The Long View

From Economic Principals.  First, expectations of the future:

Some of what is going to happen over the next ten years is obvious. Global warming is going to be affirmed by experience. Human embryonic stem cell research will go forward, despite challenges in the courts.
Some is only slightly less obvious.  Social Security will be restored to actuarial balance through a mix of mild tax increases and benefit cuts.  Medicare will be preserved and, perhaps, extended through a second health-care statute.  The 15-member Independent Payment Advisory Board, established by the Affordable Care Act, will gradually morph into a Health Care Fed, a geographically decentralized organization with provider input engineered into the system at every level.
The harder problems that will become apparent in the next ten years have to do with the inequality that is growing all around the world.

Then, what he expects is the answer for economic inequality:

I belong to a luncheon club whose smartest member is a longtime investment manager whom I have observed for many years, He walked out of the room after a global tour d’horizon talk the other day and said on the sidewalk in front of the building, “The only things that can possibly address inequality of a magnitude that will soon be judged to be unacceptable in this country are much higher levels of taxation on the well-to-do and a negative income tax for the poor.”  I hadn’t heard it put so simply or succinctly before, but in the circumstances I was convinced instantly that he was right.
A “negative income tax” is a euphemism designed forty years ago to avoid what otherwise might have been called a “guaranteed annual wage,” when even Milton Friedman endorsed the idea.  Call it a “disability benefit” if you prefer.  We’ve learned a fair amount since then about how to entice workers to take low-paying jobs through earned income tax credits.
Some income floor beneath which citizens are not permitted to fall is the next frontier of social policy. Universal health care was the most recent skirmish in an ongoing campaign. The US will do fine in its economic competition with the newly industrializing world as long as its social fabric doesn’t become irreparably frayed. This is the world for which we are heading, and the sensible thing to do is to prepare for it.

It amazes me that Republicans are pushing for greater inequality, and Democrats can't adequately arouse voter concern about Republican policies.  It further amazes me that people I know who are not well-to-do are actively cheering for the rich and against the government and any sane progressive tax policy.  I had a guy on Facebook tell me that increasing dividend taxes is just theft by the government.  I'm certain that I make much more in dividends (and overall income) than he does, yet he is fighting to lower my taxes, while I want them to go up for the good of the country as a whole.  At this point, I am resigned to the fact that future policy may be terrible for the country, but I may benefit greatly.  I hope that isn't the case, but about 40-45% of the middle class seems to be working for their own destruction, just to spite brown people who are even poorer.  Dumbasses.

St. Paris Man Tased in Cincinnati

Cincinnati Enquirer:

Cincinnati police say they arrested a central Ohio man who was running naked in Sunday’s Flying Pig Marathon and Tased him when he wouldn't comply with their orders to stop.
Police charged Brett S. Henderson, 35, of St. Paris, Ohio with public indecency and obstructing official business.
Police say Henderson was told to exit the race and get in a police car but he refused, running around an officer and continuing to run in the race. Eventually, Henderson was instructed to get in a car or he would be Tased. Henderson kept on running and an officer Tased him.

Conservatives, Katrina and Alabama

I was listening to All Things Considered and heard parts of a story from Alabama.  Here is the summary:

The death toll from this week's tornadoes has topped 340 — and 28 of them came from one small Alabama town. Very little of Rainsville, population 5,000, remains. And yet, survivors continue the difficult task of picking up the pieces. One family, the Hamiltons, struggles to figure out what to do next.

It was heart-wrenching hearing about how they lost everything.  The lady said they needed a trailer or RV sent down to live in while they rebuilt, because they couldn't stay with friends forever.  That reminded me of this email, which my boss received from one of our wingnuttier clients a few years ago.  It claims North Dakota had a major blizzard and the people there didn't need government money or assistance like the folks from New Orleans.  According to Snopes.com, this email has circulated around a number of times, with Muskegon, Michigan, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Colorado as the supposed site of the disaster.  Of course they are places with primarily white populations, unlike New Orleans.  Also, in all the cases except for Cedar Rapids, the people's homes weren't destroyed. Also, Snopes (that damn liberal site, the same client sent us an email saying Snopes was liberal, and couldn't be trusted because they used FACTS) pointed out that the National Guard was called out to deal with the blizzard in North Dakota.  I am curious if the same racists who circulated this email will reconsider, now that a large number of white folks are now homeless and in need of help.  I doubt it.

