Alabama Policy Institute's Gary Palmer Earns Keep

He's a machine! Gary Palmer continues to churn out the material. The hits just keep coming. This time he has Heritage Foundation information to back him up on why the Bu$h tax cuts need to be made permanent and the "unfair and immoral death tax" ought to be eliminated. He ends with, "Making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent and eliminating the "death tax" will alleviate the uncertainty that shrouds our economy and discourages businesses and individuals from investing."

Damn that uncertaintly! And about that "age old liberal argument that tax cuts are a drain on federal revenues and do not stimulate the economy" issue? Reckon it just might be true Gary? It didn't work for The Gipper and it didn't work for Bu$hCo.

Actually, I'm also hardly thrilled with the rebates making up this stimulus package yet Gary and I are predictably on opposite ends of the reasoning. There's adding to the deficit when even Slick Willy and his Contrary Congress had things headed in the right direction. And there can be little doubt the cuts were mostly for the fat cats. The increase in state deficits is worth noting. I surely felt the tax cuts when I tried to pay tuition in that period. The lost opportunities for revenue that could have been realized deserves more space than I'll give it. I fear that we, and in fact our children, will be paying for these Bu$h tax cuts for years to come.

As for jobs, manufacturing work has continued to become less common. Most of the jobs of those "created" were service or construction jobs yet the latter has surely backed up due to the housing collapse. Some jobs came in health care and the like. Long term unemployment is just one reality facing more and more Americans. I'll dodge delivering the details but many folks seem to feel like "jobless recovery" was an apt description. And the recovery did seem to go to the few. A feeling of broad prosperity, if it ever felt that way, might have been built on bad debt and rising housing prices. How's that working these days Mr. Palmer?

Again, I loathe the idea of taxing what we earn via work at often a higher rate than what we do with what the investing class (and yeah I know that can be awful broad if you count those invested in certain public pension funds) earns. Having the capital gains structured such that many avoid consequences from their earnings seems like policy that merits long hard pondering rather than just being accepted by folks like API's Gary Palmer.

As for the estate tax, I'm with Matt Taibbi. Then again, Estate Tax Malarkey works also. Those Big Mules just keep working on the repeal don't they? I also can't help but recall Alabama's own Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III looking for a corpse after Katrina to help him argue on behalf of repealing the estate tax. Do you really want to talk about the "immoral" Gary?

At least Gary Palmer didn't go so far as Dubyah in his recent SOTU where he falsely claimed Americans will see their tax bills go up by $1800 per year unless his tax cuts are made permanent. John Gunn

API's Gary Palmer keeps earning his keep

Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute is in the T-town News to argue on behalf of his Big Mule backers that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management is wrong to tighten the state's water quality standards with regard to cancer risks associated with toxic chemicals. Starting his effort with "nothing sells like fear" yet then pretty much relying on the fear of losing jobs seems especially bold, even for a professional shill like Gary Palmer.

He's using the tried and true "you can't prove it" argument yet leaves out the fact that most other states, including most of our neighbors use the tougher standard. The B'ham News, hardly a foe of the powerful in this state, explains this and also points out that Big Coal and the Alabama Business Council are against the tougher standards. More coverage from The Montgomery Advertiser on the proposed changes might be helpful.

Gary's got a good gig so I'm sure he's eager to play his part yet consider API's funding and function. That Mr. Palmer closes with part of the solution being to "stop smoking" is odd in that I am pretty sure some of API's backers have been part of Big Tobacco's efforts to dodge and deny.

API is eager to make sure the science is certain on climate change and gun control laws and yet they'll accept and even shill the "research" of Dr. Kirk Johnson (of The Mackinac Center for Public Policy no less! ... or maybe he's back at Heritage after doing his time for Bu$hCo over in Iraq? ... No wait he's still doing his part!) on the reasons Alabama's prisons ought to be privatized. I reckon government and science become accepted if one or both can save (or better yet make!) money for Gary Palmer's providers?

That API postures to appear as worried about cancer truly offends me. They have no shame. John Gunn

Agreeing with API's Gary Palmer ... Nevermind

I had a bit of a fright in finding and then doing a quick read of Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute in my hometown Randolph Leader. I've posted on API several times over the years yet their Michael Ciamarra has been a favorite shill to scold. The title Palmer: State's children cheated by unreliable standards had me initially thinking Gary had seen the light over "accountability" measured by high stakes testing. Had he bitten the hands that feed him? Of course not.

Gary is frustrated with some systems fudging the numbers. And he should be. Yet he and his helped bring us No Child Left Behind. Did Gary mention how Bu$hCo's original Department of Education leader Rod Paige had fudged the numbers of the Texas Miracle that got us in this mess? Or dare he mention Paige's profiteering? Nope. Did he offer up that these damnable tests only measure low level learning rather than if a student was taught to think, or marshall evidence, or search for information, or ...? Nope.

The end of the piece had the Alabama Policy Institute identified as "a non-partisan, non-profit research and education organization dedicated to the preservation of free markets, limited government and strong families." Non-partisan? Hardly. Part of the right wing "think tank" or "policy shop" efforts to create seemingly legitimate information and then get the message out to the masses, API is funded by some of the usual suspects like the Bradley money. Note the Jaquelin Hume Foundation as well. They are so "free" market oriented that their Foundation for Teaching Economics will use Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement to then let the markets with their incentive get some credit for ending discrimination. The Hume family also helped take Ronald Reagan from a b-list movie actor to Governor of California and then the White House. Then they helped The Gipper with the Citizens for America outfit that Black Jack Abramoff later was to lead. Nasty bunch with their funneling money to the Contras among their dastardly deeds.

What an opportunity to go after Gary Palmer's API and this radicalism that has become mainstream yet I actually did think for a moment I'd find common cause with Gary. Shame on me. P/W

Damn Editors

I'd taken the time (I gain respect for those limited by space whenever I try the format!) to craft a Letter to the Editor to my hometown paper just recently in a response to a Column from Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute. This was in addition to a previous post on Palmer's Alabama Policy Institute effort to discredit public education.

The Leader chose a title for the LTE, namely "Conservatism seeks to end public education", that I think goes too far. Surely plenty of opportunists do. Profiteers for privatization added to movement conservatives to libertarians working with bible thumpers wanting vouchers who then find like cause with ... makes that at least partially true. however, some conservatives don't want to end public education.

