GT:National Security Demands That We Assure That the Next Generation of the Koch Family Has the Assets to Continue the Fight on the Middle Class

GT spoke last night at Penn State on national security which he interpreted very broadly. Let's compare and contrast a couple of his statements.

First up:

"What my generation is providing you, unfortunately, is a legacy of debt," he said. "It's just not American.

He said the Obama administration needs to present -- and Congress needs to enact -- a responsible budget.

Next:

Meanwhile, Thompson said, if steep estate taxes are reinstated next year, a family passing a farm from one generation to the next may be forced to pay a 45 percent levy. That threatens to take still more farms out of business, a trend that could force more reliance on imported food over which the U.S. has little control, Thompson said.

To sum up, GT wants to deal with the national debt by adding $1.3 trillion dollars over the next ten years to the national debt by stopping a reinstatement of the estate tax. To be fair, perhaps GT just wants the tax to go back to last year's level, then the cost to the US Treasury over the same time span would be $609 billion. He justifies adding this huge burden to the national debt, which he himself says is "not American," by suggesting that the tax will impact family farms.

But it is  estimated that that in 2011 the estate tax, if reinstated at 2009 levels,  would only effected 110  family farms and small businesses and these estates on average would pay a rate of  11.3%. (The 45% number that Thompson uses for the tax rate only applies to the portion of the estate in excess of $3.5 million and of the portion above the threshold much of it can be shielded from taxes.)  Further, there is absolutely no evidence that farms would have to liquidated to pay for the estate tax. In 2001, the American Farm Bureau Federation could not cite a single example of a farm being sold off to pay the estate tax and the CBO  has estimated that under the 2009 conditions only a handful of family farms would not have sufficient liquidity to pay the tax, but it said that it likely overestimated this number since the it couldn't include certain assets held in trust.

The take away is that  GT thinks that it is in our national security interest to help  the Koch brothers pass on their wealth to their heirs so that those heirs can continue the family war against ordinary Americans.

watertiger has....

....a way with words.

This country has contracted a nasty STD after being fucked by the Bush
Administration. Beck and Palin and their ilk are the aggressive,
inflamed genital warts that will never respond to treatment.

Here, here! Hear, Hear!

GT "Respecting the Pain and Suffering" of 9/11 Emergency Responders

As I noted earlier this month, GT joined 158 of his Republican colleagues to defeat a bill which created a fund for the 9/11 emergency responders who have health problems due to the toxic environment created by the collapse of the World Trade Center.  At the time, GT hadn't explained his vote and I wondered which Clown Caucus approved talking point GT would point to if he was asked to justify his vote. This week at a townhall meeting in Philipsburg  we got an answer to that question.

Thompson said he understands what first responders experience in a situation, as he is a licensed Emergency Medical Technician and a volunteer firefighter.
He said he understands the emotional and physical trauma experienced but also said that the bill was not well crafted and he was concerned about where the money was going and what it paid for, which was not clear to him in the bill.

That's pretty fucking vague. And it looks like GT didn't do his homework on this one, since his excuse  is not on the the  list of Clown Caucus approved talking points (PDF). The closest item on that approved list of reasons not to vote for the bill is item #3. It must be tough remembering all those rationales for voting no.

The fact is that the bill is very clear on both where the money is going and what it pays for. Both geographic and temporal eligibility requirement for receiving the money from the fund are clearly spelled out and a detailed list of health conditions which are covered by the fund are given. The one open area is cancer which takes a longtime to develop. Hence at this time there is no epidemiological evidence to tie 9/11 to cancer risks.  You can learn more from this CBO report on the bill and the bill itself.

By the way,

...Thompson also briefly talked about the controversial mosque and community center proposed to be build in New York City near ground zero. He said that it is a local decision of the city and the federal government doesn't have jurisdiction over it. However, he also said that he didn't think those involved were respecting the pain and suffering that is still occurring there and that should have been taken into consideration.

GT has a funny way of respecting the pain and suffering of those 9/11 emergency responders.

What Do Teabaggers Want?

Steve Benen, one of my favorite bloggers, has a must read piece on today's rally at the Lincoln Memorial.  Here's a sample.

