Portside

REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons

SUNDAY

Quote of the Day
October 13, 2013

'In addition to all the people who are unemployed or
underemployed, the weakness of the labor market
has made it impossible for most workers to be able
to achieve real wage gains. As a result the benefits of
the growth we have seen in the United States and
other wealthy countries have gone overwhelmingly
to the richest 1 percent of the population.

'This story is not only devastating for the current
generation of workers; it is also having a devastating
impact on their children. There are millions of
children having impaired childhoods because their
unemployed parent(s) cannot properly care for
them...'

Economist Dean Baker
Beat the Press
Center for Economic and Policy Research
October 10, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Koch Boys
Randall Enos
 

MONDAY

Quote of the Day

'So you have this neighbor who has been making
your life hell. First he tied you up with a spurious
lawsuit; you're both suffering from huge legal bills.
Then he threatened bodily harm to your family.
Now, however, he says he's willing to compromise:
He'll call off the lawsuit, which is to his advantage
as well as yours. But in return you must give him
your car. Oh, and he'll stop threatening your family
- but only for a week, after which the threats will
resume.

'Not much of an offer, is it? But here's the kicker:
Your neighbor's relatives, who have been egging him
on, are furious that he didn't also demand that you
kill your dog.

'And now you understand the current state of
budget negotiations.'

Economist Paul Krugman
New York Times
October 14, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

What They Really Mean
David Horsey
Los Angeles Times
 

TUESDAY

Quote of the Day

'Scorn for bureaucracy and government is a long-
standing American tradition. But perhaps this
shutdown will help people realize that we have a
huge stake in an effective and efficient government.
We should show far more respect for those we
employ with our tax dollars. They are like all
workers. They struggle to support their families.
They go to work every day. Many live paycheck to
paycheck, while laboring to put aside a little money
to pay for their children's education. Few can afford
to work without pay and none should be forced to
do so.

'Shutting down the government and punishing the
people who work for us should be unacceptable to
all those who care about this country.'

Rev. Jesse Jackson
Chicago Sun-Times
October 14, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Exceptional
Tony Auth
 

WEDNESDAY

Quote of the Day

'American inequality began its upswing 30 years
ago, along with tax decreases for the rich and the
easing of regulations on the financial sector. That's
no coincidence. It has worsened as we have under-
invested in our infrastructure, education and health
care systems, and social safety nets. Rising
inequality reinforces itself by corroding our political
system and our democratic governance.

'And Europe seems all too eager to follow America's
bad example. The embrace of austerity, from Britain
to Germany, is leading to high unemployment,
falling wages and increasing inequality. Officials like
Angela Merkel, the newly re-elected German
chancellor, and Mario Draghi, president of the
European Central Bank, argue that Europe's
problems are a result of a bloated welfare spending.
But that line of thinking has only taken Europe into
recession (and even depression). That things may
have bottomed out - that the recession may be
"officially" over - is little comfort to the 27 million
out of a job in the E.U. On both sides of the Atlantic,
the austerity fanatics say, march on: these are the
bitter pills that we need to take to achieve
prosperity. But prosperity for whom?'

Economist Joseph Stiglitz
New York Times
October 13, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Compromisers
Jen Sorenson
 

THURSDAY

Quote of the Day

'Because the deal only includes minor concessions,
the Beltway consensus is that it represents a
resounding defeat for Republicans, who
"surrendered" their original demands to defund or
delay Obamacare. In the skirmish of opinion polls,
that may be true, for now. But in the war of ideas,
the Senate deal is but a stalemate, one made almost
entirely on conservative terms. The GOP now goes
into budget talks with sequestration as the new
baseline, primed to demand longer-term cuts in
Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. And they
still hold the gun of a US default to the nation's
head in the next debt ceiling showdown.

'Surrender? Any more "victories" like this and
Democrats will end up paying tribute into the GOP's
coffers.'

Editorial
The Nation
October 16, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Haunted House
Mark Ulriksen
The New Yorker
 

FRIDAY

Quote of the Day

'The vision of the tea party is clear. This economy is
doing well. If most Americans are not doing well, it
is because they are lazy malcontents. Corporate
profits are soaring, Wall Street is all smiles, the rich
are getting richer so those who aren't on one of
those trains have only themselves to blame. We just
need to continue on the path we are on: smaller and
smaller government. We had an election in 2012
when Mitt Romney got to deliver that vision-and he
lost.

'President Obama must return to leading. There
needs to be a clear vision of where America is
headed. There has to be clear acknowledgement that
this path is failing us. His speech on Thursday did
not do that. Cutting people off from food-as the tea
party-led House did with its cuts to the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that
also would cut more than 200,000 children from
reduced price school lunches-in service to helping
shrink the government to make the world safer for
corporate profits and tax-free lives for the rich is not
measuring America's success by our children's well-
being. Threatening the future of Social Security and
Medicaid benefits for our children who currently
have the lowest level of employment of any
American generation, in jobs that pay poorly and
provide no retirement benefits, in the name of
smaller government and lower taxes for the rich is
not a vision of a society that measures its success
based on the well-being of its children. Continuing
to fight against funding for teachers to replace the
hundreds of thousands lost to our children's
classrooms, overcrowding their classrooms and
cutting our investment in our children's education
so the government can be smaller and the rich
richer is not creating a society focused on the well-
being of our children. Letting our infrastructure
collapse, so our children will be faced with even
higher bills to fix our roads, update our water and
sewer systems and keep our ports operable, so the
rich can pay fewer taxes, is not putting the welfare
of our children first.'

William E. Spriggs
AFL-CIO Now
blog
October 18, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Back to Normal
Joe Heller
Cagle
 

SATURDAY

Quote of the Day

'The United States cannot turn a blind eye to
attacks on civil liberties, human rights and the
democratic process in Honduras," Rep. Johnson
said. "The right to elect the next president in a free
and fair election process must be guaranteed to
Hondurans. Violence, repression and anti-
democratic actions have no place in Honduras or
anywhere in the region. These actions do not serve
Hondurans, and do not serve our country's best
interest. It is for this reason that I have joined my
colleagues in urging Secretary Kerry to communicate
this message to the Honduran government, and to
do everything within his power to support a fair, free
and transparent elections process in November.'

Rep. Hank Johnson , announcing he
was joining Reps. Nike Honda and
Raul M. Grijalva in a letter to Secretary
of State John Kerry urging the U.S. State
Department to monitor the potential militarization of
the electoral process ahead of Honduras' Nov. 24
presidential vote.

Press Release
October 16, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Party Stars
Pat Bagley