After voters rejected Republican economic proposals, the GOP sought the appearance of “compromise” with the president on averting the so-called fiscal cliff. The gesture was strictly rhetorical, since their stance just restates the Romney/Ryan tax plan to disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans, coupled with steep cuts to entitlement programs for the middle class.
On Fox News Sunday, House Speaker John Boehner summarized the three major myths Republicans have used in fiscal showdown negotiations:
MYTH: Feigning shock at economic proposals that voters endorsed: Boehner said the White House’s initial outline to avert the so-called fiscal cliff was a complete surprise: “I was flabbergasted. I said you can’t be serious. I have never seen anything like it.” However, much of President Obama’s current proposal appeared in his 20-page plan, released in October, which has explicit mentions of tax cuts for the middle class, small business tax breaks, and entitlement savings. At the time, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)dismissed it as a “glossy” brochure, and “nothing but a rehash of the same failed ideas of the past four years.” Boehner and Hatch are pretending to encounter Obama’s economic plan for the first time, when it has been on the table well before he won reelection.
MYTH: “We have laid it all out for them, a dozen ways to raise the revenue from the richest Americans.” Boehner claimed that Republicans have detailed their revenue counterplan to Obama’s proposal to allow Bush tax cuts to expire for the wealthiest 2 percent, while extending them for the middle class. On Sunday, pressed to provide details on their biggest proposal since the election, Boehner dodged answering. Rather than increase marginal tax rates on the richest Americans, Republicans back eliminating tax loopholes and entitlement cuts mirrored in Paul Ryan’s budget. The pitch is much like Mitt Romney’s, which attracted criticism for his lack of specificity on which loopholes could make up for lower tax rates for the wealthiest Americans.
MYTH: Obama has “put $400 billion worth of unspecified cuts” on the table. Boehner claimed Obama’s “unserious proposal” lacks details on what entitlement savings he would put forward. But the details for Obama’s proposal for $400 billion in savings in Medicare and other social programs have existed for quite some time, in his FY 2013 budget released in February. It includes $600 billion in “reforms and savings, to our health care and other government programs,” without the dramatic restructuring that Republicans propose, as well as $1.6 trillion in revenue.
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Monday, December 3, 2012
Three Big Whoppers Republicans Tell About the Fiscal Cliff
Friday, October 26, 2012
DCCC Chair Steve Israel's Statement on Record Big #Oil Donation to Boehner
DCCC Chairman Steve Israel released the following statement after Congressional Leadership Fund, a Super PAC affiliated with Speaker John Boehner, took a record $2.5 million contribution from Chevron. According to the Washington Post, the Chevron contribution “appears to be the largest contribution from a publicly traded corporation to a political group” since the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling.
“This may be the biggest political payoff in history. House Republicans protected taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil companies making record profits and now they’re getting rewarded,” said DCCC Chairman Steve Israel. “House Republicans chose to protect subsidies for Big Oil instead of Medicare for seniors so Big Oil companies are now trying to save their Tea Party defenders.”
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Back in the BBS days: how-to helps newbs navigate to a pre-internet playground
The web has an origin story, one that predates any cozy trip in the wayback machine. That's because where we're going, there is no internet -- at least, not as you now know it -- only Bulletin Board Systems. And to help guide curious digital natives on this journey back to the time tech forgot, a programmer by the handle of Proppelerpowered has whipped up a how-to that leverages nothing more than a microcontroller-based microcomputer and BASIC knowledge. The brief step-by-step, listed over on Instructables, requires intrepid geeks to build a Pocket Mini computer, which purportedly takes only "an evening," after which they'll have to tinker with some low-level coding to complete the connection setup, hitch a ride online via PC and then link up with any number of active BBSs around the world. For the purposes of this beginner guide, you'll have instructions for access to a Canada-based Commodore 64 clearly laid out. But the more adept are encouraged to swap out the standard setup for an ANSI terminal and wade into serious retro-gaming waters (Trade Wars, anyone?). Hit up the source below to peek the blow-by-blow and see if this hack's made for you.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
What A Completely Neutral Internet Looks Like
As of this week, the Netherlands is a legally net-neutral country. Here's what a real, federally mandated free internet looks like.