For a year and a half, we've seen rallies and town-hall shouting and attack ads and Fox News special reports. But I still haven't the foggiest idea what these folks actually want, other than to see like-minded Republicans winning elections. To be sure, I admire their passion, and I applaud their willingness to get involved in public affairs. If more Americans chose to take a more active role in the political process, the country would be better off and our democracy would be more vibrant.

But that doesn't actually tell us what these throngs of Americans are fighting for, exactly. I'm not oblivious to their cries; I'm at a loss to appreciate those cries on anything more than a superficial level.
[...]

This is about giving Americans who work hard and play by the rules more opportunities.

I'm all for that, too. But would these opportunities include the chance for hard-working Americans to bring their kids to the doctor if they get sick, even if the family can't afford insurance? No, we're told, not those kinds of opportunities.

This is about the values of the Founding Fathers.

I'm a big fan of the framers' generation, who created an extraordinary nation. But if we're honoring their values, would this include their steadfast commitment to the separation of church and state? No, we're told, not those values.

This is about patriotic Americans willing to make sacrifices for the good of their country.

That sounds reasonable; sacrifices can be honorable. But if we're talking about patriots willing to sacrifice, does that mean millionaires and billionaires can go back to paying '90s-era tax rates (you know, when the economy was strong)? No, we're told, not those kinds of sacrifice.
[..]
Movements -- real movements that make a difference and stand the test of
time -- are about more than buzz words, television personalities, and
self-aggrandizement. Change -- transformational change that sets nations
on new courses -- is more than vague, shallow promises about "freedom."
[..]
The folks who gathered in D.C. today were awfully excited about
something. The fact that it's not altogether obvious what that might be
probably isn't a good sign.

As they say, go read the whole thing.

Phds Aren't All Brilliant and Teabaggers Aren't All Teetotalers

About a month ago, I had a post highlighting the CDT's most teabagelicious commeter, psumba, who showed up in comments here  to defend himself.  He wrote, in part,

Let's see ... I'm charged with:

- anti-intellectualism - as a student, I was considered to be quite intellectual. In fact, I did earn two simultaneous undergraduate diplomas from Penn State in four years ... in two demanding fields from different Penn State colleges. What happened ...

To which one of my regular commenters, MoonDragon, wrote,

I will take your word for it that you have the degrees you claim. Earning a college degree is an achievement in and of itself, however it  isn't proof of intellect. Your statement may be evidence of being highly trained, but isn' t proof of either education or intellectual capacity. Pardon the anecdote, but I know more than a few Phds who are dumber  than dirt.

Today we no longer have to depend on MoonDragon's anecdotal evidence concerning dumber than dirt Phds. From Kevin Drum comes this Quote of the Day, from the man behind the Teabagging curtain,

...Dick Armey, PhD University of Oklahoma, former economics professor at the University of North Texas, and former Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives:

One of the things that we see as we look at Glenn Beck's work that's been fascinating to me, is we see a more true and accurate history of the United States, and we see it documented at levels of rigor that, in fact, one would expect out of Ph.D. dissertations — it is serious, scholarly work....[Liberal critics] don’t have to argue with Glenn Beck. They have to argue with his documentation and they can’t match that level of rigor.

Somebody just shoot me now.

Digby adds,

It has often been rumored that Dick Armey is a falling down drunk and his behavior on TV certainly suggests that he's on something. I'm guessing it's acid...

What is it with Teabaggers and alcohol? Here's psumba

You should have taken me up on my offer last Fall to have a drink together the last time that I was in State College.

Once Obamacare Goes into Effect Maybe We Can Finally Afford to Do Something About That Terrible Hack Afflicting the Fifth District

From Blogger Pictures

Well, GT is at it again, bullshitting  his constituents. I've been having a bit of a back and forth over at the CDT for the past few days over a lie filled letter GT wrote "explaining" one of his votes on energy policy. I hope to build on my comments over there for a post here sometime soon. In the meantime, let's have a go at this tweet. (By the way, the link in the tweet takes you to  the Web site of the Republican members of the  Education & Labor committee where they've posted a portion of a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. The whole article is here. )

The good news is that I don't really have to do much work to clean up the load that GT's shoveled our way, since the invaluable Kevin Drum dealt with this particular pile of bullshit yesterday.

