Newsweek’s Daniel Gross explains the Consumer Price Index (here’s the official BLS site) in a very simple video. I could do without the goofy sound effects, but it’s a good, 2 minute explanation of how the government tracks inflation.
Per David Simon’s Berkeley talk, though, the video doesn’t go into why this matters. Perhaps they’ll cover that in the next installment of the Economics 101 series.
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That’s an amazing result. I read on one blog that Murphy won in every single polling machine in every precinct in Danbury, I think. I guess I wasn’t the only one offended by Johnson’s negative ads.
If you haven’t read up on the story of Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen mistakenly incarcerated and tortured by American proxies around the world, you should read up on this story. It’s horrible that this country, our country not only has tortured innocents but has done so without remorse and with full knowledge that the people we capture are innocent. There are bills now in Congress that would legalize this preemption of the Bill of Rights (which I hope will get struck down by the courts if they pass).
The debate around these topics remain surreal as we slowly alter the very fundamental parts of our country that used to be a source of pride. We now torture, openly acknowledge a network of secret prisons where innocents get taken to secretly without representation and without recourse to prove their innocence. I feel so powerless to stop these changes that I’m not sure what to do. It’s hard not to feel despair.
Anger is the only other emotional response, especially when I see ads like the inaccurate scare ad from CT Rep Nancy Johnson. There is no other word to describe her ad aside from “lie.” Chris Murphy and other Democrats simply want the President to obey the law, in this case FISA, which allows federal agencies to eavesdrop on communications for up to 72 hours before filing for a warrant. The scenario described in her mendacious commercial doesn’t change when the President follows the law.
But wait, she’s a Republican. They don’t need to tell the truth, they just need to scare their votes out of all of us. Hopefully, we’re tired of being scared.
