Historical Mountain Missing

21st Century Coverup
CNN's Jack Cafferty on CREW's discovery that 10,000,000 White House e-mails are missing.
CREW Team * a "Government Watchdog Group"

*sorry for the visual
But more rowing in the mud and it may be a photo finish.

Speaking of Cracking the Code (and How to Win Hearts, Change Minds and Restore America's Original Vision, I am slightly more than midway through my autographed edition, but it is what I have been doing / for years. Reading between the lines (if not not finishing books or links) [speaking of finishing 12-19-07 ] here is the most powerful dig at their world view.

The shovel they keep piling on mud and B_S_ with, so the trickle down flows, and the plumbers can plug and leak, and the flatearthers can have their boats and their rising tide. From missing tapes [*]segments, to missing emails, from violated FISA to the Presidential Records Act. The Trickle Down is right in the middle of the two Plumbers problem which congress needs to flush. From the Nixon administration plugging leaks to the Bush administration using leaks, it is all about the flow and control of information, and holding government and the press accountable. It is not just in the constitution, it is on the people.

[*] [12-11-07: I was not even thinking of or cognisant of the just broken news about the CIA interrogation videos being destroyed. Here are just three quick links which I will read later-- The Blotter ABC News -- Washingtonpost.com -- MSNBC -- ]

Consider the Source.

Mine not me.

Usually such headings and opening lines would be a self deprecating if not journalistic attention getting misdirection. But in this case, they are a direct reference to the links which I have only briefly scanned and I simply post them for later digestion, if not comment. Their sources, and the fact that I have heard their memes through my filters, is the reason I have selected them.

By Eric Alterman * [3-15 reply]
By Isaiah J. Poole [3-16 reply]
By Rick Perlstein [3-16 reply, 3-18 Bringing it up?]
By Bob Herbert

"Freedom is not a force, but thoughts are not just memes."

[And while I pursue some off line work,
this is enough online work to pass the time:
EDUCATION
A Textbook Case of Misinformation and Bias ]

[[Not to mention this new mine field:
(email QCON 4-12-8) -

Speaking of intelligence...
leaks are hard to trickle up.

Speaking of curve balls...
remember the laffer?

Hence the hard work
and the screw ups.

Thought(?) sometimes I need footnotes for some.
intelligence -
curveball - Laffer curve -
screw ups -

Google is my post-elixir, but I often preempt the research and post the BS. (Meaning I just dug these up, but the lines were previous tangents from the whole.)
BTW: I disassociate myself from anything I have not read in these links, which is most of them. ]]

*scroll over source for titles

The Curve or Nuance Thing

In this I am referring first to the Laffer Curve, which is propably not exactly a Bell Curve..

Now to un-nuance something or other.** The Laffer Curve has generally been used to argue that reducing taxes will increase government revenue. That is also called Supply Side economics. Reduced taxes(for the rich and corporations) will create jobs that will produce things and the economy will grow. Supply money, or not take it away, and it will supply jobs that will supply products and people will buy more. A better economy means better revenue. If people cannot see a few leaks in this theory, it is not just what I may have left out.

Not just the Demand Side, but also the debt side, the outsourcing, and the Wall Street or commodities side are left out. If money is being left in businesses and jobs, it is not being taxed as income. If it has a lower tax rate it will come out as income that will be spent, but there are fewer people in the top tax brackets to benefit the economy than there are in the lower tax brackets who would benefit the economy by having enough money to pay for their needs let alone their demands. Their decrease in taxes, or other income benefits,* would increase demand for products which would produce demand for jobs, which would increase their ability to benefit the economy. Now of course there are dangers to an either/or supply or demand(or any general) approach to the analysis. Then there are the debt, outsourcing, and Wall Street factors. Taxes are aslo a part of how these issues(debt, trade, and investment) effect the economy as generally explained here,(as well as in a more complex equation of the economy) as well as how changes in tax code may help the economy.

This has generally been more about how reduced taxes can help the economy. But there is the correction to the myth that all reducing of taxes increase the revenue. When that is more properly on the curve or in the equation, increased revenue will come from a general rise in the economy, as well as the proper taxation rate which will benefit the debt picture, which will be good for the economy. Now, too much emphasis on the burden of debt, trade and investment risks, must also find itself on the curve or dynamic equation of the big picture as well.

* two charts



** two curves in first paragraph: Ezra Klein and Eugene Robinson
*** yet to fully read, but a note on foreign aid as something to cut with only 1% of the budget. It just might fit into the above understanding of proper balance and investment not that it all is, but a cut in foreign aid may mean an increase or leak in another part of the picture above.

[I hope the above is easy to understand, but then there is the crack pot calling the kettle "stupid". i.e. Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg disagreeing with what Alan Simpson and Charles Krauthammer think.]

[Also Straw Man D'baits Red Herring. Thomas Sowell is right, there is no trickle down. That is because the money needs to be spent at the bottom, but where does the money come from? From the demand and the production of the worker.]

[3-11-11: two links (an update) from State of Thought blog]