We're not talking about university health centers here, we're talking about actual health insurance policies. And if you read through the rest of the story, you find that most students are insured through their parents' policies. According to the GAO,
"only 7 percent bought their own policies or purchased school-based
plans." Add to that the fact that so far there's no real evidence that
healthcare reform will seriously impact student health policies anyway
(colleges are merely "warning" that it might) and that a lot depends on
the rules HHS sets, which is all part of how healthcare reform is designed to work. HHS rule setting is a big part of the process and was always intended to be.

So: do I expect vast hordes of angry students descending on Capitol
Hill? No. Do I expect HHS to sit around and do nothing about this? No.
Do I expect that some reasonable set of rules will be worked out in the
end? Yes. Do I expect that critics will take any notice of the fact that
yet another scare story about healthcare reform will turn out to be
overblown and ridiculous? No indeedy.

Why does GT insist on bullshitting his constituents?

For You Oldtimers Out There

From StateCollege.com,

Rustum Roy, the founder of Penn State's Materials Research Lab, has passed away, the university announced Thursday morning.

He was 86, according to Penn State.

Rusty was always a character and a self-promoter, but he sure did a good job of tweaking Old Main's nose over the years and for that he will be missed.

It's Beginning to Look Like Penn State Exists Solely For THON

Today's Collegian has a half-assed story  on Penn State's precipitous drop in the Washington Monthly National University Ranking.  The reporter, Micah Wintner, makes no effort to explain why the University dropped like a rock from 7^th to 35^th place.  Basically the story is Penn State drops in Washington Monthly ranking....hey, look over there THON....economic impact...wait!... is that Graham playing the washboard?

You would think that explaining the drop would be the obvious angle on this story.   Let's review, this is from my post last year on the ranking.

This brings me to Social Mobility which clearly is what drives Penn State in to the top ten schools on the overall ranking and something ain't right here. Anyone who has spent any time in Happy Valley over the past fifteen years knows that the Main Campus of Penn State is increasingly populated by upper middle class and upper class students. It's gotten so bad that the University Faculty Senate issued a report a couple years ago on Access and Affordability. It did not paint a pretty picture.

Then there is the 2006 report from Education Trust, Engines of Inequality: Diminishing Equality in the Nation's Premier Public Universities, which I blogged about at the time. Penn State received and overall grade of an F and an F on low income access. The Old Main Propaganda Shop wasn't happy.

The grade on low income access was based on the percentage of Pell Grant recipients at the University Park campus in 2004 which stood at 18.0%, according to the report, compared to 33.6the% of all college students in Pennsylvania with Pell Grant that year. The report also noted a trend toward less access at the Main Campus of Penn State. In 1992, the percentage of students with Pell Grants at the flagship campus was 22.2% compared to 27.7% overall in Pennsylvania.

Washington Monthly has the percentage of Pell Grant recipients at Penn State in 2008 as 25%. Has the University dramatically improved low income access to the Main Campus in the last four years? It is highly unlikely.

The Education Department keeps track of this statistic. For 2008, the total number of recipients of Pell Grants at all campuses of Penn State stood at 16,707 or roughly 25% of system-wide enrollment. (You can download the Excel file here.) That percentage is very likely to be lower at University Park and higher at the branch campuses.

Unfortunately, the most recent data on Pell Grant with a campus breakdown from the National Center for Educational Statistics is 2006. It shows substantial inequality amongst the campuses from a high of 63% at the Shenango campus in northwestern Pennsylvania to a low of 14% at the University Park, the flagship campus. However, the percentage of students with Pell Grants at the University Park campus has been very stable around 15% from 1999 through 2006, hence it is likely that the current percentage is significantly lower than the 25% system-wide number used by the Washington Monthly.

You can find a comparison to the other Big Ten schools plus Berkeley for 2006 here.

I think that it is reasonable to concluded that the Washington Monthly over estimated the percentage of Penn State University Park students on Pell Grants...

So this year Washington Monthly got the Pell Grant percent right and Penn State plunged in the ranking.  How hard was that?

Next question, what does that low Pell Grant percentage  tell us about Penn State fulfilling its mission under Graham?....hands....anyone....com'on people....did anyone do the assigned reading?

Drat! Spoiled Again by Veblen

For the past five years, Washington Monthly has ranked universities according to their purported contribution to  society. Penn State has done very well in the ranking: 2005, 6^th  place ;2006, 3^rd place; 2007, 5^th place; 2008, a presidential election year, the ranking was not done; 2009, 7^th place. 