Of course, a tornado is much different than a major flood/hurricane, as private homeowner's insurance covers tornados, but government-subsidized insurance covers floods. Regardless, white bigot conservatives will most likely continue to insinuate that white people don't need government help, but useless, lazy blacks are the only people who benefit from government spending. I do not agree with any of those descriptions above, I am just trying to summarize what I hear when conservatives talk about government.

Cutting Government Spending, Stupidly

From Stuart Staniford, via Gregor, cuts to the Energy Information Administration:

Here is the press release announcing the amount of savings:

Immediate Reductions in EIA's Energy Data and Analysis Programs Necessitated by FY 2011 Funding Cut

WASHINGTON, DC - The final fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget provides $95.4 million for the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), a reduction of $15.2 million, or 14 percent, from the FY 2010 level.
"The lower FY 2011 funding level will require significant cuts in EIA's data, analysis, and forecasting activities," said EIA Administrator Richard Newell. "EIA had already taken a number of decisive steps in recent years to streamline operations and enhance overall efficiency, and we will continue to do so in order to minimize the impact of these cuts at a time when both policymaker and public interest in energy issues is high," he said.
EIA must act quickly to realize the necessary spending reductions during the present fiscal year, which is already more than half over. The changes in products and services identified below reflect initial steps to reduce the cost of EIA's program. Additional actions are being evaluated and may result in further adjustments to EIA's data and analysis activities in the near future.

Cutting statistical data for energy production in the U.S. and worldwide to save $15.2 million dollars?  That is absolutely stupid.  That works out to a nickel per person in the United States.  Maybe that wouldn't be an issue if we don't face very serious energy problems, but how about scraping around between the cushions of our couches and seeing if we can find a quarter or two.  But I'm sure that idiot blowhards like Rush Limbaugh don't think the government should know what the hell is going on in the world.  Rush and his ilk are enemies of humanity.

A Summary of Gold Bugs

At Marketwatch, via Ritholtz:

We’ve been out-Chinese-ed, out-German-ed and India-ed. Those economies are the envy of the world. Chinese banks haven’t made any bad loans and it’s a Shanghai-La as long as you can live on $6,000 a year and aren’t one of the billions of people who can’t speak or move about freely. And talk about opportunity: Who wouldn’t want their 10-year-olds working in a factory stripping copper from old computer monitors? Everyone works.
And how about the Germans. Germany’s export boom will go on infinitely even as the euro rises. The Germans are so rich, they’re bailing out the rest of Europe even though their own debt-to-GDP is 79%.
India is the best place in the world to do business, except for the overcrowding, corruption, dependence on agriculture, and the fact that 25% of its people are below the poverty line. India is running double-digit inflation and has a infant-mortality rate higher than Zimbabwe, Mongolia, North Korea and Namibia. Sad, but it means more farm jobs for the living.
Buy gold.
It’s the only thing that will be valuable when the New World Order shows itself. Right now, the Illuminati, Trilateral Commission and the Freemasons are planning for the end and they won’t be satisfied until they have world. domination or a better public relations firm.
Buy gold.
Because you’re a patriot. Gold hires people. It takes a chance on an idea. It believes that, for all of our politicians and corporate missteps, we have a dynamic country that can compete with anyone. Gold makes a statement. It says “I think the American people work as hard and are as resourceful as anyone on the planet,” and then adds “but for now, I’m just going to hide out in this bunker and eat Spam until someone else has the guts to create a new business with a great idea and gives me a job.”
Gold looks good and does nothing. And isn’t that how it should be? Look at all these people trying to “do” something: putting out fires, doing our taxes, teaching our kids, giving us check-ups, taking care of our elderly, serving us our meals, reporting the news, constructing casinos, delivering our packages, building our roads, making solar panels — what a bunch of morons. They should be buying gold!
Those idiots will know who’s boss when the economy comes crashing down and we’re left in a total state of anarchy. You can imagine the scene: busted businesses, poverty everywhere, road signs in Chinese. They’ll be the ones working for yuan and euros to pay for their government homes and the rest of us will be standing on top laughing at them. We were the ones who saw it coming, loaded up on guns and Oreos, and put our money to good use. Look who’s laughing at our ruined society now. Ha! We were smart enough to heed the words.
Buy gold.

I have a little gold for two reasons.  One, I think shiny coins are cool, and two, gold bugs are crazy enough to bid it much higher than what I bought it at quite a few years ago.  Otherwise, it is pretty damn useless.  At $1500 an ounce, I need to find a bar that will accept 0.00067 ounces of gold to buy a dollar beer, then come up with more for a tip, if I don't want to pay for the transaction in dollars.  Also, the gold standard really makes it hard to grow the economy.

