Produced by:
KBOO
Program::
Air date:
Tue, 01/15/2013 - 8:00am to 9:00am
Abe and Joe's State of the Union
"Abe and Joe shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as they shall judge necessary and expedient."
Well, that's not in the Constitution, but it should be. Abe and Joe size up the State of the Union.
- KBOO
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your
Flash plugin.
Comments
Focus on the problems
Let's stay focused on the excellent topic you introduced in your show. Whether there are conspiracies or not we still need to work together to deal with the critical issues of the time. Here are some things that I feel are crucial and demand immediate and intense action:
1. Fracking and the deteriorating environment
2. Human interrelationships with one another and other living creatures, our relatives on the earth
3. The structure of our financial institutions and large businesses.
4. Our need to use wars and force on a personal and international level
Karen
Common threats and common (political) ground
Your show this morning prompts me to let you know about this new TED talk by Jonathan Haidt: How common threats can make common (political) ground
http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_how_common_threats_can_make_comm...
I recommend it. "Jonathan Haidt shows us a few of the very real asteroids headed our way -- some pet causes of the left wing, some of the right -- and suggests how both wings could work together productively to benefit humanity as a whole."
Andrea
1/15/13 The "deficit"
Hi Abe & Joe
Fan of your show (I should be, I call enough). I swore I wasn't going to call today, but when "Michael" got on, I lost it.
When you give 15 minutes to someone deliberately spreading lies and misinformation, you give up time for facts. And Michael clearly had no interest in facts. If he couldn't push his lies about the "fiscal cliff" and the "deficit," he was content to just say the issue was to complex and convoluted for lil folks like us to understand, another lie.
This is from Jim Hightower:
Well, finally – in the 11th hour and 59th minute – Republicans and Democrats negotiated a fiscal reform package, which they touted as the "American Taxpayer Relief Act."
But if you had been allowed to peek behind the curtain during the deal-making, you would've noticed that the Dems and Repubs were not alone – and some taxpayers were getting extra-special relief. Captain Morgan, Bacardi, and other Caribbean rum peddlers, for example, were at the table, picking up a half-billion-dollar-a-year liquor subsidy; NASCAR wheeled in to win a multimillion-dollar loophole for building racetracks; railroad conglomerates hauled off a $165-million bundle for maintaining their own tracks; Disney and other fabulously-wealthy Hollywood studios reeled in a $75 million subsidy for making movies; and Big Coal mined the negotiations for a federal giveaway to buy safety equipment and provide safety training for their workers.
But the big dogs in the room, as usual, were Wall Street hucksters. Tucked inside the "reform" bill is Sec. 322, opaquely titled "Extension of subpart F exception for active financing income." In plain English, that line of gobbledygook will move $9 billion this year from our public treasury into the already-overflowing coffers of Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and other fiefdoms of high finance.
Worse than the giveaway, however, is the provision's purpose. As explained by the excellent watchdog group, Citizens for Tax Justice, Sec. 322 essentially underwrites the financing of corporate offshoring – a $9 billion subsidy for moving more U.S. jobs to foreign countries.
Italians have a useful phrase that applies here: Cui bono – Who benefits? Yes, this Republican-Democrat compromise has some good provisions, but deep inside, it's the same old corporate ugliness.
"From NASCAR to rum, the 10 weirdest parts of the 'fiscal cliff' bill," www.washingtonpost.com, January 2, 2013.
"Eight Corporate Subsidies in the Fiscal Cliff Bill, From Goldman Sachs to Disney to NASCAR," www.truth-out.org, January 2, 2013.
"Fiscal Cliff Deal Extends Measure Making It Easy For Wall Street To Avoid Taxes," www.thinkprogress.org, January 3, 2013.
So when Randy, Michael & any other rightwing shill calls in claiming the government is "broke," please bring up these subsidies. ALONG WITH $4 BILLION PER YEAR TO THE BIG 5 OIL COMPANIES. AND $3.1 BILLION PER YEAR TO THE ISRAELI MILITARY.
Broke my @**.
Keep up the good work,
Leslie