Penn State has been very proud of finishing in the top ten every year. The headline at The Penn State Propaganda Portal the first year that the ranking came out was, "Penn State ranks near the top of magazine's rankings." The next year the headline was more specific , "Penn State third in Washington Monthly national rankings." In 2007, Graham figured that there's money to be made from Penn State's high finish in this sweepstakes.  His spiel to fat cat donors included this,

...the University has improved the lives of countless citizens of the Commonwealth and beyond. In fact, Washington Monthly has ranked Penn State third among all American universities and colleges for fostering social mobility, public service, and economic growth.

Last year The Penn State Propaganda Portal returned to declaring that "Penn State seventh in Washington Monthly national rankings"

I've discussed the faulty nature of this  ranking in the past on several occasions. The biggest problem with the ranking is on it social mobility scale which uses the percentage of students on Pell Grants in  both components which which make up the scale. There have been some problems with the percentages used by the Washington Monthly. The Pell Grant percentage reported for Penn State, 25%, was for the entire school. The actual percentage for University Park has been closer to 15%. You can read my critiques here,  here and  here.

This year Washington Monthly made an effort to get the Pell Grant percentages right and......drum roll, please............Penn State's Pell Grant percentage, as reported this year, is 13% and Penn State drops like a stone in the ranking to 35^th  place.

Here's your challenge. Help out The Old Main Propaganda Shop by writing a headline for this year's press release announcing Penn State's finish in the Washington Monthly ranking or help out Graham directly by suggesting how this 37^th place  ranking can be used to separate the filthy rich from their money.The title of this post is my headline suggestion, leave your suggestions in the comments. 

Credit Where Credit is Due

This looks like a good idea.

"As our community moves forward to address the challenges of dangerous drinking, we acknowledge that many students' use of alcohol may align less with the one-time alcohol abuse incident, and more with the reality that they may be suffering from an addictive abuse of alcohol," said Damon Sims, vice president for student affairs at Penn State.

"This fall, the Division of Student Affairs at Penn State will provide space for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

It's a small move, but even if it doesn't solve the alcohol abuse problem here, if it  helps only a handful of students, it will be worth it. Kudos to Sims.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Party School, Damon Sims, Alcoholics Anonymous

This Will Work Out Well

Earlier this week at Ag Progress Days, Graham announced the formation of a new Penn State research and outreach center^[1] focused on the Marcellus Shale. The purpose of the center, Penn State's Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research (MCOR), according the to The Penn State Propaganda Portal is

....to work with state agencies, elected officials, communities, landowners, industry and environmental groups to protect the Commonwealth’s water resources, forests and transportation infrastructure while advocating for a science-based and responsible approach to handling the state’s natural gas deposits.

A center such as this could be very valuable if it is trusted by all parties involved. One of he factors which will determine whether there will be trust is the funding sources for the center. The press release linked to above notes that initial funding for the center is internal.

Penn State has committed major resources to establish and staff the Marcellus Center (MCOR) with support from the colleges of Agricultural Sciences and Earth and Mineral Sciences, the Penn State Institutes for Energy and the Environment (PSIEE) and Penn State Outreach, Spanier said.

Additional funding from PSIEE and the Social Sciences Research Institute (SSRI) at Penn State is underwriting investigation of human/social impacts and environmental issues related to Marcellus development by teams of cross-disciplinary collaborators ...

But eventually, as noted by The Penn State Propaganda Portal,  Penn State hopes to leverage this investment, "The goal of these research seed grants is to develop proposals for external funding agencies."  This is where things get a bit sticky.

External funding agencies suggest that the center is interested in obtaining government grants which would be a good way of avoiding conflicts of interest, but Graham actually elaborated on this in his remarks at Ag Progress Days.

Spanier said the center does not yet have outside funding, but the university hopes to get financial support from the state and the industry.

Financial support from industry, what could go wrong with that?

Earlier this summer, there was an outcry over an Penn State economic impact study of the Marcellus Shale which was funded by industry and very likely grossly over estimated the economic impact. 