The Leader leave off the following from what I sent them:

Palmer is on “Wingnut Welfare”. API gets ink into papers across Alabama rather often. API is “dedicated to the preservation of free markets, limited government and strong families.” They symbolize the right’s "think tank" or "policy shop" efforts to create seemingly legitimate information and then get the message to the masses. To gather a tax deduction while promoting their glorious cause of movement conservatism is doubly useful for wealthy true believers.

API is funded by some of the usual suspects like Bradley Foundation money. The Jaquelin Hume Foundation also helps pays the bills.. The Humes are so "free" market oriented that their “Foundation for Teaching Economics” will twist the Civil Rights Movement so that “economic incentives” become celebrated. The Hume family took Reagan from a b-list actor and paid GE shill to Sacramento and DC.

I was under five hundred words. Why'd they need to drop these words? I think people reading The Leader ought to know what is being passed off from a partisan outfit as legitimate is actually bought and paid for. That The Leader runs Palmer's words of wisdom as a "Column" is bad enough yet to now silence me on a LTE bothers me greatly. Any suggestions? P/W

Would Gary Palmer shill for sustenance?

In response to Gary Palmer's ALABAMA VOICES: Don't blame system a reader on the Montgomery Advertiser's site listed as LHess wrote, "Having someone such as Gary Palmer talking about morals and ethics is akin to hearing a prostitute talk about virtue." At least Gary will always have RebelMan on his side.

I often don't know where to begin with Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute. This latest effort rivals Jim "The Tool" Wooten on an effort to win Simultaneous Shilling gold. With the Olympics here I suppose Gary would have to be a favorite. If it were a pair event then he's got a partner down the hall I bet given API's Michael Ciamarra simultaneous shilling of "lawsuit abuse" while defending Bu$hCo past effort.

Then again, maybe this is another illustration of the "blame game"? Gary just recently saw rising gas prices and huge profits for Big Oil as a chance to attack the "socialistic environmental agenda" of politicians who have "sold out to radical environmentalists and liberal social engineers" for instance. In a similar effort, dreadful understanding of civics by our young people was due to insufficient patriotism being taught in favor of "an emphasis on politically correct indoctrination that produces misinformed activists instead of educated citizens."

In his latest rant earning his Wingnut Welfare Gary writes:

We are witnessing the consequences of the loss of values that were the substance of our culture, not the failure of capitalism.

Values? Gary, you really need to read a f'ing book every so often. Or just watch some high end TV. Gary goes on to write:

Capitalism is an economic system that depends on the virtues of the people engaged in the system ... As with any system, capitalism is subject to human fallibility, or what Christians would refer to as fallen human nature.

Huh? "Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under Communism, it's just the opposite." was what John Kenneth Galbraith claimed. I'd stack his brainpower up any day against poor Gary's. Gary next writes:

Therefore, in order for a capitalist -- or free market -- economic system to function properly, the culture must place a high value on personal virtue and undergird it with reasonable laws and regulations that provide additional restraints and protections against inevitable human failings.

Of course Gary has been eager to argue that reasonable laws and regulations that might reduce the number of cancer deaths among our citizenry must be based on only what must be proved. Stoking fears of lost jobs and making the obligatory ""class warfare" attack, Gary is all about dismissing "restraints and protections" as based on "false fears". He has no shame!

Gary then writes:

In a less progressive time, there were certain expectations within American society that were based on our commonly held ideas of what was right and wrong as derived from a Judeo-Christian worldview. In those times, there were social restraints that constrained individuals in what they did and said and how they conducted their public and private lives.

Gary, would going back to those good old days before such a progressive time include times of slavery? When women couldn't vote? The Jim Crow South? Gary continues:

But the progressives saw these social restraints, especially religion, as shackles and thought it would improve society to free it from the old suffocating religious and moral constraints. As it turns out, liberation from the old morals has not brought us more freedom; it has brought more constraint and more uncertainty which has undermined trust in practically all of our nation's institutions.

Huh? So would the "old morals" or the "new morals" apply to the "unfair and immoral death tax"? The estate tax, a Progressive reform in fact, is so immoral that Alabama's own Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III found it necessary after Katrina to look for a victim for an illustration of its evil. I'm sure Gary's smart enough to show us how the Crash of 1929, segregation, and Nixon's Watergate can be blamed on "liberation from the old morals".

Gary suggests:

What is missing today are the presuppositions, or accepted standards of morality and ethics, that are valued individually and in our communities and that establish a solid foundation for functioning in our society. Laws are not enough.

A foundation of moral law? Haven't I read something about such an effort? Gary then writes:

As we are witnessing with the current crisis in our financial institutions, the threat of punishment is often not enough to stop wrongdoing. All too often, punishment consists only of fines that can be viewed as just another cost of doing business. Unfortunately, many decisions are based on a "risk vs. reward" formula that is based solely on self-interests, with little regard for others.

So is Gary deviating from API's stand on "tort reform"? We are learning these white collar prosecutions are surely difficult. And with Alabama's Supreme Court in place they'll just cut the civil verdicts here in Bama won't they Hoss. Corporations Gone Wild? Gary goes on to claim:

In many respects, the breakdown of many of our financial institutions clearly reveals the consequences of rejecting what were once commonly held traditional values. As the "old" traditional values and virtues have been pushed out, they have been replaced with politically correct secular values.

He's kidding isn't he? If a piece begins with "LIKE THE EXHORTATIONS OF JEREMIAH TO THE NATION OF Israel before the first temple's destruction, the warnings of economist Nouriel Roubini fell on deaf ears." would that suit Gary's call for traditional values and virtues? We can only hope this brilliant seeker of truth and decency will seek out such wisdom. Gary continues with:

Consequently, living in a society that has rejected traditional values means that we live in a constant state of uncertainty -- leaving the government to try to impose honesty and integrity through increasingly more stringent laws and regulations.

The predictable result of the abandonment of traditional values, particularly by the boomer generation, is a public and private sector increasingly marked by lies, deception, fraud and malfeasance.

He's loony. Maybe the Taliban would take Gary? He closes with:

... we are now spending millions of dollars trying to instill ethics in current and future leaders whose entire education, from kindergarten through college, has been based on the moral relativism that taught them there are no absolute truths, there are no eternal standards. ...

