What the Fed did yesterday doesn't mean diddly. He's going to push inflation, and the CPI will continue to understate it, effectively undermining Bernanke.

Inflation will make Obama look bad and that's not going to happen.

What I don't understand Rachel is that when talking about raising the taxes on the 1% is that when these discussions are going on I never hear anybody talk about reducing the budget by taking away the subsidies for big corporations all as I ever hear is that to raise the taxes on the 1% you have to take away the subsidies for the people such as Medicaid Medicare Social Security I would like to hear more about taking away some of these other subsidies first if a corporation or company is making a profit or if it's CEOs are getting huge amounts of money then why should they be getting subsidies

Every effort must be made to make voting fair. That means that gerrymandering must be ended. Federal election laws need to be revised and state laws must be in compliance. Don't let anyone take your voice away!

Hi Rachel, I would like to know why all the progressives curtail to the right wing using for the issues the names they make up, which always show the right wing in a better light than what they really are. For instance- why call "right to vote states" the states that really what they have is "RIGHT TO FIRE PEOPLE" without cause or concern? If progressives would call it what it really is, RIGHT TO FIRE, people would know and understand that there is nothing there for the workers. I know I live in a 'RIGHT TO FIRE" state, and have suffered the pain of that in our family without any reasons.. (just maybe wanting to hire someone else paying them lower wages, not allowing them to get to the age of retirement, not allowing them to get to the age when the company would have to pay a pension... etc. I know I have lived it.

Regarding Michigan--

Not sure why progressives always play the game that right wings want them to play. I have never understood why we follow the names the conservatives call the issues. - When they say "right to work state" -- What they really mean is:"RIGHT TO FIRE STATE" - The right of the companies to fire their employees without reason or cause. I know I have been there, I live in a "right to fire state" and have suffered this in my family from all sides. The companies have a "right to fire" the employee for no reason at all... in reality usually why they do it, is because employee is getting close to older age (medical insurance will be more costly) or getting closer to retirement (they do not want to pay retirements) or want to hire someone at a lower wage. IT IS NEVER TO HELP THE EMPLOYEES, AND ALWAYS TO HELP EMPLOYERS POCKETS. It happened in my household... once because one of us was getting close to the date in the contract that the employee would get paid benefits for life and a pension (both were lost in the right to fire state, no way to fight it) and another time simply to hire someone at a lower salary. (no way to fight it there either.) As I say should be called 'RIGHT TO FIRE STATES". thank you

Also regarding Michigan - more highly controversial legislation passed yesterday, including a new Emergency Manager bill (the voters rejected the old Emergency Manager law last month, by the way).

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121213/POLITICS02/212130378/Abortion-emergency-manager-legislation-passes-Michigan-Legislature?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

And how's this for a little holiday related injustice at the expense of a very bankrupt city?

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121213/METRO01/212130371/Bonuses-go-nonunion-Detroit-workers?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

OK heres the dealio Rachel ( I adore you btw, could ya hook me up with that cute Thomas Roberts?? JK) Im from a union house, from Michigan, i was adorable on the picket lines as a kiddo. The reason that the GOP, can bust a union , in a blue state, during a lame duck session, is that unions are toooooo comfy. They take their status and role in this country as a given. It isn't. The unions do zero outreach. If you were to walk on a college campus and ask a student what they think of unions, you get a blank stare as if you suddenly started speaking ancient chinese. Unions should be in the news working with and promoting and educating about unions and how different the work place is because of them. they never bother to take law makers to task on anything, until its too late < like Michigan> and in recent years, have flatly given in to big Corporations more times then not. i remember the culinary union in Las Vegas, and how people were picketing until the casinos they were outside of were destroyed and a non-union place took the spot, thats a morale buster for sure. Union leaders should be held accountable for being blindsided in Michigan. Were they asleep when Wisconsin was going on??? News Flash, Ohio is next. Union workers need new representation fast, or unions will go the way or the Whig party and the DoDo bird...a relic of the past. They need to sell the union like Corporations sell themselves, and stop thinking like its 1937, and think and 2013! The average person in this country barely know who the Vice-President of the United States is, much less the facts that unions are responsible for child labor laws, worker safety, pensions, vacation, etc. Wake up America

Here's what I'm reading this morning, because it's funny.

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/12/12/news/bangor/woman-hits-bobcat-gives-it-a-ride-to-downtown-bangor/

My nominee for Best New Thing in the World Today:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/death-star-petition-requires-white-house-response