Death and Politics

I was recently accused of running a "death and politics" blog instead of a photography blog. So, here's a photograph of Buddy Holly, who died along with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, 50 years ago today because they took the small plane instead of the freezing bus. Odd how it's always beloved performers/athletes or liberal politicians that die in private plane crashes, and never mass murderers or corrupt politicians or other evil bastards. Hrmm...

So, now that death has been covered, on to politics... saw this story about things the Republicrats are bitching about from the "Stimulus Bill." I won't reprint the list here, but the things they are complaining about are things that DO need to get done, to one degree or another, and will either generate jobs or protect existing jobs, improve public safety, or help increase our energy independence. Seems the GOP has a problem with ANYTHING that isn't a tax cut or military spending.

For instance, according to this list, they're objecting to funding for fire stations, as well as woodland fire prevention? Seems that would either protect or create jobs as firefighters, or possibly fund construction of new firestations, which would create jobs, right? Or perhaps they're counting on greater job creation when homes and businesses burn to the ground and they have to be rebuilt.

Funding our infrastructure projects create jobs that can't be outsourced (well, provided the contractors aren't employing illegal workers) and the resulting projects will help improve the quality of life for people here. Military spending is just burning money for the most part because the products are destroyed or abandoned, and result in us spending trillions to rebuild the infrastructure of Iraq and Afghanistan. Federal tax cuts mean little to the average person, especially if it's going to result in funding shortfalls for schools, public safety, highways, health research, etc. -- Federal tax cuts, estate tax cuts, capital gains tax cuts primarily benefit the wealthiest among us, who are less likely to put the money back into our real economy. Some may be inspired to put money into the Wall St casino, but that only directly benefits other investors and their long-term estate building. The reason businesses aren't expanding and building facilities and hiring people is NOT because they're afraid they're going to make SO much money they're going to have to pay a lot of taxes. They know that nobody has money to buy products and services, so they're cutting jobs and closing facilities in an effort to "trim the fat" and hopefully survive this depression.

The past 8 years have shown us that sucking up to corporate and moneyed interests does NOT create that "rising tide that lifts all boats" -- it merely widens the gap between the extremely wealthy, and the rest of us. I heard a right-wing talk radio bozo this morning decrying the proposal to limit executive pay to $400,000 a year in companies who are accepting federal bailout money. His argument was "how can you get the best executives to turn a business around if you can't provide competitive salaries?" Well, I'm sure there are plenty of quite capable people out there ready to go to work for a LOT less than $400,000...