In that regard, our culture has been stripped of the absolute values that are essential to a healthy free market economy, a trustworthy government and a healthy society.

With so many of our nation's leaders in both the public and private sector disconnected from absolute truths, it should not surprise anyone that our economic and governing systems are floundering and that our laws have done little to prevent it.

As I pointed out earlier, those who claim capitalism has failed are mistaken. What we are witnessing is not the failure of capitalism, but the consequences of moral relativism.

What exactly this rascal is suggesting once again remains a mystery to me. Has anyone of any substance truly claimed capitalism has failed Gary? Many are simply saying that the de-regulation push led by those on the right has consequences. From Enron to this mess, pretty much everybody accepts the fact. And I'd argue the bailout suggest some capitalist want to pocket the profits but socialize the risks. Plenty are figuring crony capitalism has failed us but that's not what Gary has attacked. What would Uncle Milton have to say?

That API's Gary Palmer manages to make his argument based on some type of lament for paradise lost and values vanquished by the Godless Progressives is really precious. John Gunn

UPDATE ~ Morning of August 5, 2008 - I've been thinking of Gary's latest effort all morning. I was reflecting back on a prior post I titled Mobile Press-Register~ Just let the lawyers decide where the P-R wrote an Editorial accepting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and their Institute for Legal Reform's flawed study to suggest we need to listen more to corporate counsel in formulating public policy. The Failure of Corporate Law: Fundamental Flaws and Progressive Possibilities by Kent Greenfield was also noted in that post. The book's description, and I'll close here, at least for now, contained the following:

Anyone can purchase shares of stock, but public corporations themselves are uninhibited by a sense of societal obligation or strict public oversight. In fact, managers of most large firms are prohibited by law from taking into account the interests of the public in decision making, if doing so hurts shareholders. But this has not always been the case, as until the beginning of the twentieth century, public corporations were deemed to have important civic responsibilities.

Alabama Policy Institute's Gary Palmer ~ Educator

That I use essentially the same post title for Gary as I do for Reverend Al Sharpton might haunt Gary's dreams. Alabama Policy Institute's Gary Palmer gets space in the Mobile Press-Register to rightly lament the dreadful state of civic education in today's youth. Of course, Gary can't help but bring his own right wing views to his writing. Earning his keep at the Wingnut Welfare table, Mr. Palmer provides the obligatory reference to The Nation at Risk, manufacturing at least in part our current "crisis" in education.

Gary also cites the work of Dr. William Damon of Stanford University yet leaves off the fact he's a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. They provide the work of Dr. Jay Greene, the AJC's conservative tool's favorite source for education "policy". I expect Dr. Damon's work is being twisted and yet I'll not chase that rabbit. Here goes Gary ...

One is knowledge of ideas behind the governing system given to us by our Founding Fathers and how this constitutional republic is supposed to work. The other is a renewed sense of national pride in the great foundational principles which can inspire people to be involved citizens.

Past generations were unashamed to call this patriotism.

Damon identifies the problem in a lot of public education today: "When American history is taught and when the nature of American history is taught, it is taught from a critical perspective."

He adds, "Unfortunately, our students are learning more about our society's mistakes than its successes."

In other words, we are graduating students from our high schools and colleges with an inadequate knowledge of our history and principles, with the problem being compounded by the fact that many of these graduates have been indoctrinated with a very negative view of our nation.

The evidence of this can be seen in the current state of politics in America. Today, millions of Americans are nearly devoid of a deep understanding and appreciation for the principles on which our nation was founded and which are essential to its future.
As others have noted, American politics is no longer guided by civic-minded people engaged in an intelligent debate about the best means of achieving the common good. It is now the domain of angry activists of all types with axes to grind or whose own self-interests supersede the best interests of the nation.

Essential knowledge about America's history, our founding principles and the institutions that were created to uphold those principles, has been widely displaced by an emphasis on politically correct indoctrination that produces misinformed activists instead of educated citizens.

As the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and Common Core studies show, when it comes to ensuring that future generations have a solid knowledge and appreciation of the history and processes of the American republic, we are still a nation at risk

Let's check out Gary's last sources ... The Intercollegiate Studies Institute and Common Core are part of Gary's authority. ISI might be "non-profit" yet they are barely if all non-partisan in that their agenda is certain. Alfred S. Regnery is even the "Vice Chairman" at ISI!

The American Enterprise Institute offers the "research" of Common Core so that tells you what they are selling. Donors include the usual suspects like the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Louis Calder Foundation, and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, geared in large part these days to provide grist for the mill of "school choice".

Gary's basic concerns about the sorry state of civic education somewhat echo what former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor indicated motivated her to help promote "our Courts" yet I'm sure he'd break with Justice O'Connor over her frustrations with lack of time to teach civics and critical thinking.

Gary's rant is classic wingnuttery. I'd suggest "knowledge of ideas behind the governing system given to us by our Founding Fathers and how this constitutional republic is supposed to work" would be a tremendous idea and yet I think our full grown "leaders" ought to brush up on this actually. Gary dares lash out at "angry activists of all types with axes to grind"?

Does Gary not accept that it might be wise to teach "a very negative view of our nation" when " our society's mistakes" are in fact undeniable? Where's the line Gary? Is there a ratio? To get wise voters for our future shouldn't kids learn about the times their government has behaved less than honorably?

Finally, Gary's call to "patriotism" is noted. I've written on Gary here, here, here, .. He's a shill, as would likely be anyone affiliated with the Alabama Policy Institute. "Paid to pander!" applies I'd argue. John Gunn

API's Gary Palmer demonstrates the blame game

The Alabama Policy Institute's Gary Palmer gets ink in the Montgomery Advertiser with ALABAMA VOICES: Self-inflicted pain where he goes after the "socialistic environmental agenda" of politicians who have "sold out to radical environmentalists and liberal social engineers" as he laments the plight of America, "especially lower-income families." Actually Gary I didn't think that side paid as well as Big Oil and other fat cat corporations. He closes with:

"Americans can cuss Congress while they pump their paychecks into their gas tanks, but as long as they keep sending these same liberal politicians back to Congress, they should direct some of the tirade toward themselves."

Where to begin? I was pleased to see pretty much every person dropping comments on the Advertiser's site call BS on Gary yet I expect he still gets paid handsomely and he obviously still gets ink. He's been a frequent target on this blog. There's here, here, here, here, here, here, and ... Clearly, Wingnut Welfare is alive and well in Alabama.

