The Spencerian

Free Political Talking Points: Fed Dead Redemption Edition

You might describe the United States Federal Reserve Bank as the Bank of America, except there actually is a Bank of America, and it's not the same thing.  Clever marketing move, Bank of America. 

The Fed, as the Federal Reserve Bank is known, sets monetary policy for the United States.  It has been doing this for a long time -- almost 100 years.

And, um, there are some people who do not particularly care for it.  We have a name for those people.  They're called Tea Partiers.  And they are all totally insane. 

One of the people who is not what you'd call a fan of the Fed is Congressman Ron Paul.  Congressman Paul, a libertarian Republican, is in charge of the House Subcommittee which has oversight of the Fed.  He has let it be known that he is really looking forward to pretty much kicking the Fed right in the nards over the next few years.  It is now Congressman Paul's mission in life to make life a living hell for the head honcho over at the Fed, a professorial-type fellow named Ben Bernanke who kind of looks like your swell uncle who can recite Pi to the thousandth digit as well as a fart limerick without breaking a sweat.

Listen, an independent, almost wholly autonomous super bank that has broad and vast power to control things like interest rates and money itself is going to have it's detractors.  Thus, these are Free Political Talking Points for People Who are Skeptical of the Fed.

• The Federal Reserve is in charge of three big things we really need:

1. setting monetary policy: this is different than fiscal policy.  Monetary policy is determining how much money is out there, and where interest rates are.  Too much money, and and nothing is worth anything (deflation), too little money, and the price of everything skyrockets (inflation).
   
   
2. supervising banks: pretty much what it sounds like, and yeah, this is harder to defend given the way big banks acted the last couple of years.  However, there are some new rules and regulations out there, and you can find much of the information on the Fed site.
   
3. providing payment services to depository institutions: pull out a one-dollar bill.  Look at the top on the side with George Washington.  It says: "Federal Reserve Note".  This is the part of the Fed that makes your little piece of thin paper with black and green ink actually worth something.

• Before Woodrow Wilson signed the law which created the Federal Reserve in 1913, there were over 30,000 different currencies floating around.  Bad idea.

• The Fed helps keep us all working by creating demand for jobs.  They do this by managing interest rates.  When interest rates are lower, borrowing money becomes less expensive, and then you can buy stuff.  When you buy something, the demand for that thing increases, and thus are jobs for building that thing created.

• The Fed provides insightful information for consumers as well as community development.

• The Fed also provides all kinds of interesting statistical data that is useful and helpful to those who set monetary as well as fiscal policy nationally and globally.

Is the Federal Reserve Bank a perfect system?  Hardly.  But the idea of abloshing America's Bank is pretty nuts.

Cross posted at the Florida Progressive Coalition.

Free Political Talking Points: The Back to Basics Big Tent Stop Yer Cryin' Get Up and Fight Revival Edition

Yeah, this is back.  Again.

Yes indeed, dear friends and neighbors, this Thanksgiving we've got an awful lot to be thankful for. 

Oh, I know -- we got our asses kicked on Election Day.  And now you've got at least a couple of years to look forward to Speaker Boehner at the national level.  Here in Florida you can anticipate Governor Hospital Grifter and a state legislature that looks to be solely comprised of the testy orcs in 'Lord of the Rings'.

Indeed, progressive voices seem scattered, a mess.  We have, apparently, lost faith in President Obama if not as leader of the country then as leader of the Democratic Party. 

Worst of all, politics itself seems to have lost the faith and trust of the American people, abetted by a criminally negligent news media, itself a failed experiment, twitching away in the final throes of death which can't seem to come soon enough.

So, um.  What were we thankful for again?

A lot, you selfish, simpering crybaby.  These are Talking Points for People Who Need to be Reminded of Who They Fight For ('For Whom They Fight'?).  Let's remember what we're about -- and not just when we're with our friends and family next Thursday chowing down:

• In Pinellas County, 28,821 children live in poverty.  That's 17% of children.  Their Thanksgiving won't be like yours or mine.
• In Florida, unemployment is at 12%. 
• In July 2010, 19.4 million U.S. households (41.8 million persons) received food stamps.  That's 1 in every 6 households, an increase of 20% over the previous year.  Based on the Census Bureau’s American Community Surveys for 2006-08, just under 60% of families who received food stamps had children under 18 years of age. Of these families, approximately 60% were headed by single females.  Food stamps don't usually get you the kind of Thanksgiving you or I will have.
• In Florida, 40% of homeless people are families.  23% are children under the age of 18.  Their Thanksgiving won't be like yours or mine, either.
  In Pinellas County, there are 2,232 unsheltered homeless persons, meaning they have to sleep on sidewalks, park benches, bus stops, doorways, in encampments, along railways and the Pinellas Trail, etc.  This is an increase of 83% from 2007.
• In a ten-year period in Florida, there were 149 attacks on the homeless, and 28 deaths.  These are hate crimes, and they happened in cities across this state.
• If Florida is "open for business," then maybe someone ought to tell the CEO just how expensive homelessness can be.
• If you can do the right thing morally as well as fiscally, wouldn't you do it?  You can place four chronically homeless people into permanent supportive housing and save as much as $80,000.
• There is help in Pinellas County, and in Florida.  And our advocacy voice is strong -- but must be much, much stronger.  The trends are not going in the right direction.

