Geithner, Wall St. & Jobs

From a WSJ article:

Two bills were introduced in December that would create a transaction tax. The bills would impose a tax of 0.25 percentage point on trades of more than $100,000, or $250 on a $100,000 transaction. The AFL-CIO is seeking a tax that would be a small fraction of that amount. The AFL-CIO proposal would be aimed at taxing investors and institutions that make numerous securities trades and would aim to shield average investors by exempting the first $100,000 in transactions and certain funds.

The tax would, under an AFL-CIO proposal, go toward creating jobs in infrastructure, such as road building.  Much more of the revenue would go toward paying down our record deficits.  How does the supposedly-Democratic White House respond?  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner rejects the proposal.  The pro-corporate Chamber of Commerce says levying more taxes isn’t conducive to job creation.

Miscellaneous Stories 4/14/08

Gov. Ritter’s Energy Office continue to back up Ritter’s energy campaign promise with action: statewide residential and commercial energy code training workshops across Colorado.

Training will be delivered by a nationally recognized code training organization, International Code Council (ICC), and be offered at no cost to Colorado code officials, homebuilders, developers, architects, engineers and other building industry professionals. Additionally, all attendees will receive official code books, work book resources and continuing technical assistance from ICC. [emphasis mine]

Well, Republicans can’t complain about Ritter being anti-business about this, can they?

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How much are major U.S. corporate CEO’s making? The AFL-CIO takes a look via a cool new tool.

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This tool might be even cooler than the one above: how would you spend the $3 TRILLION that the Iraq occupation will cost the U.S.? A group of progressive organizations put the $3 Trillion Shopping Spree together. You can buy wild stuff like finish repairing damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, achieve universal literacy, achieve the millenium development goals, or provide universal health care for all americans. Or you can go out and add your own products: all the Sony PS3s you can think of, wicked new cars that don’t run on gas and oil, whatever you want. Go give it a try!

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Gov. Ritter sees education as a *gasp* alternative to prison. Like everything else, Republicans want to privatize the prison industry. Hence, higher incarceration rates for minorities and excessive sentences for things like marijuana possession. What would happen if we viewed prison (or war & occupation) as a last resort instead of the first choice? As the Guv points out, money not spent on prisons is money available for education.

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Barack Obama’s campaign had 1,299,166 different people listed as donating earlier today.  They’re trying to get to 1.5 Million by May 6th.  Given their success at achieving the 1M person goal, I have no doubt they’ll succeed at this as well.