I'll first suggest true liberals are a very, very rare breed in Congress. Way too many Democratic politicians are DLC centrist weenie sorts that are pretty much on corporate retainers. Like many on the right Gary relishes the role of victim and frequently builds his efforts around opposition strategies.

Blaming the left for the current woes we face in energy is apparently a main strategy for the GOP this cycle (Alabama's own Mike Rogers used these talking points just recently) and I fear some DINOs will cave (yup, their timing is priceless) for the demands of their corporate benefactors as they tack toward the extreme right rather than standing courageously for what they might actually believe.

The right gets it when campaigning. They are often on offense. They'll take a weakness and try to turn into a positive. They can't govern worth a damn yet they sure can figure out how to get elected.

I might as well begin with Thomas Geoghegan yet I'll let David Sirota, after all I found these disturbing numbers via his book The Uprising, explain.

"Using Census figures, Geoghegan discovers that the 11 percent of Americans living in the least populated states have enough Senate votes — 41 — to sustain a filibuster. Yes, 89 percent of the population may support a policy, but 11 percent of the population has the senators to block that policy's enactment. When you go further than Geoghegan and consider the election-focused mindset of politicians, you see the situation is even more absurd."

Reckon Gary might agree that these small states, Alabama among them, often tend to elect Conservatives to not only the Senate but also the House? Would he also accept that Gerrymandering often makes House elections often lacking in competition? Would he also accept that small states often have conservative legislatures and governors that could draw some rather creative Congressional districts?

Let's wander through some of Gary's screeds.

"Since the 1970s, liberal politicians in Congress have passed laws that have locked up most of our oil reserves, stopped the construction of refineries and virtually banned the building of nuclear power plants."

Perhaps the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill should be recalled? This and other events motivated Nixon and others in the GOP to embrace, or at least tolerate, environmentalism. Daddy Bush signed an Executive Order in 1990 that placed a moratorium on offshore drilling. If Junior really wanted to press the matter I presume he could issue his own EO yet again I think he and his are more about creating some type of wedge issue, after all gay bashing can only do so much, in hopes to exploit the same this fall.

As to the claim that "liberal politicians ... stopped the construction of refineries and virtually banned the building of nuclear power plants", I'd think he might be familiar with NIMBY (Not in my backyard!") as a powerful barrier to either. Certainly environmentalists, organized or not, would also be concerned about refineries that might not be up to snuff. And nuclear reactors? Don't you watch The Simpsons Gary? And where will the spent fuel waste go? Regulations to attempt to protect the world in which we and our children live hardly seems like something to be ashamed of or attacked by the like of Gary Palmer.

Then again, perhaps those in the oil industry made a business decision on not building new refineries. Free markets work don't they Gary? The Christian Science Monitor's Mark Clayton reported back in 2005 the following:

"The current refinery squeeze has been building for years. For the past two decades, deregulation and low profits have combined to push the industry into consolidation. Partly because of environmental regulations, it was cheaper to expand existing refineries than to build new ones."

I'll mostly skip exploring Senator Schumer's suggestion that pressure be brought against Saudi Arabia to increase their oil production, such as by stopping selling weapons to the kingdom. Gary writes,

"Instead of sending hundreds of billions of dollars to other countries, most of whom hate America, why not put those hundreds of billions of dollars back into our own economy?"

I could ask why if Gary thinks "most hate America" would we be selling them arms. I could also wonder how he'd explain Halliburton relocating to Dubai. The Bu$h family connection with the House of Saud is also worthy of noting yet I'm not sure that fits into Gary's gravy train. Nor do I expect Gary would be wanting to pump those billions of dollars into job training, health care, ... for working families. Gary also I'm thinking wouldn't worry too much about subsidies those liberals in Congress have given to Big Oil.

Neither would Gary likely want to revisit some claims that the neo-conservatives were making at the start of the mis-adventure into Iraq. What a tangled web we weave ... And Gary is all too eager to continue the effort to deceive. That's what he's paid to do by those who have him on the dole.

Gary writes,

"Liberals in Congress have repeatedly rejected legislation that would allow drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where there is an estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil. In 1995, the Republican-led Congress approved legislation to allow drilling in ANWR, but President Bill Clinton vetoed it."

Let's take a look at the history of this issue via NPR. It would appears that ANWR is off the table with perhaps another look at offshore oils for some states yet it might be too soon for certainty.

Gary claims,

"Liberals in Congress have also cut off access to 85 percent of the vast oil and natural gas reserves of the Outer Continental Shelf, which contains an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil."

Perhaps "liberals" have seized control of the Energy Information Administration? Their 2007 Impacts of Increased Access to Oil and Natural Gas Resources in the Lower 48 Federal Outer Continental Shelf reveals "[m]ean estimates ... indicate that technically recoverable resources currently off limits in the lower 48 OCS total 18 billion barrels of crude oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas" and that we'd see no effect until 2030, with that even having an insignificant consequence to wellhead prices.

Gary also wrote,

In addition, the Bureau of Land Management estimates that there are 53 billion barrels of oil on federal lands. But 60 percent of this land cannot be leased at all and another 23 percent can be leased, but oil and gas exploration and development is prohibited or limited in some cases to only a certain time of the year.

I wonder if Bu$hCo's BLM might be willing to manipulate figures? Yup! And its not like they Bu$h administration has been slow in granting drilling permits, with gas permits outstripping available rigs as per this WaPo reporting from 2005. From 2004, MSNBC reports most permits weren't even being used. Does putting the fox in charge of the henhouse come to mind to anyone else? Seriously, even if poor Shrub couldn't do much more than break insider trading laws and lose money with his first mis-adventure in oil, both he and Dead Eye Dick, plus others ranking high in their cabal, are oilmen.

Finally, the idea that "nationalizing our oil refineries" is on the table is a stretch, as I can find only a Faux News effort that openly admits N.Y. Representative Maurice Hinchey has "stepped off the idea". Gary writes while claiming the nationalization plan that "the failed economic philosophies of communism have not been totally discredited" but I expect he'll not include China in that equation since plenty of the fat cats he's looking out for are likely also cashing in via Red China's cheap/docile labor and lax environmental standards. In fact, if Gary's paymasters had their druthers ...