On two separate occasions, the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center counseled law makers to disregard the conclusions of these two “Penn State studies” because of their funding and bias. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry produced a parallel study on employment, “Marcellus Shale Industry Overview,” which estimated only a small fraction of the touted jobs. Neither Pennsylvania College of Technology’s “Marcellus Shale Workforce Needs Assessment” nor Penn State Cooperative Extension’s “Potential Economic Impacts of Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania” supports the exaggerated claims of these two industry funded papers.

The report  also advocated against the implementation of a severance tax on drillers, which the drilling industry opposes.

If Penn State wants this center to be seen as an honest broker, then it must eschew all industry funding.

But being an honest broker may not be what is on Graham's mind. There's money to made in the Marcellus Shale and where there's money to be made Graham will try to get a little taste. Consider that  the Office of the Vice President for Research at Penn State maintains a database of University research centers, institutes and facilities for industry to find potential research partners which includes the Astrobiology Research Center. If they are dreaming of making  a couple of industry dollars on Astrobiology, imagine the wet dreams they are having in Old Main over the Marcellus Shale.

[1] This link to the CDT article, published on August 19th, 2010, will evaporate in about two weeks. You can access the article after that at NewsBank which is available free online at Schlow Library or the Penn State library.

Technorati Tags: The Penn State's Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research, Penn State, Spanier, Marcellus Shale, conflict of interest

Someone Here at Penn State....

....should steal borrow this idea and adapt it to Penn State. I give you the University of Binge Drinking Web site.

Welcome to the University of Binge Drinking! Here you will become oriented in the dangerous drinking that occurs on our property. You will learn about our policies that take our state laws and modify them so that they allow us to look the other way, the insane amounts of money we make from those binge drinkers, and finally the skyrocketing crime that results from our recklessness, but it is important to remember that's all the 19 and 20 year olds fault.

Go take a look at the site...you won't be sorry that you did.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, University of Iowa, Party School, Alcohol Abuse

Sorting Out the Convoluted Web....

...well, not so much.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
News Corp. Gives Money to Republicans
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Technorati Tags: The Daily Show, Glenn Beck, Fox News, GOP

Setting an Example

Carnegie Mellon University's President Jared L. Cohon will step down on June 30, 2013 after sixteen years in the job. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,

Penn State University President Graham Spanier called Cohon "one of the great leaders in American higher education in the modern era."

While Cohon had this to say about his retirement,

"It's just time," Cohon, 62, said during a conference call with reporters. A CMU tenured-faculty member, he plans to teach courses spanning civil and environmental engineering and public policy.

"Sometimes individuals can go on for longer than they should," Cohon said. "Universities need new leaders from time to time. They need people with fresh ideas."

Graham I suggest that you listen real close to this great leader's words of  wisdom and consider following in his footsteps....as fast as you can.

Technorati Tags: Graham Spanier, Jared L. Cohon, Carnegie Mellon University

The Media Finally Reports on a GT No Vote and Gets a Quote From Him

Last week House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (R-CA) called the House back into a rare August session to vote on an emergency funding bill for Medicaid and education. The bill passed, despite GOP opposition, and Obama signed it into law.

In Pennsylvania, its passage staved off a financial catastrophe.

The Pennsylvania Legislature approved a budget for 2010-11 based on the hope of receiving $850 million in Medicaid funding.
Gov. Ed Rendell, who once predicted as many as 12,000 layoffs if no additional Medicaid money were received, has said that, with $600 million, some layoffs are still possible next month. The governor and legislative leaders are expected to meet to decide how to close that gap.

But GT voted against the bill, and thanks to WENY-TV in Elmira, New York, we know, for once, what GT says about the reason he voted the way that he did.

Northern Tier Congressman Glenn Thompson voted against it, saying it's spending more money at a time when the country can't afford it. “This is about the fact that we're experiencing challenging times fiscally.” Thompson says, “and when you experience challenging times, everybody has to tighten the belt.”

However the Congressional Budget Office says while the bill does add to the deficit over five years, in ten years, it would break even and actually reduce the overall deficit

Well, there you have it, we, in the Centre Region, have to rely on an out-of-state TV station to get GT's bullshitting on record.

Technorati Tags: Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5), emergency medicaid education bill

If a Drunk Penn State Student Falls in an Alley and "This American Life" Isn't There to See It, Does Penn State Still Have an Alcohol Abuse Problem?