Obama Releases Certificate of Live Birth

Maybe that will satisfy Luke Scott.  Anybody want to bet?  I love how these Republican morons say that a Certificate of Live Birth isn't an official Birth Certificate.  I'm not sure, but I think that's what mine says too.  I'll have to check, and I know I can't trust that my mother didn't actually give birth to me in Africa, so I'm possibly ineligible for the Presidency.  I'm sure all the people who have come across this blog are sorely disappointed with that news.

Update: I would probably be nearly as entertaining as Joe Biden, if I was eligible.

Further update: I too "only" have a certificate of live birth, so either there is no reliable proof that I or Barack Obama were born in this country, or it is further proof that there are some stupid people serving in state legislatures (I'm looking at you, Texas, at least on this issue).  I'll go with the latter.

Obama Was a Pirate

Jonathon Chait has the scoop:

He was a pirate! He viewed commerce as something to be pillaged and looted. He views wealth in completely zero-sum terms, as something that can be accumulated only through force. No wonder he hates capitalism.
Also, he probably engaged in a lot of sodomy.

That is too funny.  Too bad birthers are too dumb to get the joke.

Is the Iowa Republican Party Really That Kooky?

Daniel Larison takes on Johnathon Bernstein's contention that Michele Bachmann can't win the Iowa Caucus:

After all, it wasn’t particularly because Huckabee was a multi-term state executive that Huckaee was able to ride a wave of evangelical caucus-goers to victory in 2008. Huckabee won because he could appeal directly to evangelical voters as someone who shared their beliefs and experiences and spoke their language. His lack of campaign organization was less important in Iowa, because he was able to mobilize informal networks of evangelical church-goers. As Sean Scallon’s TAC profiile of Bachmann explained, she comes from a similar religious background, she has a long record of social conservative activism, she has family roots in Iowa, and she spent part of her childhood in Waterloo.
When Huckabee started, he wasn’t all that well known outside of Arkansas. By comparison, Bachmann is probably among the best-known Republican members of Congress nationwide, and she already has a following and a significant fund-raising network in place. Her appearances in Iowa have been quite well-received among activists, and she is using many of the same themes that Huckabee used to build up his following in Iowa. This isn’t proof of Iowan “craziness,” but of Bachmann’s ability to appeal to the sorts of conservative activists she needs to win over if she is going to compete seriously and possibly win in Iowa.

Folks, she's a moron.  Don't waste your vote.  We need somebody with a brain in charge, don't you remember President George W. Bush. He was Albert Einstein compared to Michele Bachmann.

So There's this Deficit, Right?

AP:

Still scrambling to file your taxes? You'll probably take little consolation in hearing that the super rich pay a lot less taxes than they did a couple of decades ago. And nearly half of U.S. households pay no income taxes at all. The Internal Revenue Service tracks the tax returns with the 400 highest adjusted gross incomes each year. The average income on those returns in 2007, the latest year for IRS data, was nearly $345 million. Their average federal income tax rate was 17 percent, down from 26 percent in 1992.
Over the same period, the average federal income tax rate for all taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 9.9 percent.
The top income tax rate is 35 percent, so how can people who make so much pay so little in taxes? The nation's tax laws are packed with breaks for people at every income level. There are breaks for having children, paying a mortgage, going to college, and even for paying other taxes. Plus, the top rate on capital gains is only 15 percent.
There are so many breaks that 45 percent of U.S. households will pay no federal income tax for 2010, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

So where are all those additional revenues because of cutting taxes, huh Republicans?  Oh that's right, even Alan Greenspan doesn't believe in that shit.  As people bitch about their taxes today, I'm going to say one of our problems is that we haven't been paying enough taxes the last ten years.  Sorry to rain on your parade, but if you are going to a tea party rally today to complain about taxes, they aren't as high as they were at almost any time in the past 60 years, and they need to be higher.  So have fun, but you are wrong.

Update:  I don' really want any more rain, but if it has to rain this week, I hope it is during your rally.

Congressional Shenanigans

Ezra Klein relates how the Democrats almost tricked the Republicans into passing the Republican Study Committee's We Hate Our Government budget on Friday:

I haven’t paid much attention to the Republican Study Committee’s budget, as it wasn’t going to pass. It wasn’t even going to come close to passing. This is a document, after all, that House conservatives released to make Paul Ryan look like a squishy moderate. No one was going to vote for it. No one, that is, until earlier this afternoon, it almost passed.

