Murdoch, Gang of Six, etc.

(1) Laffer's Latest Curve-ball: Subscriber Kris W. alerted us that the dumb op-ed Arthur Laffer co-wrote for the WSJ a while back, which John Millercritiques in his July/August Up Against the Wall Street Journal column, is posted all over the web on anti-union websites and elsewhere. In connection with the NLRB's recent decision against Boeing, which moved production to South Carolina, Laffer claims that right-to-work states have better growth rates than those with (as he puts it) "forced unionism."  Anyhow, I just posted John's column, Wrong About Right-to Work. I liked Kris's tweet about the article: "Dollars & Sense thoroughly debunks the latest trash Laffer left on the @WSJ curb: "Wrong About Right-to-Work". [Look for a great feature on Boeing in our Sept/Oct issue.]

(2) Speaking of Laffer... I was looking for an image to go with this post, and typed "Laffer napkin" into Google images.  I found the image above, which accompanied the amusing campaign Mark Ames is starting at The Exiled:  FOC the RATS!: Bring back Ike's Tax Rate on the Rich! As amusing as it is timely (actually--overdue).

(3) Speaking of rats... Good stuff from Dean Baker on the Gang of Six's dastardly plan to balance the budget by slashing Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid:  CEPR Statement on the Gang of Six Plan.  Of course we should all be supporting The People's Budget. [Look for an Economy in Numbers on The People's Budget in our Sept/Oct issue.]

(4) The Smell of Murdoch in the Morning: William Rivers Pitt at Truthout did us the favor of watching the Murdochs' testimony before Parliament yesterday morning--on Fox News.  His live blogging is amusing. When I got to the part about the pie-ing, I had to check other news outlets to make sure he wasn't making that up!  I especially liked his observation that even though, astoundingly, Fox covered long stretches of the hearings without commercial interruption, apparently Fox reported that they could tell from their viewers' feedback (via IM, etc.) that they couldn't really tell what the hearings were all about.  This was because Fox News hadn't been covering the scandal much, of course, so how would their viewers know?

Joe Nocera's column excoriating the Wall Street Journal's non-coverage of the scandal, The Journal Becomes Fox-ified, was somewhat less compelling--who would go to the Journal for coverage of the scandal anyhow? (I know, if they had integrity they would cover it fairly, even doggedly.) Nocera's more recent column, The Tables are Turned on Rupert Murdoch, was much more compelling--it explained why we're justified in feeling more than a bit of schaudenfreude while we watch Murdoch's empire unraveling.

(5) On a completely different topic: From the Boston Globe: Romney fundraiser lobbied for foreclosure firm, apparently one of those robo-signing foreclosure factories.  So enough with the campaign-stop crocodile tears about people being thrown out of their homes, ok Mitt?

(6) On a completely different topic: You may have heard about the collapse of the stage at a Cheap Trick concert in Ottawa on Sunday.  I heard about it yesterday morning on WMBR's Late Risers' Club, and hat-tip to the DJ for this tidbit:  though miraculously, no one was hurt, the band's equipment was completely destroyed, their manager, Dave Frey, managed to quip, "We’re trying to get gear set up for our show  tomorrow [July 19] in Buffalo. Do you know where we can rent a  five-neck guitar?” (as reported on the Gibson website). The tracks played on WMBR recently were sounding pretty good--I had no clue.

--Chris Sturr