I am a little late on this, but earlier this month the Princeton Review Party School Ranking came out. Penn State dropped from  first place last year to third place this year. That mean's that the national spotlight will now shift away from Penn State to the University of Georgia, this year's top school.  We'll have to wait and see if  Old Main's will to deal with the alcohol abuse problem around here , which was dialed up last year after the first place showing in the Party School Ranking, the alcohol related death of freshman Joe Dado, and a revealing portrayal of Penn State's party culture on This American Life,  diminishes now that the public relation problem has been solved to some degree.

It's worth noting the Penn Staters are taking the drop in the ranking in stride.  Here's Jake Wiest a junior architectural engineering major in a letter to the Collegian.

The review relies on a survey that states an average of 325 students per school filled it out. First, we must assume everyone filling this out is doing so in an honest manner, not just to talk up the school's party scene. Assuming this, than a poll of less than 0.8 percent of the student population, a horribly inadequate number, determined our ranking.
I'm not saying that we would've stayed at No. 1 had more people filled out the survey -- perhaps quite the opposite. I'm saying who cares. Both the university and student population should put little stock into this overly hyped and insufficient survey.

Jake echos Penn State Bullshit Artist Geoff Rushton reaction,

"How do you scientifically gauge something like this?" Rushton said. "I don't think you do."

[...]

For Rushton, the rankings not only hold no real legitimacy -- they also have zero purpose.

The ranking is not representative of all students, he said, as many students drink responsibly.

"It's kind of insulting to our students, who are very bright, hard-working and dedicated to their studies," he said.

But Jake takes a very different lesson away from this observation about the lack of scientific legitimacy of the ranking,

I say the students should just keep doing your thing; everyone knows we party harder than the University of Georgia and Ohio University anyway.

I've gotta say, I think Jake's got a better grip on the reality here than Geoff does.

I mean it was a couple of those very bright, hard-working and dedicated recent Penn State graduates  that used their talents to come up with this.

During their time here, some Penn State graduates engineered a way to drink liquor without actually tasting anything -- and they say it may become the next social staple for college students across the nation.

Their product is the SLIZ Cup -- a "drinking vessel designed to eliminate the cringe between taking a shot and reaching for the chaser," said Anthony Vella, one of the product's creators.

It's a cup on top, with a straw for the handle.

To get the shot and chaser experience, co-creator Maurio Foire, Class of 2010, said users pour the alcohol into the SLIZ cup, add a non-alcoholic beverage and then drink quickly through the straw before letting the drink mix.

[...]

Inventing, marketing and selling SLIZ has been quite the experience, Vella said. The group got the chance to learn hands-on about entreprenuership, meet some interesting people along the way and "probably had too much fun conducting the necessary 'market research' which came with a lot of vodka," he said.

Hey, I know you're curious about the SLIZ Cup, so  here's their Web site.

Anyway, I'll keep an eye on Graham and Old Main this year to see if they slack off in their efforts to deal with Penn State's alcohol abuse problem.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Princeton Review Party School ranking, Spanier

Xtians Are Weird

Here's a thought provoking report from yesterday's CDT (This link will die in about two weeks, after that you  can go to News Bank, which is free online at Schlow and Pattee,  if you really want to read the whole article.).

When Dannah Gresh tries to convince 8-to 12-year-old girls about the importance of sexual purity, modesty and not blindly following peer pressure, she’ll have some new partners.

They’re animated. They’re anthropomorphic. They’re vegetables.

Gresh’s “Secret Keeper Girl Live: The Pajama Party Tour,” which will debut in State College on Tuesday, will include characters from VeggieTales, a Christian-themed animated video series that mixes pop culture references with moral themes. The video series has spawned a television series, books, CDs and two movies.

“We’re just honored out of our minds,” said Gresh, a State College resident, relationship coach and author who founded the nonprofit Pure Freedom with her husband, Bob.

VeggieTales officials approached Gresh several months ago, while she was doing a show in Nashville. The two main VeggieTales characters are Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, and their stories have included a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph (who had a gift for understanding dreams) that’s set in the Wild West, parodies “Bonanza” and focuses on the importance of overcoming hardship

A new VeggieTales character, Sweetpea Beauty, will focus on teaching girls about the importance of inner beauty, Gresh said.

The hell with Sweetpea Beauty, I'm really curious how Larry the Cucumber fits in with the promotion of sexual purity in girls and I wonder if  Larry has anything to do with the secrets which are kept.