Here’s what happened: In the House of Representatives, a simple majority can pass a bill. But you can do more than just vote “yes” or “no.” You can also vote “present.” So a bunch of Democrats — 172 of them, to be exact — either voted “present” or, more sneakily, switched from “no” to “present.” As the number of “no” votes dwindled, the confused Republican realized their “yes” votes — votes that were friendly expressions of conservative solidarity rather than an actual effort to pass the RSC’s plan — were becoming a majority. The result, as Brian Beutler says, was “chaos” on the House floor, as Republicans, once they realized what was going on, rushed to switch their “yes” votes to “no” votes to make sure the RSC budget didn’t actually pass.

I wonder how long the Democrats have been saving that trick.  Jim Jordan, who heads the Republican Study Committee is the ultimate do-nothing backbencher.  I wouldn't be surprised if he never voted for any of the final Budget Bills in his 12 years in Columbus.  I remember him opposing a couple of the budgets because the sales tax had been increased to avoid making big cuts.  He swears he won't raise any taxes ever, and is one of the people who will vote against any compromise because he wants to maintain ideological purity.  But, he's guaranteed to continue winning elections in West Central Ohio, so we'll have to keep paying him to do nothing.  That is better than if he gets to slash up the government like he wants to.

No Space Shuttle for Dayton

DDN:

NASA’s decision Tuesday not to donate a space shuttle to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force angered members of Ohio’s congressional delegation, who called for a federal investigation.

They urged the U.S. Government Accountability Office to review NASA’s selection process that left out other sites in the country’s interior, including Chicago, Tulsa and Houston.

Four of the 21 competing sites received shuttles. Three of the sites are on the East Coast, and one is on the West Coast. NASA ranked the Air Force museum fifth among its top sites, said U.S. Rep. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek.

Austria said NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. told him the museum met all of NASA’s stated key criteria for permanent display of an orbiter, including science and education programs, accessibility, display plans and climate-controlled location for housing and displaying the spacecraft.

But, in the end, New York City; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; and Florida’s Space Coast won out, with their population bases and tourist drawing power. Bolden overlooked the Air Force museum even though it already draws 1.3 million visitors a year.

The Air Force museum is also within a day’s drive of 60 percent of the U.S. population, museum supporters said.

Count me as one who thinks people around Dayton were deluding themselves in the Space Shuttle chase.  How much work did Dayton really do on the shuttle.  Houston didn't get one and the program was based there.  It is estimated that Houston may lose 7,500 jobs from the end of the Shuttle program.

Here's Mike Turner being a good local pol:

Austria, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, and others said Bolden’s decision slighted the Midwest and the Air Force, which was an early partner of NASA’s in designing and developing the space shuttle and contributed $8 billion to its development.

“New York and L.A. don’t make a lot of sense. They didn’t make contributions to the program,” said Turner, referring to the shuttle program. “No one in the Midwest is going to have a shuttle.

“We’ll never be New York; we’ll never be Los Angeles. But we’ll always be home to the Wright brothers, to all things aerospace,” Turner said.

I would say that Los Angeles did have a decent amount to do with the shuttle program, as Edwards Air Force Base was the backup landing site for shuttle missions.  New York may not have a great case for getting a space shuttle, but it is also the largest city in the United States, and will see more tourists in a year than Dayton will see in 25 years.  I also think the Smithsonian Institution and Cape Canaveral were obvious picks for a Shuttle.

Ohio is a bastion of the Tea Party, even though this area's economy is kept afloat by Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the largest single-site place of employment in Ohio.  When the public reacts to such a perceived slight to the region, it only highlights that our economy is extremely dependent on largess from Washington.  In spite of this, the majority of the region denigrates the federal government.  But we are not unique.  The John Birch Society, the Tea Party and other anti-government movements have always flourished in Orange County, California, even though that economy was driven by defense contractors throughout the Cold War.  Why do so many people who depend on work from the government, hate the same institution.  I don't quite understand.

