massachusetts ranked 47th out of 50 states in job creation. He also left the state with a massive deficit.

And, he left them with universal health care that Democrats used to craft "Obamacare."

Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said Romney gets an A for health reform, a B for state budget issues and a C-minus for economic accomplishments.