Technorati Tags: Humor, Dannah Gresh, Bob Gresh, Secret Keepers

Well, What Do You Think of the Changes Around Here?

Let me know in comments what you like and don't like about the new site design.

Technorati Tags: Housekeeping Note

In Our Backyard

Things may not be going too well next door.

LOCK HAVEN - Faced with declining state financial support, Lock Haven University has told its faculty union that layoffs - or retrenchment, in bargaining terms - are possible.

The school has until Oct. 31 to notify the 264 professor-faculty members of the local chapter of the Association of Pennsylvania State Colleges and Universities Faculties if job cuts will be made.

In a prepared statement issued to The Express, university Interim President Dr. Barbara B. Dixon said, "As part of its ongoing actions to address projected budget shortfalls in the next three years ... retrenchment cannot be ruled out during the 2011-2012 academic year because of financial considerations, elimination or consolidation of academic programs and courses, program curtailment or other reasons."

The announcement was sent by letter to Dr. Mark Cloud, local APSCUF chapter president.

This is a reminder that the  worst of the Great Recession may still be ahead of us and that it may hit closer to home next year when the stimulus funds for higher education dry up.

Housekeeping Update: I've upgraded my hardware and now I'm in the process of getting everything just right.  Over the weekend, I should finally be getting around to redesign of Left of Centre. In the meantime, blogging will remain light.

Technorati Tags: Unemployment, Higher Education, Lock Haven University

Housekeeping Note

Blogging will be light this week. I'm in need of a long overdue hardware upgrade that  I hope to accomplish sometime this week.  Faster hardware, I'm hoping, will greatly improve my productivity.

Once the hardware is upgraded, I'm planning on a redesign of the blog. I have heard complaints  about how hard the white on black is to read and I'm finally going to do something about it. My overall goal in the redesign is to have the look of the blog to be similar to  my Twitter homepage.   There will be a tiled background image like the one on Twitter.  And the color palette will be the same.  Go over to Twitter (Link fixed.) and let me  know in comments  what you think about the color palette in general and its readability in particular.

In addition, Blogger now has static pages on to which I'll be moving much of the material in the two right hand  columns. I'll add a horizontal navigation bar at the top of the blog from which the pages will be accessed.

If any big stories break, like Graham announces that he's chucking it all and joining the circus, I'll be sure to post. Otherwise don't expect much until at least the second half of the week.

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@CongressmanBS

GT is at it again.

From Blogger Pictures

When people ask him  "How can we justify tax cuts[?]" he responds with bullshit.  Let's take a closer look at this.

First, let me concede that GT is almost correct when he says that more than 50% of those that will be affected by allowing the Bush/Cheney tax cuts to expire on high income taxpayers are small business owners. Almost because the figure applies to taxpayers that claim  small business income. Not all of these taxpayers are, in fact, small business owners. 

Setting that aside for the moment, let me  be clear that that this is not the same as 50% of small business owners will be affected by the expiration of the tax cuts, but my guess is that many who read GT's tweet get that wrong impression. And GT, or more likely a smarter staffer, probably  was aiming to induce that misunderstanding.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center reports that a  large proportion (33%) of taxpayers claiming small business income either have incomes too low to pay taxes or are in the lowest tax bracket. In fact, 14.5% taxpayers claiming small business income claim the Earned Income Tax Credit for low income workers.

How many taxpayers claiming small business income will be hit by the expiration of the Bush/Cheney tax cut on high income taxpayers? That would be 1.9%,  again according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.  But about half of these taxpayers aren't small business owners. Included in this number are high income investors who receive part of their income from investments in small business. As the Tax Policy Center noted, of the 1.9% of taxpayers  with

...small-business income who face one of the top two tax rates are merely passive investors who have nothing to do with running the business. This is because the Tax Policy Center data cited above use the Treasury Department’s relatively broad definition of “small business.” Under the Treasury definition, for example, the $84 of income President Bush received in 2001 from a passive investment in an oil and gas company7 made him a “small-business owner.” About 35 percent of “small-business owners” with incomes above $200,000, and about 58 percent of “small-business owners” with incomes over $1 million, received some or all of their business income in the form of passive investments. The Treasury definition also counts as “small-business income” the fees that CEOs are paid for sitting on corporate boards.