The U.S. Has a Taxing Problem

Daniel Gross (via Mark Thoma):

First, this has every sign of being another round of the long-running fiscal clown show. For the past 10 years, Washington — regardless of who controls the levers of power — has simply shown no inclination or willingness to take the actions necessary to align the government's resources with its revenues. A new Medicare prescription drug benefit with no funding mechanism? Big tax cuts with no offsetting spending cuts? Expensive wars fought off the balance sheet? A big stimulus program? Payroll tax cuts? No problem. So long as interest rates remain low, there was no reason to fret too much about the sustainability of these initiatives.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Washington antagonists executed a series of deals that included tax increases and spending reductions. But these days, due to a combination of utter Republican intransigence and Democratic wishy-washiness, no such deals are possible. The legislative and executive branches have no problem working together to massively increase deficits — think about 2009's uni-partisan stimulus package or the more recent bipartisan lame-duck to extend Bush tax cuts and enact a new payroll tax cut. But our government has an extremely difficult time making even symbolic spending cuts. Slashing about $40 billion in spending, an amount equal to 2.5 percent of this year's projected budget deficit, spurred the news networks to create shut-down clocks. And revenue enhancements? The phrase doesn't seem to be in official Washington's vocabulary. President Obama campaigned on letting the tax cuts for high earners expire at the end of 2010, swore up and down that he wanted them to expire throughout 2009 and 2010, and then meekly surrendered.
Second, even if Washington were somehow to get serious, I don't think the public is anywhere near prepared for the truth about our fiscal affairs. That's largely because nobody has bothered to tell the Americans that, as much as they feel overtaxed, the federal government, largely by design, has done an extremely poor job of collecting revenues in the past few years. That failure, as much as spending, lies at the heart of our massive structural deficits. Don't take it from me. Go to the OMB's website and check out Table 1.2, which documents spending and receipts as a percentage of GDP going back several decades. For the last 40 years, federal government spending has generally stood somewhere between 19 and 23.5 percent of GDP. In 2009, when the economy shrank and spending on bailouts and stimulus spiked, the ratio soared to 25 percent. In 2010, it shrank back to 23.8 percent. That's still elevated, but it's almost exactly what it was in the third year of Ronald Reagan's first term (23.5 percent in 1983).

I refuse to vote for any Republican who rules out tax increases.  That is stupidity in its finest form.  I probably ought to refuse to vote for any Democrat who is too big of a pansy to raise taxes, but that would leave me with no one to vote for.

Bad Blood Leads To Bad Milk

Boy, these Chinese dairies carry big grudges:

Police in northwestern China announced Tuesday that milk that killed three infants and sickened 36 others was intentionally poisoned with nitrate by a competing dairy farm seeking revenge, according to the New China News Agency.

Nitrate is used for making dyes and curing meat but is not found in dairy products.

A rival diary farmer added the industrial salt to milk because of unresolved business disputes, the report said. Police have arrested two suspects and two farms have been shut down. Most of those who fell ill were younger than 14 and the deaths involved infants younger than 2.

China's dairy industry is still reeling from a milk scandal in 2008 in which melamine-tainted milk killed six infants and sickened 300,000 people.

I would assume the Chinese "justice" system is going to deal harshly with a few people.  I don't think poisoning innocent people is a good way to get back at your rivals.

Still Fighting the Civil War

Via Yglesias and others, a CNN poll:

In the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll released Tuesday, roughly one in four Americans said they sympathize more with the Confederacy than the Union, a figure that rises to nearly four in ten among white Southerners.

When asked the reason behind the Civil War, whether it was fought over slavery or states' rights, 52 percent of all Americas said the leaders of the Confederacy seceded to keep slavery legal in their state, but a sizeable 42 percent minority said slavery was not the main reason why those states seceded.
"The results of that question show that there are still racial, political and geographic divisions over the Civil War that still exists a century and a half later," CNN Polling Director Holland Keating said.
When broken down by political party, most Democrats said southern states seceded over slavery, independents were split and most Republicans said slavery was not the main reason that Confederate states left the Union.
Republicans were also most likely to say they admired the leaders of the southern states during the Civil War, with eight in 10 Republicans expressing admiration for the leaders in the South, virtually identical to the 79 percent of Republicans who admired the northern leaders during the Civil War.

Slavery was not the main reason the Confederate states left the Union? Bullshit.  Ok, I guess maybe it was states' rights.  The states' rights to consider people property!  The GOP is an embarrassment.

Standing Up to the Bullies

Robert Reich asks when the President will punch the Republicans in the face, so to speak:

I hope the President decides he has to take a stand, and the sooner the better. Last December he caved in to Republican demands that the Bush tax cut be extended to wealthier Americans for two more years, at a cost of more than $60 billion. That was only the beginning — the equivalent of my cupcake.
Last night he gave away more than half the sandwich — $39 billion less than was budgeted for 2010, $79 billion less than he originally requested. Non-defense discretionary spending — basically, everything from roads and bridges to schools and innumerable programs for the poor — has been slashed.
The right-wing bullies are emboldened. They will hold the nation hostage again and again.
In a few weeks the debt ceiling has to be raised. After that, next year’s budget has to be decided on. House Budget Chair Paul Ryan has already put forward proposals to turn Medicare into vouchers that funnel money to private insurance companies, turn Medicaid and Food Stamps into block grants that give states discretion to shift them to the non-poor, and give even more big tax cuts to the rich.

