Go Free Yourself

Want to know what happens when you raise taxes in a weak economy? Look no further than Michigan.

My beloved home state was the subject of an excellent Wall Street Journal editorial yesterday, entitled “Granholm’s Tax Warning.” Here’s an excerpt (including a mention of our friend and ally, Leon Drolet of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance):

Michigan is now in the 18th month of a state-wide recession, and the unemployment rate of 6.9% remains far above the national rate of 5%. Ms. Granholm blames the nationwide mortgage meltdown and higher energy prices for the job losses and disappearing revenues, but this Great Lakes state is in its own unique hole. Nearby Illinois (5.4% jobless rate) and even Ohio (5.6%) are doing better.

Leon Drolet, the head of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, complains that “we are witnessing the Detroit-ification of Michigan.” By that he means that the same high tax and spend policies that have hollowed out the Motor City are now infecting many other areas of the state.

The tax hikes have done nothing but accelerate the departures of families and businesses. Michigan ranks fourth of the 50 states in declining home values, and these days about two families leave for every family that moves in. Making matters worse is that property taxes are continuing to rise by the rate of overall inflation, while home values fall. Michigan natives grumble that the only reason more people aren’t blazing a path out of the state is they can’t sell their homes. Research by former Comerica economist David Littmann finds that about the only industry still growing in Michigan is government. Ms. Granholm’s $44.8 billion budget this year further fattened agency payrolls.

Read the whole thing here.

(Hat Tip: Fark)

After renting the disaster that was Semi-Pro this weekend (I had such high hopes—it starred Will Ferrell!), I was ready for a good movie. The Singing Revolution delivered. It’s about Estonia’s struggle to end Soviet occupation with a series of non-violent demonstrations, and it’s an amazing story. Plus, the music is beautiful.

If you’re in Chicago, it plays at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. tonight at the Gene Siskel Theater. Visit the movie’s website to watch the trailer and see the other locations where it’s playing. If it’s not showing anywhere near you, you can sign up to bring it to a nearby theater.

Read the New York Times review of the movie here.

Go see it! You won’t be sorry.

Did you know that Rachael Ray is a terrorist sympathizer? Yeah, me either.

But yes, according to the latest in conservative brilliance, Rachael Ray—the gregarious host of the Food Network’s 30 Minute Meals and the creator of annoying phrases like “yummo”—sympathizes with terrorists because she wore a scarf in one of her latest Dunkin Donuts ads.

Seriously? Seriously?!

Is she annoying? Yes. Obnoxious? Definitely. But a terrorist sympathizer? Give me a break.

Nevertheless, some conservatives are all up in arms because Ray’s scarf evidently resembles a keffiyeh, which is a traditional headdress worn by Arab men. From the Boston Globe:

Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott.

‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column.

‘‘Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.’’

Dunkin Donuts initially dismissed the complaints, but later decided it’d just be easier to pull the ad.

Good grief.

In the group I run with, Obama isn’t exactly getting glowing endorsements. There are the oh-so-witty quips—”Now that’s a change we can believe in,” referring to anything (and therefore nothing of substance)—and the disparaging comments and the snorts of disapproval. Fundamentalist libertarians and conservatives seem to have trouble understanding why one might consider a “tax-and-spend Democrat”…as if that’s any better than a spend-and-spend-and-spend Republican.

Anyway, I read an interesting post today by Andrew Sullivan, narrating why he (a conservative) wants Obama to win. Here’s an excerpt:

I haven’t sat through a single Obama speech without ideologically wincing at something. I fear that in the general election, his recourse to liberal tropes will begin to wear thin.

So why do I find myself still longing for him to win?

Because, I can’t see how domestic policy could become more statist and less responsible than the past eight years. Because I want to see such a record punished with electoral defeat for fear they still don’t know what they did wrong. Because I think Obama’s diplomatic skills and public relations brilliance could serve this country very well. And because of what Obama represents in our collective consciousness.

His candidacy is about renewing what America means to the world and to itself. It is about a collective cultural healing—especially on race. It is about representing the next generation and America’s less domineering but more inspiring place among nations. It is about transparency in government. It is about getting past this brutal cultural polarization for a while. It is about putting reason back into our discourse after the emotional manipulation of the Morris-Rove era. It is about ending torture, restoring Constitutional balance, and adding the power of words, of great words, to restore hope again.

Read Sullivan’s whole piece here. And, as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

You may have noticed I’ve added an Illinois Debt Counter widget to my sidebar—that’s a big chunk of change, is it not?

The Debt Counter is provided by For the Good of Illinois, a not-for-profit Illinois corporation comprised of regular people stepping forward to change how politics is practiced in Illinois state government.

