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10291 [lbo-talk] Fw: Deer Hunting With Jesus -- rank: 1000

On Nov 17, 2007, at 4:00 PM, Marvin Gandall wrote: > But you'll find precisely these sentiments also expressed by Polish- > American > and Irish-American Catholics, for example, and even by > traditionally liberal > Jewish-Americans against the poor and unemployed - especially > against the > non-white poor and unemployed. Historically though they've been more likely to vote Democrat than their Protestant counterparts. And fundie Protestants are the most Republican demogra ...

Document Size:	5162
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Nov 17 13:12:41 PST 2007

10292 [lbo-talk] new radio product -- rank: 1000

[It's been ages since since I posted one of these. That was a combination of fundraiser pre-emptions and operator error. The podcasts are posted much more quickly than these announcements, so if you want to be more current, subscribe to the podcast version.] BEHIND THE NEWS with Doug Henwood podcast: <http://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/radio-feed.php> iTunes: <http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/ viewPodcast?id=73801817> or http://tinyurl.com/3bsaqb "Best Music on an ...

Document Size:	11366
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Nov 17 13:02:58 PST 2007

10293 [lbo-talk] Obama denies unspecified charge that Clinton hasn't made (but Novak sorta did) -- rank: 1000

<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/6949.html> Obama: Don't 'Swift boat' me By: Mike Allen and Ben Smith Nov 17, 2007 12:54 PM EST In an unusual preemptive statement, the Democratic presidential candidate reacts to a report that a smear is coming. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) took the rare step of issuing a statement in his own name on Saturday to call attention to a report by columnist Robert D. Novak that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is sitting on "scanda ...

Document Size:	10595
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Nov 17 11:17:16 PST 2007

10294 [lbo-talk] black class gap -- rank: 1000

On Nov 16, 2007, at 11:28 PM, ravi wrote: > I am guessing here (since I have not read and have no interest in > reading N&D) But that won't stop you from offering an opinion on it? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since this is the Internet, but really. At least I've listened to enough U2 to know they're pious bombastic hacks. Doug

Document Size:	4874
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Nov 17 08:27:53 PST 2007

10295 [lbo-talk] "Beautiful Men"/Re: black class gap -- rank: 1000

On Nov 17, 2007, at 7:10 AM, Chris Doss wrote: > --- andie nachgeborenen > <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote: > >> >> Anyway, I think this is one way worth contemplation >> to >> handle beautiful men with convictions that we >> disagree >> but in which they passionately believe. >> > > Heydrich was killed because of his acts, not his convictions. I believe that's the point. It was a response to Bono's claim that Jesse Helms h ...

Document Size:	5460
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Nov 17 05:18:52 PST 2007

10296 [lbo-talk] black class gap -- rank: 1000

On Nov 16, 2007, at 5:21 PM, John Thornton wrote: > What if I want to write a book about how stupid the working poor > are and > so I do what Ehrenreich did to get close to working poor people. > I buddy up, lie to them and tell them I'm 'one of them' and get > them to > open up and tell me things they might not tell a researcher. > Then I turn and use that information and rake them over the coals and > cite numerous examples of just how stupid they are to support the ide ...

Document Size:	5385
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 16 14:34:35 PST 2007

10297 [lbo-talk] The flat tax and income inequality -- rank: 1000

On Nov 16, 2007, at 3:52 PM, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > The classic flat tax, by the way, IS a VAT But a classic flat tax is on income, while a VAT is on consumption. Since the rich consume a smaller proportion of their income than the nonrich, a consumption tax is inherently regressive, despite the flatness of the rate. Of course, in the U.S., any move towards a flat tax wouldn't be offset by redistribution on the spending side. It would just make the fisc reinforce the inequality of marke ...