We're Democrats.  We're progressives.  We're liberal.  We level the playing field.  We speak for those who can't.  We fight for those who deserve it.  We believe in opportunity for all, not special privilege for an elite few.

This Thanksgiving, let's be sure to take a minute to be thankful for what we have -- and to remember that there are things worth fighting for.  Because you know we'll have to. 

Happy Thanksgiving, friends and neighbors.  Someone pass me the damn taters.

We'll be cross-posting this at the Florida Progressive Coalition, as before.

Free Political Talking Points: The Food, Glorious Food Edition

You disgust me.

Sitting there with your perfectly moist turkey, covered in thick, delectable gravy, your heaps of creamy white potatoes drowning in fresh-drawn butter.  The crisp green beans, steaming out of a roiling tub of ham hock juice.  The fluffy, buttery bread, the carrots soaking in all manner of brown sugar.  The can of cranberry sauce.

Are those lima beans with salt and pepper?  Brussel's sprouts?  There's squash to be had? 

Don't try to cover that slice of ham with your napkin.  I see it.  

All that, and you're going to help yourself to a piece of pie the size of your head, aren't you?

All washed down with a glass of that twenty-two dollar a bottle Pinot Noir.    

And just what did you have for a snack when the game came on before dinner?  It was that cold leftover pizza with extra cheese from the night before, wasn't it?  

You ought to be ashamed of yourself.  

Instead of a scrumptuous Thanksgiving meal, you should treat yourself to Free Political Talking Points for Political Hacks Who Love Food, Glorious Food.

 -- The Fruit of the Month is plantains.  Let's incorporate this healthy choice in to our Thanksgiving dinner! 

 -- Cook that turkey at 165 degrees -- minimum!

 -- Be thankful you only have to feed yourself today.  By 2050, you have to feed nearly 10 billion... did you make enough for everyone?  (And if you think this doesn't effect the climate, you're crazy.)

 -- Wash your hands, cook stuff the right way, don't cross-contaminate food, and keep stuff chilled properly: there are more than 76 million cases of foodborne illnesses annually!

 -- You've remembered to eat healthy, cook the turkey at the right tempurature, you've set the table for 10 billion people, you've scrubbed everything from top to bottom, and now you're ready to eat: yeah, there's an app for that.

 -- You're probably going to eat too much.  But remember...

 -- ...there are 49 million hungry Americans.  Let us take a moment to truly be thankful for all we have.  

Cross posted at the Florida Progressive Coalition.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends and neighbors.

Free Political Talking Points: The Hunger for a Revival Edition

Back in black, I hit the sack, I've been too long I'm glad to be back.

Never can you go wrong with AC/DC. Ever. Anyway, after a brief ("brief" means really long, right?) hiatus, we bring you once again your Free Political Talking Points.  Now with more political talky goodness. It's a veritable feast of facts and figures for you to use.

Enjoy our first course, Free Political Talking Points on Nutrition and Hunger... Because It's Closer Than You Think:

 -- Current world population: nearly 7 billion. Number of undernourished people in the world: more than 1 billion. Number of overweight people in the world 1.1 billion. Number of obese people: nearly 350 million.

 -- Number of people who died of starvation today in the world: 24,135 -- Pregnant women, new mothers who breastfeed infants, and children are among the most at risk of undernourishment. The numbers get worse, not better.

 -- Age of Chauntasia Gardner when she starved to death in Lakeland this week: 5 months old. She weighed 6 pounds.

 -- Undernutrition contributes to 53 percent of the 9.7 million deaths of children under five each year in developing countries. This means that one child dies every six seconds from malnutrition and related causes. More than 70 percent of the world's 146 million underweight children under age five years live in just 10 countries, with more than 50 per cent located in South Asia alone.

 -- Did you think it could happen in the Tampa Bay area?

 -- In 2004, nonchocolate nonseasonal candy generated more than $2 billion in sales. Chocolate seasonal and non-seasonal was double that.

 -- Take action to end hunger worldwide -- and in America.

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Cross-posted at the Florida Progressive Coalition