Gary can't help himself I suppose when he writes,

"We haven't built a new refinery in the United States since the global cooling hysteria days of the 1970s, specifically 1976."

The chance to engage in some global warming pushback is I guess too tempting for Gary. Maybe he's paid to shill by the theme? C'mon Gary, you must surely know that dog won't hunt. This wingnut claim of a global cooling scare in the 1970s is yet one more example of a right wing lie that doesn't stand up. As your own Reagan said, "Facts are stubborn things." I know y'all's message machine is powerful so maybe you don't even know the truth. Try the Google every so often Gary.

Gary is carrying on the foolishness like the likes of Richard Viguerie that I mentioned a few days ago. The Vig has made millions off the blame game. Gary's merely getting wingnut welfare. John Gunn

UPDATE ~ Evening of July 29, 2008 - Jenny Dorgan, program coordinator of the Alabama Environmental Council, provides a sensible response to Gary Palmer's Blame Game.

The Alabama Policy Institute is connected with James Dobson and Regnery Publishing and ...

The above is an interview of the Alabama Policy Institute's Gary Palmer by Dobsonite Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family/Citizen Link. Among the gems are Gary's fretting over "the right to life" yet also "the encroachment of government into everybody's life." Tort reform is a family issue per Gary. There's a lament over the bad science behind global warming but the interview is rather vanilla. Gary and Shepard are playing their role as weary warriors possibly with more than is required

I'm not sure what "Fully Associated" means as to API and Focus on the Family yet I presume Dr. Dobson and his minions approve of the work of Gary and API in their "Family Policy Council".

I also wasn't aware of their environmental book for children. Here's what API claims ...

In 1996 we helped change environmental education in America with our commercially successful publication, Facts Not Fear: Teaching our Children about the Environment. The book, which has been translated into two other languages, was born out of the need for a user-friendly resource to help parents give their kids a common-sense approach to understanding and appreciating our environment. The work has been praised as a valuable and important tool that helps put media hype and hysteria into a more honest and responsible perspective.

That Regnery Publishing put out Facts, Not Fear: Teaching Children About the Environment surprises me not. PR Watch notes both authors "are committed, paid activists in the conservative anti-environmental movement."

That one author Michael Sanera is a policy hack that has worked in both conservative administrations and think tanks was no shocker. His Ph. D. in political science and background as an Army Intelligence Officer I suppose qualifies him on both education and science. I'd briefly looked into the John Locke Foundation in covering Mary Katherine Ham and the Goldwater Institute while covering the efforts of Jeb Bu$h in "school reform". I've noted Gary Palmer's connection to Regnery before as well.

The book's other author Jane Shaw has also made a living at least partially on wingnut welfare. Her B.S. in English Literature from Wellesley College is impressive but hardly would make her a scientist or educator either.

The entanglements between these right wing policy shops, message machines, family councils, and the like is admittedly impressive on some levels. That they often provide a tax deduction for the fat cats while then turning around and influencing policies that benefit these same wealthy and powerful people does frustrate me. That they do their work under the cover of looking out for regular folks is however intolerable. John Gunn

UPDATE ~ I was also unaware that Whacky Tacky Tom Parker was the founding Executive Director of the Alabama Family Alliance (now the Alabama Policy Institute). And I thought he was just an unreconstructed rebel.

More on Alabama's high cancer death rate

Dave Parks of the B'ham News reports American Cancer Study bodes ill for Alabama residents and there's even some contextual journalism present. A tip of the tam is due Dave! The article referenced the lack of affordable health care, gave voice to putting more money into preventive care, and noted the undeniable fact that poor folks are way more likely to die from cancer. Reckon Gary Palmer and his Alabama Policy Institute noted this coverage? They've recently written of false fears related to cancer deaths when tightening water quality standards was proposed. Defending Big Pharma and Big Insurance and the AMA, plus trying to keep revenue policies favorable for the fat cats, and last but not least providing the obligatory "class warfare" distraction will surely merit a response from Mr. Palmer and API. Gotta earn that keep Gary. John Gunn

Did rebelman's rant help make Shay Farley's point?

The Montgomery Advertiser shares ALABAMA VOICES: Reflect our values from Alabama Appleseed's Shay M. Farley today and I was thoroughly pumped reading the same. After all, I all too often find the Alabama Policy Insitute's Gary Palmer occupying that same space. The Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice has been known to me yet I had failed to add them to my sidebar. This oversight is corrected.

My favorite portion of Shay Farley's writing follows:

A community that is open to dialogue -- to discuss rationally and respectfully concerns and concrete facts -- can expose unknown realities and dampen the hurtful banter that typically entrenches discussions of immigration.

At the end of the piece I found the name "rebelman". I knew him from the following response to the Gary Palmer post linked to above:

Amen! The socialists and communists in the DemoRAT party enjoy the benefits of a great capitalist society of ours when they are sucking up the tax money they steal from it in the good times. Bad times, well these same low-life scumbags still want their share by blaming capitalism for a downturn in the economy thus giving them incentive to force new laws and restrictions on our capitalistic society saying it is good for us to have big government directing our every need! We need to make the sure the same outcome takes place with these socialists DemoRATS in November as the companies should have that they bailed out for decades and that outcome is FAILURE! FAILURE is the keystone of a free market capitalist society. Without there is no progress, just what the socialists want!

Apparently the talent rebelman brings to the discussion is that he knows how to use the shift key. As for this top drawer piece from Shay Farley, rebelman wrote:

You might as well be whistling "DIXIE" because you will not get any help from the leftwing DemoRATS in the State of Alabama legislature! These DemoRATS do not care how much tax money is spent on illegals, they will simply take more from you to pay the bills. The DemoRATS are allowing State agencies to look the other way and not ask for ID or SSN numbers when these illegals apply for welfare benefits. This is a crime against the taxpayers! These DemoRATS do not care how many innocent people get killed on the highways by these illegals because they cannot read road signs and mostly do not care how they drive! The DemoRATS control the State legislature and only the Governor can veto bad legislation until he is overridden so blame the DemoRATS on this issue.

I also want to ask rebelman for names of left wing politicians which occupy ANY elected office up on Goat Hill? I'd also like some concrete facts. But let's let him sit in the corner first.