Document Size:	5179
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 16 13:10:52 PST 2007

10298 [lbo-talk] devah pager -- rank: 1000

On Nov 16, 2007, at 3:36 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > I myself don't believe what follows, and if someone else made a > serious > claim along these lines I would scoff at it. I offer it just as a > marginal possibility to speculate on. > > The War on Crime and the War on Drugs -- as almost all on this list > would agree -- are mindless idiocies if they are serioulsy intended to > affect either crime or drugs. Now comes the speculation: > > Do these events, along with at ...

Document Size:	6169
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 16 12:54:04 PST 2007

10299 [lbo-talk] devah pager -- rank: 1000

On Nov 15, 2007, at 10:46 PM, bhandari at berkeley.edu wrote: > Thanks for alerting us to Devah Pager's findings about the miserable > treatment of ex cons. It seems like she has done some actually > empirically > rich objective work which is neither a numerical nor wordy > elaboration of > the obvious. I look forward to reading her book and listening to the > interview, which I am sure is a true contribution (like Pager's > book) to > social enlightenment. Hope that d ...

Document Size:	5749
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 16 12:18:00 PST 2007

10300 [lbo-talk] the whatever thread -- rank: 1000

On Nov 16, 2007, at 3:52 AM, Jim Straub wrote: > (please do tell me that at least Angelina > cares about the refugee babies On last night's show, Bill O'Reilly said that he had his people look into Angelina. He wanted to believe she was a phony. They found out that she gives away a lot of money and is for real. Besides being one of the most beautiful women on earth! Doug

Document Size:	4871
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 16 12:15:24 PST 2007

10301 [lbo-talk] The flat tax and income inequality -- rank: 1000

On Nov 16, 2007, at 1:05 PM, Robert Wrubel wrote: > As I understand it, we already have a regressive tax > system (you and I paying 35% while capital gains are > only taxed at 15%.) A flat tax could be an improvement > on that. That's what flat-tax advocates want you to believe, but it's not true. The federal tax system is still progressive, despite all the reforms over the years. <http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/77xx/doc7718/EffectiveTaxRates.pdf> effective tax rates, all federal tax ...

Document Size:	5486
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 16 12:02:56 PST 2007

10302 [lbo-talk] greening of OPEC -- rank: 1000

Just heard energy pundit Daniel Yergin on CNBC reporting from the OPEC summit. The consensus of OPEC ministers - OPEC! - is that "the debate on global warming is over - the only question is what to do about it." That leaves the Republican Party, James Heartfield, and Alex Cockburn as the last remaining denialists!

Document Size:	4844
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 16 08:45:54 PST 2007

10303 [lbo-talk] The flat tax and income inequality -- rank: 1000

On Nov 16, 2007, at 10:39 AM, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > (I haven't read the Rogoff piece.) I don't know what kind of tax > system China has now, but if you barely have one that works to > begin with, in a developing country with a lot of destitute people, > a flat tax is not a bad starting point. The zero bracket could > eliminate the need for many to owe any tax. You can always add > brackets, and you can also have a different rate on the business > side of the tax (assumi ...

Document Size:	6044
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 16 07:53:12 PST 2007

10304 [lbo-talk] mortgage probs deepen -- rank: 1000

Ed Hyman, who as I've pointed out before is Wall Street's favorite economist because he embodies tomorrow's conventional wisdom today, points out in his morning commentary that 1) better credits are either pre-paying mortgages or successfully refinancing, meaning that the remaining subprime credits are deteriorating in quality, suggesting more defaults to come, and 2) many troubled borrowers have more debt than their lenders realized, suggesting more defaults to come.

Document Size:	5046
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 16 07:25:00 PST 2007

10305 [lbo-talk] black class gap -- rank: 1000

On Nov 16, 2007, at 7:43 AM, John Thornton wrote: > She lied. Wow. That's the sort of thing I expect from a hack at the Columbia Journalism School but not here. So she lied. Big deal. Who was hurt by that lie? Some low-wage employers whose practices she revealed to millions of readers who hadn't known about them before. Or is it just an offense against some ideal of moral purity? Doug

Document Size:	4837
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 16 05:01:09 PST 2007