From Blogger Pictures

So we see the reason that  more than 50% of taxpayers who would see their tax bill go up after the Bush/Cheney tax cut expires are "small business owners" is that many high income earners get some of their income classified by Treasury as coming from a small business even though they are not small business owners.

How much would extending the Bush/Cheney cuts for ten years cost the US Treasury? That would be $678 billion.

An how many jobs would we get for that price tag? Not too many would be my guess. Recall,  that during the whole Bush presidency while these cuts were in effect, which included, let us not forget, the housing bubble, the rate of job creation never matched that during the Clinton years. 

But I'd  still be interested in hearing how many jobs GT thinks this $678 billion give away to the rich would create and why?. Comon', give us a ballpark figure GT.

(h/t Kevin Drum)

Technorati Tags: Bush/Cheney tax cut extension, Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5)

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For GT Legislatin' is Like Paintin' by Numbers

Last week GT joined 158 of his Republican colleagues to defeat a bill which would have created a fund for  9/11 emergency responders who have health problems due to the toxic environment created by the collapse of the World Trade Center.

As with his no vote on extending emergency  unemployment insurance, GT has not  seen fit to issue a press release explaining  why he has voted the way he has on this. He hasn't  even a twitter twatted, his favorite form of keeping constituents abreast of the depths of his mind. I'm guessing he isn't too proud of the vote and hopes than no one in the local  press notices it. A pretty good bet around these parts.

You can find the background on the bill here and what other wingers in the House have said about their no votes here  The reaction of both Democrats and Republicans are  here and a  Democrat responded in detail here. Then you can try to guess which Clown Caucus approved talking points (PDF) GT would check off as his reason for voting no, if forced to explain his "reasoning."
(Cartoon via watertiger at Dependable Renegade ,a very funny blog which I highly recommended.)

Technorati Tags: 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA5)

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Times Must be Really Tough at the CDT

Bob Heisse blogged today about attending the AP's Managing Editors board meeting in NYC this past weekend.  What's interesting is how he traveled to and from the Big Apple. Bob

...took the Megabus for the first time to and from New York and had a nice ride. The New York stop right outside Penn Station was organized and effective in letting passengers know about their departures.

Now that's frugal.

Technorati Tags: Centre Daily Times, Bob Heisse, Megabus

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Shale Schlocked

OMG!!!! We're goin'a be rich!!! Stop your worrin' 'bout drinkin' water and such.

That's the way wingers want Pennsylvanians to react over the Macelleus Shale. Consider uberwinger GT,  who recently tweeted,"On House Floor to discuss 60 year history of natural gas hydro-fracking, record of zero confirmed groundwater contamination & DEP oversight."  Stories like this one from The Patriot-News today are important as reminders of the reality behind this gold rush mentality.

Marcellus Shale gas drillers in Pennsylvania commit an average of 1.5 regulatory violations per day, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Land Trust, based on Right To Know requests to the Department of Environmental Protection.

In the last two and a half years, drilling companies were cited for 1,435 violations -- 952 of which were considered most likely to harm the environment, according to the report.

Nearly half of the violations were related to improper erosion and sedimentation plans and improper construction of wastewater impoundments that contain fracking water. These impoundments were improperly lined or not structurally sound.

[...]

In one instance, the Department of Agriculture quarantined a Tioga County farmer’s cattle because they could have ingested the frack water that leaked from the impoundment.

There were 155 citations for discharging industrial waste onto the ground or into commonwealth waters.

There were 100 violations of the state Clean Streams Law.

East Resources Inc. of Warrendale had the highest number of violations with 138, followed by Chesapeake Appalachia LLC, a subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy, with 118, and Chief Oil & Gas LLC of Dallas with 109.

Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas, the company responsible for contaminated drinking water wells in Dimock, was fourth with 94 violations.

The list of companies with the worst performance records in terms of the number of violations per well drilled was topped by J-W Operating Co., of Dallas, which drilled only one well and racked up 11 violations. Citrus Energy Corp. of Castle Rock, Colo., averaged seven violations per well, and Penn Virginia Oil & Gas Corp. of Radnor  averaged four violations per well.

And DEP may not be the protector that some would have us believe. Go read the article for more.

Technorati Tags: Macellus Shale, Ground water, DEP, violations

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