Yesterday the Dutch government passed a law mandating net neutrality, ensuring that internet service providers and telcos can't favor one type of internet traffic over any other. In the US, the FCC has already approved a set of piecemeal rules to encourage net neutrality, but nothing this absolute. (And judging by Comcast and Verizon's apparent plans, it doesn't really have any teeth.)
Incredibly for a piece of Internet legislation, the law is written in plain, easy-to-understand language; it's clear enough, I think, to serve as a template for the rest of the world. Here's a sample of what good internet legislation looks like, a handy primer in what net neutrality is all about, and a template for the rest of the world. (Translation by Bof.nl):
Providers of public electronic communication networks which deliver internet access services and providers of internet access services do not hinder or slow down applications and services on the internet
...
Providers of internet access services do not make the price of the rates for internet access services dependent on the services and applications which are offered or used via these services.
...
In order to prevent the degradation of service and the hindering or slowing down of traffic over public electronic communication networks, minimum requirements regarding the quality of service of public electronic communication services may be imposed on undertaking providing public communications networks.
There are caveats, of course, but they're mostly defensible. And now we wait and see: will net neutrality destroy the Dutch internet or save it?
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Your 2012 election season, let the suppression of political debate begin
Monday, May 7, 2012
Augmented Reality: Disney Touche’ haptics
*Hey, wow, haptics.
*Despite the fact that this is Disney Research, no cartoon gloves are required.
*Also note the interesting design-fiction use-cases at the end of the video, such as squeezing a doorknob to lock a door. Mix that up with some of that Oblong Industries “Minority Report” gesture recognition, and we’re looking at a strange immersive future environment.
via @genebecker
Published on May 2, 2012 by DisneyResearchHub
“Touché proposes a novel Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing technique that can not only detect a touch event, but also recognize complex configurations of the human hands and body. Such contextual information significantly enhances touch interaction in a broad range of applications, from conventional touchscreens to unique contexts and materials. For example, in our explorations we add touch and gesture sensitivity to the human body and liquids. We demonstrate the rich capabilities of Touché with five example setups from different application domains and conduct experimental studies that show gesture classification accuracies of 99% are achievable with our technology.”
*More:
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/05/touche-brings-touch-controls-t.html
Monday, April 16, 2012
WATCH: Mind-Blowing App Puts Solar System In Palm Of Your Hand
Imagine a solar system that fits into the palm of your hand. About 10 months ago, video game designer Christopher Albeluhn did, and now he's taken that vision to the public in a bid to boldly go where no edutainment application has gone before.
Albeluhn's software, "The Solar System: Explore Your Backyard," began as a portfolio-expanding project for the unemployed British Columbia-based video game designer. As he explains on its Indiegogo page, Albeluhn's original concept was to "create planet Earth in a video game engine," but as he added levels of scope and depth, the simulation began to take on astronomical proportions.
"Every night I began making it bigger, better, and more of what I wanted to see in a space program," Albeluhn wrote on the project's page.
Soon, the program included eight planets, their moons, the sun, and the 88 standard constellations. Perhaps most impressively, Albeluhn included "correct rotations, orbits, locations and speeds" for the solar system's planets and the sun, based on scientific data.
Built using the Unreal Engine, a platform traditionally used for first-person shooters and role-playing games, "Explore Your Backyard" is currently being developed for the PC. Albeluhn told Venture Beat that he's currently focused on releasing his simulation on that platform, but that a port for Android and hand-held iOS devices like iPad and iPhone would be possible if his project meets its fundraising goal of $8,000.
As an interactive, hands-on way for students to learn about the solar system, Albeluhn's program has the makings of a great teaching tool. According to the application's official website, "Explore Your Backyard" is "designed from the ground up with the distinct intent to make exploring and learning about the solar system fun, entertaining, informative and very natural."
While the program's many features might pose a bit of a learning curve, its depth and customizability set it apart from other solar system sims.
"Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe" application, for example, has been criticized by users for lack of depth. The NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab-produced "Eyes on the Solar System" Web app tracks the movement of asteroids and historic human-made satellites through the solar system, which Albeluhn intends to include on a later version of "Explore Your Backyard."
According to Venture Beat, Albeluhn also wants to include dwarf planets, a viewing library and more detailed models in future releases.
The Huffington Post e-mailed Albeluhn for comment, but received no reply as of press time.