Say what you will about stagnating wages and a mushrooming national debt, the U.S. has the richest rich people anywhere. And, apparently, they’re getting richer faster than ever.

The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 ($524.8 billion) exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans ($383.4 billion), according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office. “On average, incomes for the top 1 percent of households rose by $465,700 each, or 42.6 percent after adjusting for inflation. The incomes of the poorest fifth rose by $200, or 1.3 percent, and the middle fifth increased by $2,400 or 4.3 percent.” [NYT/Think Progress]

Big snow last night. I’m glad it’s Sunday, so we can all dig out without worrying about the work week. I only saw the mound of snow up near the back door that the dog had to wallow through to go do her business this morning, but it looks to be 10 inches to a foot, I’d guess. Our good friends in the neighborhood who hail from Minnesota will be sneering at the “dusting,” I’m sure. But for an Indiana-boy such as myself, it’s respectable.

Fortunately, the boy is an excellent shoveler:

(From last February.)

Update Fortunately Mom was there to take pictures:

Hard at work.

Fortunately, I had help.

Hard work comes with rewards. In this case, some yummy hot chocolate.

U.S. Representative Julia Carson (D IN-07) passed away today shortly after announcing she was suffering from lung cancer. She was 69.

The Christian Science Monitor has an article on a recent House Committee report that the White House has been manipulating the work of the government’s environmental scientists.

At least since 2003, and especially after hurricane Katrina hit, the White House has broadly attempted to control which climate scientists could speak with reporters, as well as editing scientists’ congressional testimony on climate science and key legal opinions, according to a new report by a House committee.

“The Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policy makers and the public about the dangers of global warming,” said the report, which is the result of a 16-month probe by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “The White House exerted unusual control over the public statements of federal scientists on climate change issues.”

I’m not a big fan of Ayn Rand, but I think some of her ideas were useful. (Eh? I thought we were talking about the White House?) One of those ideas was one the John Galt character apparently took from Aristotle — the somewhat obvious law that “A” equals “A”. And, no matter what you say about “A” — it’s still going to equal “A”. No matter how off base physicists may be in describing the laws of physics, a mechanic is going to have to deal with those laws as they are and not as they are described.

So, the environmental situation is what it is, and the Bush administration’s deceptive descriptions are not going to change it. We’d better do our best to accurately observe what “A” equals.

Looks like I missed my three year blogoversary. My first Indiana government blog entry was November 29th, 2004. Presumably untold riches and power would’ve been mine had I spent my time productively. Too late now, I guess. Might as well keep blogging along.

I’ve never really understood the particular fascination of Congress for Major League Baseball. I have a vague understanding that MLB has a Congressionally sanctioned monopoly of some sort. Anyway, Sylvia Smith has an article on Mark Souder’s interest in baseball’s steroid scandal. Souder says that MLB has to make serious changes on its drug screens or Congress will apparently micromanage this process.

First, doesn’t he have anything better to do? Fight against the expansion of government authority, perhaps? Second, shouldn’t the free market be taking care of this? The way I hear it from Souder’s brethren, the free market is infallible.

I don’t have strong feelings about the well-being of baseball, but I figured I’d point out the discrepancy between Souder’s proposed intervention and small-government, free market rhetoric.

[tags]IN-03[/tags]

Jerome Armstrong at MyDD has a post about the Oil Accountability Project. Apparently the Senate Republicans mounted a filibuster to preserve a deeply held belief against the perils of majority rule — protecting oil companies from taxation. The legislation failed because it had the support of only 59 votes out of the 100.

It’s almost too bad the Democrats didn’t let the Republicans use the “nuclear option” to eliminate the filibuster back when the Senate Republicans were mumbling something about “up or down votes”. But, of course they didn’t, and that’s fine. The minority should have some leverage. But, the Democrats really ought to drawing a lot of attention each and every time the Senate Republicans filibuster. They’ve been doing it a lot more than minority parties in the Senate have traditionally done, and the Democrats ought not be shy about pointing that out. It’d be a lot easier to laugh at disingenuous talking points about how the Democrats hadn’t gotten anything done and then make a pitch for electing 60+ Democrats to the majority. Personally, I’m not terribly comfortable with a filibuster-proof majority, but if the minority party is going to use the filibuster willy-nilly, I guess that’s the alternative.