Congress More Unpopular Than IRS (Or Communism)

The current Congress has reached a historic level of unpopularity. The most unpopular federal government agency, the Internal Revenue Service, is more than four times as popular as Congress. Even other groups commonly reviled in this country (such as bankers, lawyers, and oil companies -- even BP during the Gulf disaster) are all significantly more popular than Congress. Hell, even the idea of the United States going communist is 2% more popular than the current Congress!

The worst part of this is that this is not due to a misperception on the part of the American people. Congress has earned every single percentage point of their massive unpopularity. The country is still mired in a recession, millions of Americans are out of work and not nearly enough new jobs are being created, jobs are still being outsourced to foreign countries, there is a $15 trillion national debt, wages for workers have remained stagnant while their buying power has significantly declined, poverty is reaching record levels, housing prices continue to fall as foreclosures continue at a record-setting pace, and the incomes of the super-rich (the top 1%) has increased by over 270% while their taxes paid remained virtually what they were 30 years ago (creating a huge gap between the rich and the rest of America).

A New Low

Political Cartoon is by Mike Keefe in The Denver Post.

The Militarization Of The Police

I wrote yesterday about the indefensible actions of a policeman who pepper-sprayed peaceful sitting demonstrators at the University of California - Davis. But that was far from the only police overreaction that has happened against the peaceful Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. Several people were hospitalized in Oakland due to unnecessary and brutal police actions. In Seattle, a pregnant woman was pepper-sprayed and attacked, and that was most likely the cause of her miscarriage a couple of days later. And those are just three of many incidents across the country.

Some on the right have been trying to make excuses for the unnecessary police actions against peaceful people trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Just a couple of nights ago, a couple of talking heads on Fox News tried to minimize the use of pepper spray. Responding to a statement by Bill O'Reilly just causes some burning of the eyes, Megyn Kelly said, "It's like a derivative of actual pepper. It's like a food product, essentially."

Turkeys

Political Cartoon is by John Cole in the Scranton Times-Tribune.

Will Democrats Get Their Fondest Wish ?

For months now the Democrats have been hoping that the Republicans would give them the wonderful present of nominating one of their truly crazy candidates to be their presidential nominee. It not that they don't think President Obama could beat Mitt Romney -- I think most Democrats think he would. But if one of the real nut-jobs were to get the nomination, it would not only make the election much easier, it could also have a down-ballot effect of putting many more Democrats into office.

Democrats have kept their fingers crossed as one after another of the crazies took their turn at leading the Republican race -- from Donald Trump to Michele Bachmann & Ron Paul to Rick Perry to Herman Cain. All of them would have been wonderful candidates -- in Democratic eyes. But they all fell by the wayside. However, hope is not lost.

The Last Thanksgiving

Political Cartoon is by R.J. Matson in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The "God Lobby" Is Growing In Washington

Most Americans may believe in a separation between church and state (religion and government) but it look like a lot of so-called "religious" organizations don't. There are about 212 religious groups that spend a ton on money lobbying Congress -- about $390 million a year. This seems like a waste of a lot of money to me, since the Constitution forbids the government from interfering with the free expression of religion by any individual. It also forbids the government from favoring any one religion over others. I suspect that this money is being spent to get around those constitutional guarantees -- to get the government to favor a particular religion or religious belief. I can't help but believe that $390 million could be spent in a better way, like feeding and clothing the poor. After all, aren't we our brother's keeper?

Why Nothing Gets Done

Do you ever wonder why Congress won't do anything to help the people they are supposed to serve? Why they won't act to create jobs? Why they don't want to make having decent healthcare a right for everyone? Why they are perfectly OK with the top 1-10% of Americans owning most of this country and getting most of the wealth and income?

This chart explains that very clearly. 183 House members and 43 Senators are among the richest 1% of Americans. And the richest 10% of Americans includes 357 House members and 83 senators. They don't want to tax the rich because they are the rich. Only 30 members of the House and 7 Senators are not in the top quintile, meaning they are in the bottom 80% with most Americans (but even they make over $160,000 a year with great benefits and perks).

Congress won't help the Americans hurt by this recession because no one in Congress understands what it's like to be without a job and bills coming due. They haven't been hurt by this recession. Some of them don't care, and most of the rest don't understand. That's why it's going to be very hard to change anything in this country.