Compromise is a two-way street.  Too bad Obama is driving a Prius and Republicans are driving a tank.  Those tax cuts should have gone away for the rich.  If Obama manages to lose to whatever moron Republicans select to run against him, Republicans will put a major hurt on this country.

More Bad Fans

From the LA Times:

Minutes before San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow was beaten in the Dodger Stadium parking lot, he texted a relative to say that he feared for his safety, his cousin said Tuesday.

In the text message, he said he was "scared inside the stadium," his cousin John Stow said, adding: "He doesn't use that term loosely."

A short time later, after the game had ended, the 42-year-old paramedic and father of two walked out to look for a taxi and was attacked so brutally that he remains in a coma with a brain injury.

On Tuesday, Bryan Stow's family gathered outside Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and thanked well-wishers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and around the country for their support.

As the Dodgers head to San Francisco next week for the Giants' opening home stand, Stow's family called for civility among rival sports fans and asked those who saw anything or know the assailants to help detectives arrest those responsible.

The Koch Bridge

I saw the headline for this, and the first thing I thought of were the Koch Brothers and privatizing infrastructure.  Damn Democrat blogs.  Anyway:

Edward I. Koch is many things to many people: larger-than-life mayor, cantankerous commentator, amateur movie critic. Now he will be a bridge.
The City Council voted 38 to 12 on Wednesday to rename the Queensboro Bridge after Mr. Koch, who led New York City from 1978 to 1989 and emerged as one of its most familiar faces. The city is expected to officially christen the bridge the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge next month.
The bridge, which serves as connective tissue between Manhattan and Queens, is a signature of the New York skyline, depicted in movies and memorialized in song. Its steel frame extends from 59th Street over the East River.
“It just makes me feel marvelous,” Mr. Koch said in a telephone interview after the vote. He said he used the bridge frequently because he liked to go to Telly’s Taverna in Astoria for Greek food. “I’m going to feel very, very comfortable on that bridge,” he said.
The Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, opened in 1909 and helped transform Queens from a collection of rural communities into an urban center of commerce and housing.

I have a hard time imagining that in 1909, Queens was a collection of rural communities.   Things can change dramatically in a short period of time.  When I rode the bus from LaGuardia to the 7 train, I learned that these days Queens is full of people from nearly all nations on the globe.  Leaving the airport, I and some other corn-fed hick were the only people on the bus.  He was such a hick that he was wearing a "W the Convention, 2004" baseball cap, in 2008. I can't fathom how out-of-touch (or smugly conservative) somebody is to wear that in New York in 2008, although I guess it signifies that he was in New York previously for the Convention. 

Anyway, the first stop was in a Hispanic neighborhood.  The second stop was in a Haitian neighborhood, the third stop was in an Indian neighborhood, etc.  Pretty soon, the bus is full, and we are clearly the only out-of-town, Midwestern white backwater folks on the bus.  He's on the other side of the aisle from me, one row back, and we are both sitting against the window.  He gets up, walks over, and asks me how far to the Roosevelt Avenue stop, to switch to the 7 train.  Mind you, I didn't even know that the 7 train was at Roosevelt Avenue, I just assumed I would be able to tell where the 7 train was.

Of course, I had no idea when the stop was coming up.  An Indian guy behind me waved his hand and said, "Further up."  I just had to laugh that this white bread flyover hayseed felt like he couldn't ask the Hispanic guy beside him or any of the other people sitting around him where Roosevelt Avenue was.  He had to get up and ask the only other person on the bus who had never been there, where to get off of the bus, because he was white and a hick also. 

Maybe, I was wrong, and he tried to ask the guy beside him for directions, but the guy didn't speak English.  But I'll go with my gut, and say that the guy in the "W the Convention" hat didn't feel comfortable talking to brown people.  Anyway, it made my day to see that.  Once I boarded the 7 train, I stood in a part of the train that was full of Chinese immigrants reading a Chinese language newspaper.  Sarah Palin may be right about one thing, New York City is much different that Middle America, but I can't say that Middle America is any more Real American than New York City or any of the other major cities.  Once all the 2010 census data comes out, I want to expand on that idea.