Their mission: to rekindle the spirit of public service among our elected officials. They believe that there’s a role for common sense in Illinois government, and an absence of common sense has led to a lack of state leadership and accountability. By forming a network of average citizens who demand from their elected officials honest dealing and sound decision making, they will strive to create a state government that is transparent and well managed.

In short, they want to make Illinois right again—for regular people.

Visit their website for more, and check back here often to see the status of the debt. I’ll be keeping the counter at the top of my sidebar from now on.

Check out the official video for Weezer’s “Pork and Beans,” off their new “Red Album,” which will be released June 3.

Enjoy:

If there’s anything that really ticks me off, it’s the obscene way in which our government overtaxes us and then wastes the money.

That’s why I’m so glad there are groups doing something about it. One of them is Sheila Weinberg and the Institute for Truth in Accounting, who recently made front-page, above-the-fold news in USA Today. Here’s an excerpt:

The federal government’s long-term financial obligations grew by $2.5 trillion last year, a reflection of the mushrooming cost of Medicare and Social Security benefits as more baby boomers reach retirement.

That’s double the red ink of a year earlier.

Taxpayers are on the hook for a record $57.3 trillion in federal liabilities to cover the lifetime benefits of everyone eligible for Medicare, Social Security and other government programs, a USA TODAY analysis found. That’s nearly $500,000 per household.

When obligations of state and local governments are added, the total rises to $61.7 trillion, or $531,472 per household. That is more than four times what Americans owe in personal debt such as mortgages.

“We’re running deficits in the trillions of dollars, not the hundreds of billions of dollars we’re being told,” says Sheila Weinberg, chief executive of the Institute for Truth in Accounting of Chicago.

Sheila and the Institute are doing important work with their Truth in 2008 project, which aims to make Americans aware of our country’s true financial situation—and force our elected leaders to face the music and deal with this sobering problem.

Read the whole USA Today piece here, and learn more about Sheila’s work here and here.

And—I’m sorry, I can’t resist—I can’t help but think how dear old Dwight Schrute might respond to a financial crisis such as this one. I mean, this is a man who brought up downsizing in his Dunder Mifflin job interview, and tried to eliminate company health care because “in the wild, there is no health care. In the wild, health care is, ‘Ow, I hurt my leg. I can’t run. A lion eats me. I’m dead.’ ” (I couldn’t find a YouTube video of this, so quoting will have to suffice.) Good stuff. We could use a little Dwight Schrute when it comes to government spending.

Happy Friday!

Now you don’t have to choose just one candidate. I mean, seriously, what a hassle that has been. Simply vote the McCain/Clinton/Obama ticket this November and watch all your nightmares come true.

“This nightmare ticket presents the American people with an unprecedented lack of opportunity in 2008,” Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote Tuesday. “For just one vote, citizens will get four years of McCain’s brilliant temper, the incredible inexperience of Barack Obama, and the powerful two-headed monster of Hillary and Bill Clinton.”

“It will be very exciting to see what they’re capable of destroying, ” Cohen added.

Read more here.

Dear Readers (are there any of you left?), I apologize for my scarce postings of late. Things at work got crazy, yadda-yadda-yadda, you know the drill. Anyway, I’m back now and hope you’ll join me for more fun, political discussion, and—of course—a large helping of YouTube clips (including ones from The Office).

Now, moving on. The Tribune ran a great piece yesterday about two “typo personalities” who, “armed with Sharpies, erasers, and righteous indignation…make it their crusade to rid the world of bad signs.”

Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson have not wasted their lives.

They fight a losing battle, an unyielding tide of misplaced apostrophes and poor spelling. But still, they fight. Why, you ask. Because, they say. Because, they must.

For the last three months, they have circled the nation in search of awkward grammar construction. They have ferreted out bad subject-verb agreements, and they have faced stone-faced opposition everywhere. They have shone a light on typos in public places, and they have traveled by a GPS-guided ‘97 Nissan Sentra, sleeping on the couches of college friends and sticking around just long enough to do right by the English language. Then it’s on the road again, off to a new town with new typos.

I particularly enjoyed this piece because of my own hatred for improper use of the English language—I am, after all, part of the best Facebook group of all time: “I judge you when you use poor grammar.” (Join us!)

Anyway, it’s a fun read. Check it out here, and visit the Typo Eradication Advancement League’s website to read more about their typo-correcting cross-country tour.

And seriously, watch the grammar and punctuation. It’s not hard.

Today, Chicago’s aldermen actually did something useful: they repealed the ban on foie gras, which was passed in April 2006.