Super-Committee Failure Is A Good Thing

The images above are of the members of the congressional "super committee", composed of six Democrats and six Republicans. They were tasked with the job of coming up with a way to cut the budget deficit by another $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. But after weeks of arguing, they finally admitted yesterday that they had failed. They were unable to agree on a proposal to submit to Congress for a vote.

The Republicans wanted to cut the whole $1.2 trillion by doing nothing but cutting programs that help ordinary Americans. They absolutely refused to cut the defense budget (which makes  up more than half of all discretionary spending -- and about 44% of all military spending worldwide). They also refused to even consider raising taxes -- including tax raises that would only affect those making over a million dollars a year. The plan wanted by the Republicans would have been good for the military-industrial complex, other corporations, and the richest Americans, but it would have been disastrous for most other Americans.

Never Mind

Political Cartoon is by Daryl Cagle at msnbc.com.

Capital Gains - The Unfairest Tax Of All

It is a fact that an American citizen that makes $34,500 (well below the median national income) is taxed at a higher rate than most millionaires and billionaires who make most of their income from "capital gains". That's because the federal government makes a distinction between types of income. Wages and salaries (which makes up the total income of most Americans) is taxed at the regular income tax rate, while income derived from capital gains (investment income which comprises the bulk of the incomes of the rich) are taxed at a special lower rate.

Most Americans think that as a person's income increases, they are taxed at a higher rate. It's called the "progressive" income tax. But that is only true for income from salaries and wages. All income from capital gains is taxed at a flat 15% rate -- regardless of how much of that income is earned ($10 billion or more in capital gains income would be taxed at the same 15% rate as a paltry $100 in capital gains income).

And most capital gains income is earned by the richest Americans -- the Americans who could most afford to pay taxes. In fact, more than 80% of all capital gains income in the past 20 years has been earned by the richest 5% of Americans. And more than half of all capital gains income in the last 20 years has been earned by the richest 0.1% (that's only one tenth of one percent -- or about 315,000 Americans).

Corruption Occupies Capitol Hill

Political Cartoon is by Pat Bagley in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Unnecessary Police Violence Is Indefensible

By now you have probably seen the above picture. It shows a policeman pepper-spraying students staging a non-violent protest at the University of California - Davis. And frankly, this image makes me sick. It is inexcusable behavior on the part of the policeman (and the other police at the scene who did not stop him).

Before I go further, I feel I need to say that I am not one of those who believe there is never a reason for the police to use force. I spent over 25 years in various jobs in law enforcement (working in a correctional institution, as a patrol officer for a university located in a high crime area, and as a parole officer -- in both the adult and juvenile systems). I have faced many violent and dangerous situations, and many others that had the potential to turn violent. I know that there are times when force (violence) is required.

But the force applied to control a person or group must always be the minimum amount of force needed to protect the safety of individuals (or the officer). And if the safety of no individual is at stake, then the use of force is never to be used. And the use of both pepper spray and tasers do constitute the use of force (violence). They may be advertised as non-lethal (which is not always true), but that does not mean they are not a use of force.

In the above situation these students being pepper-sprayed presented no danger to the police or anyone else (or any property). The students were peaceably assembled and had made no threats to engage in any violence. In addition, they were sitting on the ground -- the most non-threatening posture they could assume. I do not see how the police officer's action could possibly be justified.

This is certainly not an example of good police procedure. In fact, it is not even an example of bad police procedure. It is simply a mean individual who is using his position of authority to cause unnecessary pain and suffering to other people. If someone else did this, it would be classified as an assault and they would be arrested. And that is exactly what should happen to this officer -- he should be arrested and charged with assault and misuse of authority. Then he should be fired (since he obviously has no respect for the law or the badge he is tarnishing).

There are many thousands of brave and decent men and women who put their lives on the line daily to protect and serve the general public by wearing the badge of a police officer in this country. With his unnecessary and mean-spirited behavior, this officer has not only tarnished the reputation of decent officers all over this country, but he has also made their jobs a little bit more difficult. That is inexcusable.

Skeletons In The Closet

Political Cartoon is by Kevin Kallaugher (KAL) in The Economist.