Wednesday Mashup (2/23/11)

I give you the following about Wisconsin:

- Gosh, Fix Noise is all in a snit over kids joining the protestors, as noted here.

Funny, though – they didn’t seem to have a problem when kids joined the teabaggers (and I just know this little girl keeps Ayn Rand on her shelf right next to “Little Liza Freeze and the Magical Ice Cream Cone Tree” and the Judy Blume series, right?).

- Also, according to this, it looks like Hosni Mubarak Walker is “worried” about people bussed in from other states to join the protests in the state capital.

I didn’t see him too concerned, though, when some person or persons unknown paid for some of those moronic teabaggers to do the very same thing last weekend, as noted here (and by the way, I think it's funny that the quote from Rep. Michael Capuano of Massachusetts is getting spun to be read as if it automatically condones violence against others, particularly in light of this).

- Finally, some dim bulb here over at The Daily Tucker says that Governor “Koch Addiction” Walker ought to just fire all of the striking teachers when, as it turns out, that’s impossible; that’s a matter for the local school boards in that state who employ the teachers, as noted here.

And I guess it was driving Governor Bully nuts to be left out of the headlines for a little while, so leave it to him to come up with this (and here and here are more updates).

Next, U.S. News and World Report gives us the seven reasons here why Americans aren’t saving enough for retirement, and they are as follows: 1) Living beyond our means, 2) Little employer help, 4) Not saving automatically, 4) Too much debt (yep, starting to get more than a little redundant), 5) Savings isn’t a priority (looks like the CD player is stuck – give it a good shove), 6) No emergency fund, and 7) Spending windfalls.

Well, I would add the following as, at least, Reason #8 (here)…

…the (George W. Bush) administration’s tax policies fostered the weakest jobs and income growth in more than six decades, and ignored alarming labor market trends in minority communities. This record of anemic job creation was accompanied by sluggish business investment and weak gross domestic product growth that characterized the period after the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 went into effect.2

…

Overall monthly job growth was the worst of any cycle since at least February 1945, and household income growth was negative for the first cycle since tracking began in 1967. Women reversed employment gains of previous cycles. And for African Americans, the worst job growth on record was matched by an unprecedented increase in poverty.

Am I going to tell you that Mrs. Doomsy and I have made financial choices that were 100 percent practical and sound at every moment? No, I’m not going to lie. But saving is difficult at best with anemic job growth, and shrinking income due to out-of-control health care costs and wages held down primarily due to the threat of offshoring.

I realize that the primary audience of U.S. News and World Report is the “pay no price, bear no burden” bunch. That still doesn’t excuse them, however, for substituting pejorative scolding towards the rest of us in place of reasonably coherent economic analysis.

And last but certainly least, I give you Former Senator Man-On-Dog here, who has spoken out in defense of the Crusades (taking on the powerful anti-Crusades lobby, I’m sure). And if you guessed that he blamed “the left” for this big supposed misunderstanding - “They hate Western civilization at the core. That's the problem,” PA’s former senator from northern Virginia intones- then you win a free DVD of “An American Carol,” since that’s just about what it’s going for on Amazon these days (for rent, anyway).

As I said about Governor Bully, it must tear up Little Ricky to see everyone getting the headlines but him (with this being another despicable “dog whistle” to his beloved base).

Have fun losing your party’s presidential primary, you holier-than-thou fraud.