I first titled this post "Did Shay M. Farley cast pearls before swine? However, by the end of my writing I'd decided this reaction from a reactionary goober like rebelman might in fact bolster Appleseed's effort. Keeping up work like this, perhaps especially here in Alabama, can be a long, hard slog. I like to think that for every nutjob like rebelman we have at least a thousand decent and smart souls. Hope springs eternal? John Gunn

API's Gary Palmer gets ink in Hawaii

Is there a word in Hawaiian for "shill"? I'll not bother once again covering ground I've trampled with the Alabama Policy Institute's Gary Palmer. While I thought that location rather exotic, The Hawaii Reporter, obviously a top drawer outfit given that John Fund and such endorse, gave Gary a chance to publish ACORN Threatens Honest Elections. I reckon ACORN is the target of choice these days yet I'd still like a chance to work for them one day. John Gunn

Alabama GOP values? And National Tactics!

I posted a long piece on Captain Bama regarding a paleo-conservative named Hugh McInnish from Huntville, Alabama. I received an e-mail of a fax that he'd forwarded to Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions on the immigration issues. McInnish has possibly served on the Alabama GOP Executive Committee yet I'm not certain if this is currently so. Some of language, and it is very nasty, he sent Jeff (note the first name relationship) is as follows:

I think it not an exaggeration to say that the fate of the country hangs in the balance. More, much more, is at issue here than wages, employment, the purported need for chicken-pluckers, and even short-term humanitarianism. I say it bluntly: cultures are not equal. The Mexican culture is as apart from our culture as the night is from the day. Any who would argue otherwise would only expose himself as a fool. To allow millions of these miscreants to remain here would move our culture toward theirs, and would ultimately produce the tragedy of bilingualism.

The full fax and my commentary appears at Captain Bama yet I noted how Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute regularly posts at McInnish's SuppressedNews.com. This Alabama Policy Institute is an arm of American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and is clearly corporate funded and oriented. To have Palmer working these Nativist while still funded via the business arm of the GOP might show one of the more effective ReThuglican Party tactics. Peace ... or War!

Creating the right's "counterintelligentsia"

Thanks to Phoenix Woman at FireDogLake I now know the significance of that fella over to the left. Her How Did We Get The Media We Have? enlightened me on Dick Nixon's former Treasury Secretary William E. Simon. Appointed well into the Watergate mess, I'll confess his was a new name. An impressive man in many respects yet there is no denying this rascal did some serious work in getting the right wing think tank system going. Even now his legacy lives on well past hs death in 2000. And William Simon is just one of many that helped put our nation in this not so fine mess.

This NYT's op-ed (a rather gloating piece I found) from conservative John J. Miller shared the following about William E. Simon:

After becoming its (The Olin Foundation) president in 1977, Mr. Simon called for the creation of a"counterintelligentsia" to balance what he saw as the liberal dominance of the universities, the news media, nonprofit organizations and government bureaucracies. The Olin Foundation and other right-leaning philanthropies - particularly the Bradley, Scaife and Smith Richardson Foundations - provided a pool of venture capital that helped build a network of research institutions, academic fellowships and highbrow journals for the conservative movement.

Phoenix Woman also shared a piece by Robert Parry that I'd previously missed which offers at least some of the "credit" belongs to Richard Nixon. One of the many pleasures I derive from blogging is making connections and learning. I'm optimistic that many professionals at papers read (and television news programs watched) by the majority of Alabama's citizens are similarly excited.

Yet I wonder if they have the time and freedom to really dig into this mess. I continue to read right wing hacks like API's Gary Palmer and yet I've yet to find anything that challenges him or API. My own effort to do so in The Randolph Leader in the context of a LTE was cut when I tried to connect some of these dots. It surely seems like a story is all I'm suggesting.

Phoenix Woman started her post lamenting the likely fact that good Progressive leaning reporters often can't get in the door at many papers yet marginally talented partisan hacks seem to be handed position after position.

Perhaps at the local and regional levels Progressive can best push back against the right's "counterintelligentsia"? Yet the care and feeding of young Progressives is a tough piece. I've posted on Wingnut 101 almost two years ago. I'd forgotten what I still think was a clever idea of using an Ann Coulter poster as a Scare Ho in my garden. Seriously, the right is willing to invest money in bring along a new generation of true believers. And theyd likely even do it without getting a tax write off on many of their efforts.

Papers and the like are hardly a place to make a great living from what I understand. I expect those with the traits that would make them a top drawer reporter could likely cash in on those gifts in other fields. I often think about what I'd do with my money if I ever hit a big lick yet right there on top on my list would be to fund some type of foundation to identify and then develop some sharp young prospects. John Gunn

Outrageous? Tragedy? Cry me a river Jeffy B!

Senator Water Carrier? Senator Southern Company? Where to begin with Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III? Charles Dean of the B'ham News reports U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions wants Arctic National Wildlife Refuge open for oil drilling: No new nuclear plants `unbelievable' and it is rich with material. I appreciate Mr. Dean providing a little context and sharing some alternatives to this politicking.

Speaking before "a joint gathering of the Gardendale Area Rotary Club and the Gardendale Chamber of Commerce at the city's civic center", Jeffy B plays the victim.

Sessions called it "unbelievable" that the nation has not built a nuclear power plant in 30 years and a "tragedy" that the country has not drilled for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

JBS III, a member of the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee, surely knows better on nuclear power. The fact is that our providing massive subsidies to Big Energy is the only reason we are on the verge of a "nuclear renaissance". The GOP, and Corporatist Democrats to a lesser extent, talk up "the market" and dismiss "welfare" and yet once again show they don't walk the talk if and when the Big Mules need a little help. Let's also not forget that all the gov't money could be spent on clean energy research and the like. Surely Jeffy B knows how cheap energy conservation programs are compared to building new nuclear power plants?

I doubt our junior Senator follows the work of the Center for American Progress but they recently unveiled 10 Reasons Not to Invest in Nuclear Energy. Likewise, I figure he's hardly a fan of the Natural Resource Defense Council yet their The Future Role of Nuclear Power in the United States is a well written and clear summary of the issues facing our nation. Then again, we all know who he's really working for.

JBS III also shared the talking points on ANWR.

"The ANWR region of Alaska is so remote, and it's as big as the state of South Carolina ... and the region they want to drill is just in 2,000 acres, just a small speck on the map, and it has millions and millions of barrels of oil and it would keep American wealth here and American jobs here," Sessions told the lunchtime crowd.

I covered many of the ANWR lies recently with API's Gary Palmer demonstrates the blame game and Mike Rogers ~ "We are all environmentalists ..." so I'll merely address one I perhaps left off. The alleged 2000 acre "footprint" he cites leaves off infrastructure, housing, transportation, etc.

As for Russia and Georgia, JBS III shared:

"Putin and his team has been just drifting to the dark side, and I just wish it wasn't so," Sessions said, referring to former Russian President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Sessions said President Bush has done all he could to try to work with Putin to assure Russia would develop in a "good way" but that Russia's attack on Georgia is part of a pattern of threats and intimidation increasingly used by the Kremlin to get its way.

Dubyah looked into Putin's soul way back when and SOS Condi Rice, who let's not forget had a Chevron oil tanker named after her when she served on their Board of Directors, is allegedly an expert on Russia yet she's going down as one of the worst we've ever had in that position. Heck of a job Condi?

No mention was made of his election and I do fear he thinks he can coast. His claim that Bu$h has "done all he could" reveals much. JBS III protected Alberto Gonzales and has recently been caught once again covering for Bu$hCo as to the Presidential Records Act. What a gem we have in Jeffy. He and his party, let's not forget the Cheney Energy Task Force, have pretty much had power for decades and yet he want to play the poor pitiful me part. Unbelievable. John Gunn

UPDATE ~ The LA Times' Maura Reynolds files Russia's aim in Georgia battle was strategic: U.S. experts say Moscow's goal in the Georgia battle has been to lay claim to a sphere of influence on Russia's periphery which might help Jeffy B understand this complex region a little better. Then again, a cut-and-paste foreign policy might suit JBS III.

The Anniston Star ~ Calls BS on API's Ed "study"

John Hill is pictured to the left. Scripted answers: Twisted look at state's schools is a gem from The Anniston Star. The Huntsville Times pretty much fell for the Alabama Policy Institute's foolishness and even claimed "Hill and the Alabama Policy Institute have done the public a major service by bringing up issues others haven't been discussing." Although they are the least right of the "East Cost elites" Newhouse Triad the HT is surely right wing in orientation. After taking on the many flaws and admittedly "skewed" results, The Star however asks "So, why would the API use a model for its study that it knows will produce "skewed" results? Could it be because the results are "skewed" in the direction that the API wanted the results to go?

Yup! The Alabama Policy Institute is "in the tank". They are on Wingnut Welfare! Their Michael Ciamarra is. Bob McKee does his part. Gary Palmer surely is. And John Hill Ph. D. is as well. I can't find his qualifications yet The Google has this "John Hill is Director of Research for the Alabama Policy Institute, which he joined in 1995. He holds bachelors' degrees in Broadcasting and Bible from ..." before sending me to API's Newsletter page on their site.

Follow the money and you'll see these rascals are bought and paid for. Dobsonites that are tied to Regenry Publishing, API is openly hostile to real science yet will bend and twist statistics to suit their Corporatist and/or Christianist agendas. They have no shame. That they apparently make a living doing this on donations that are likely tax write offs makes it all the worse. John Gunn

See Fred Barnes at Alabama Policy Institute Dinner

Fred "Beetle" Barnes will be in Mobile for the Alabama Policy Institute Dinner on February 28th. For a mere $175.00 you can hear his wisdom yet shelling out thousands will get you the full package. That API and their type finds a Bu$hCo loyalist and Faux News hack like Fred Barnes a draw reveals much. His book and entire gig is to deliver the GOP talking points so don't expect much for your dollars. Plus, you can always just go The Weekly Standard and get all the Barnes you can stomach.

I hope the Alabama press will be able to drop by for Barnes and other facets of this meeting. Gary Palmer and his API crew get plenty of ink in our papers so it would seem fair that the media will be able to cover the event. P/W

If he'd have just left off the FDR misinterpretation

I can't help but think of my old Daddy when I reflect on FDR. Then again, I also look back on buying David Kennedy's Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 about eight years ago when I could hardly afford such a pricey purchase. I read it twice! So to read an attack, and there are legitimately some criticisms that can be made, of FDR from Bob McLaughlin in today's Birmingham News ran my stinger out a little.

Then again, a title of Don't punish honest makers of wealth admittedly had me looking for trouble. And using ExxonMobil, especially in Alabama even if the Republicans on the Alabama Supreme Court cut the punitives and dialed the damages back to merely breach of contract, might not have been Bob's best illustration of an "honest maker of wealth". Bob wrote,

In 2007, Exxon paid more than $32 billion in taxes with less than $12 billion in net profits.

How can they pay more than they earn? And his figures aren't even right.

According to Dennis Cauchon of USA TODAY they "earned after-tax profits of $41 billion and paid $14.5 billion in worldwide income taxes in 2007". That's worldwide! Marianne Lavelle of U.S. News and World Reports likewise used "$40.6 billion earnings for 2007" in her reporting.

And aren't those "80,000 good-paying jobs" including employees outside the US?

The 35% corporate tax rate that we supposedly have here in the US is laden with loopholes of course yet Bob failed to bark that dog and thus may likely receive poor performance reviews if in fact he's in the tank for the right wing noise machine. And for the record I doubt he is. I expect he's been exposed however. Given his line of work, perhaps he just wants to get some marketing done. Everybody has to make a living and I bet these days are dark for he and his.

I expect Mr. McLaughlin is aware of an undeniably regressive tax system where the poor pay a disproportionate percentage of their income in sales and excise taxes. Accepting the Federal Tax Code is somewhat Progressive, even more so before Bu$hCo's irresponsible tax cuts, then state and local realities take away or at least balance out that condition. This is especially so in Alabama.

I wonder if poor Bob got hold of figures from Dr. Mark J. Perry of the Macinac Center, what Gary Palmer's Alabama Policy Institute perhaps hopes to be when it grows up. That George Mason education is really paying off for the Funding Fathers. That ExxonMobil is tied to Macinac, and others of the sort (indeed "There's a tiger in your tank!") is just too rich.

Are taxes "stealing" or "robbing"? Do they "punish"? I doubt one can even discuss what might make a fair and reasonable tax policy from a person prepared to use such language.

And is all wealth earned by working hard? I'll let Chuck Collins do the heavy lifting via this American Prospect piece titled Tax Wealth to Broaden Wealth: Reframing the debate and mobilizing a constituency and this Nation piece titled A Fair Plan to Pay for Economic Recovery. Mr. McLaughlin even used "accumulated" and I'll submit that description applies more than "earned". There's a decent argument to be made that being born on third base counts more that one's effort and talent when it gets "to the day of the sale" (my old Daddy's way of talking about dying).

What got me most however was when Mr. McLaughlin uses a total misrepresentation of historical fact when he writes,

To make matters worse, in 1933 Franklin Roosevelt's National Recovery Act implemented a floor on corporate salaries. Companies were not allowed to reduce salaries even though their sales were plummeting and their tax bills more than doubled. This resulted in massive unemployment because companies simply could not afford the high salaries, declining revenue and high taxes. We killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

Truly unemployment remained high, and a good argument could be made that only WWII ended the Great Depression, yet after FDR took over the situation drastically improved. Pretty much any respectable historian gives FDR snaps for saving capitalism while also avoiding the fascism and militarism of Germany, Japan, and Italy.

And Bob, the big boys in business often helped write the NRA codes. It might not have been perfect but it was hardly as you've suggested. The idea was to create a level playing field and not let the race be about who got to the bottom first. Some ventures into unfettered globalism is attractive here yet that is another post for another day. I also think there are some nice comparisons to be made about how Hoover ran and Bu$hCo is running around with their hair on fire in response to their respective troubles but that's too another post for another day.

I'm certainly in favor of Mr. McLaughlin's urging that we "Punish the crooks." I appreciate that he's writing, "Put reasonable regulations in place that will keep the questionable activities from being repeated." Too bad he's wrapped up in false understandings of current conditions and past history. But for those failings, and they are deal breakers, I bet we could agree on some policies for broad prosperity and a better future. John Gunn

A belated Happy Father's Day

I'd wanted to mention the many, many books I got last week for Father's Day yet thought I'd save for Sunday after I sent the boy back South. However, I got in a lather over both David Brooks, working off the "work" of Reverend Al Sharpton, and Alabama Policy Institute's Gary Palmer bringing their right wing "thinking" to our admittedly burdened education efforts. It seemed acceptable to wait until today to share my haul.

The bride sent me The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington from David Sirota, The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire by Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Professor Jared Diamond, Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power by Slate's Fred Kaplan, Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age by Larry M. Bartels, and finally The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America by Ronald Brownstein.

While waiting at SEA-TAC, I found, and couldn't help but purchase, The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation by Emory Professor Drew Westen. The boy even brought me The Last Lecture by Professor Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow.

I'll now have plenty to read and then ponder over this summer. I'm sure these pages will be influenced by these books. Thanks! John Gunn

Some more wisdom from rebelman

In response to Steadily rising tuition real concern in The Montgomery Advertiser Rebelman writes:

We have enough education in this State to sink the Battleship at Mobile or at least to bankrupt the average working taxpayer. I have heard the same old song and dance from the socialists communists unions and their counterparts in the conservative side of government about feeding massive amounts of tax money to the hungry beast we call education. This beast always promises a better future but we see massive corruption within the college system because there is no way to police these PHDs. They are above everyone else but they keep churning out graduates who cannot read, write , or spell according to industrial leaders. They spend more time brainwashing these kids on social issues than teaching them how to balance a checkbook or how not to buy a house when they cannot afford one! The professors spend more time promoting abortion or homosexuality than the study of the Constitution of the U.S. or the Conferacy!

I'm sure the Confederacy (note the spelling please) would be real proud of you Sir. And it is Ph.D. buddy! In reply to Desiree Hunter's Teaching licenses of Ala. sex offenders not revoked rebelman shares the following:

Since the government school systems no longer are Christian-based in nature and policy, you have homosexuals, child molesters, theives, atheists, career criminals, etc who are allowed to be around the children of this State. You reap what you sow!

"Thieves" not "theives" dude! I'd mentioned rebelman before. A true credit to Alabama he is. Susan Jacoby could I'm sure help us understand what makes rebelman tick yet I'm ashamed to admit plenty in Alabama feel similar thoughts as he does. This is what happens when you are exposed to too much Dr. Dobson, Rush "Big Fat Idiot" Limbaugh, Surly Sean Hannity, Hugh Hewitt, Gary Palmer, Neal Boortz, ...

Finally, a tip of the tam to Dr. Know for helping me locate the above classic clip of Bugs and Yosemite Sam. John Gunn

Dr. Malcolm Cutchins latest column

Dr. Malcolm Cutchins gets his regular ink in the Opelika-Auburn News to tell us Marriage, family win on Election Day. He writes that "marriage and family were the big winners" given California, Arizona, and Florida's votes on same sex marriage plus also Arkansas telling unmarried couples of any orientation that they simply aren't part of the solution for children needing adopting in that fine state.

Personally, my marriage isn't threatened or bolstered by another, of any variety. Dr. Cutchins claims the US Constitution prohibits forms of early voting yet apparently he's not that willing to strictly interpret the 14th Amendment. That he praises Bible Thumping Arkansans' vote to prohibit unmarried couples fostering or adopting children says much. Dumb crackers!

He then proceeds to blaming President-elect Obama and the "mainstream media" for our current economic troubles. To cure our ailments, Dr. Cutchins prescribes reforms to "our unfair tax structure forces huge amounts of U.S. capital to go overseas." I'd listen to what reforms he suggests yet he leaves us guessing.

He claims we need to drill, drill, drill ... and even use highly polluting and inefficient oil shales.

He suggests we "diminish give-away foreign aid" and expressly cites the work of Fred Reed in The American Conservative. Lamentations on "wasting money on backwards cultures" sounds backwards frankly Doc.

Dr. Cutchins goes after "ACORN’s willingness to participate in open voting corruption" as well. The Alabama Policy Intitute's Gary Palmer would be proud. They would both be wrong however.

Dr. Cutchins closes with, " Since poor congressional oversight of the sub-prime markets contributed greatly to the loss of several trillion dollars by U.S. stockholder ..." Contributed yes but "greatly" is a stretch, or more accurately a spin, actually. John Gunn

03 November 2009 - I made some slight changes to the above at Dr. Cutchins' request. He's no longer writing his column and I regret if my snarky style offended him. He was 100% classy in asking me to make these changes and I'm pleased to do so. I wish him all the best in whatever he does. John Gunn