The last time America’s wealth gap between the Super Rich and the other 99% was this big was just before the 1929 Crash and the Great Depression.
THE HORROR IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Real Story of Our Economy: Why Our Standard of Living Has Stalled Out
Do public sector workers earn more than private sector workers? Who cares? This boneheaded question has us fighting over the crumbs. (And the answer is no -- all credible studies show that when you account for educational levels, the total compensation packages are about the same.)
The real question is: Why have most workers seen their standard of living stall over the last generation?
The answer is both obvious and appalling. More and more of our nation’s wealth is going to the few, while the many have seen their real wages actually decline. It’s a disgrace.
It wasn’t always so. For more than a quarter century after WWII the fruits of America's productivity were shared with average working people, year in and year out. But what exactly was being shared?
MORE
The real question is: Why have most workers seen their standard of living stall over the last generation?
The answer is both obvious and appalling. More and more of our nation’s wealth is going to the few, while the many have seen their real wages actually decline. It’s a disgrace.
It wasn’t always so. For more than a quarter century after WWII the fruits of America's productivity were shared with average working people, year in and year out. But what exactly was being shared?
MORE
Monday, March 28, 2011
Wisconsin Union Law Fight Sees Fresh Controversy
(Reuters) - Opponents of a bill stripping Wisconsin public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights rallied at the state Capitol on Saturday, the day after a state agency published the measure despite an order barring such a move.
Republican supporters of the measure said the action by the state's Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB), which published the bill electronically on Friday, was legal and meant the controversial anti-union measure was now in effect.
But Democrats insisted the temporary restraining order (TRO) on publication issued last week by a judge remained in effect and rendered Friday's publication by the LRB moot.
MORE
Unfortunately, it is still several months before the traitorous guv'ner can be impeached.
Anyhoo, we experimented with giving Republicans limited power in state and federal government, and the experiment has failed. Time to do a fix in 2012.
Republican supporters of the measure said the action by the state's Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB), which published the bill electronically on Friday, was legal and meant the controversial anti-union measure was now in effect.
But Democrats insisted the temporary restraining order (TRO) on publication issued last week by a judge remained in effect and rendered Friday's publication by the LRB moot.
MORE
Unfortunately, it is still several months before the traitorous guv'ner can be impeached.
Anyhoo, we experimented with giving Republicans limited power in state and federal government, and the experiment has failed. Time to do a fix in 2012.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Billionaire self-pity and the Koch brothers: Glenn Greenwald
Recently the poor, poor, misunderstood Koch Brothers whined to "The Weekly Standard" how terribly mistreated they are while complaining Obama is "antibusiness, anti-free enterprise," with "internalized Marxist" ideas in the Kenyan socialist tradition. Meanwhile, here in REALITY, corporate profits are at an all-time high, income & wealth inequality are at Third World levels & the wealthiest pay little or no taxes.
RepublicanDirtyTricks.com
Since the financial crisis of 2008, one of the most revealing spectacles has been the parade of financial elites who petulantly insist that they are the victims of societal hostility: political officials heap too much blame on them, public policy burdens them so unfairly, the public resents them, and -- most amazingly of all -- President Obama is a radical egalitarian who is unprecedentedly hostile to business interests. One particularly illustrative example was the whiny little multi-millionaire hedge fund manager (and CNBC contributor), Anthony Scaramucci, who stood up at an October, 201o, town hall meeting and demanded to know: "when are we going to stop whacking at the Wall Street pinata?"
The Weekly Standard now has a very lengthy defense of -- including rare interviews with -- Charles and David Koch, the libertarian billionaires who fund everything from right-wing economic policy, union-busting, and anti-climate-change advocacy to civil liberties and liberalized social policies -- though far more the former goals than the latter. In this article one finds the purest and most instructive expression of billionaire self-pity that I think I've ever seen -- one that is as self-absorbed and detached from reality as it destructive. It's really worth examining their revealed mindset to see how those who wield the greatest financial power (and thus the greatest political power) think of themselves and those who are outside of their class.
SALON.COM
RepublicanDirtyTricks.com
Since the financial crisis of 2008, one of the most revealing spectacles has been the parade of financial elites who petulantly insist that they are the victims of societal hostility: political officials heap too much blame on them, public policy burdens them so unfairly, the public resents them, and -- most amazingly of all -- President Obama is a radical egalitarian who is unprecedentedly hostile to business interests. One particularly illustrative example was the whiny little multi-millionaire hedge fund manager (and CNBC contributor), Anthony Scaramucci, who stood up at an October, 201o, town hall meeting and demanded to know: "when are we going to stop whacking at the Wall Street pinata?"
The Weekly Standard now has a very lengthy defense of -- including rare interviews with -- Charles and David Koch, the libertarian billionaires who fund everything from right-wing economic policy, union-busting, and anti-climate-change advocacy to civil liberties and liberalized social policies -- though far more the former goals than the latter. In this article one finds the purest and most instructive expression of billionaire self-pity that I think I've ever seen -- one that is as self-absorbed and detached from reality as it destructive. It's really worth examining their revealed mindset to see how those who wield the greatest financial power (and thus the greatest political power) think of themselves and those who are outside of their class.
SALON.COM
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The economic outrage of 2010: Cowardly leaders failed to help working people -- and coddled the rich
"Some of the pain felt by the middle class could have been averted if our politicians had gotten up the gumption to pass a second round of stimulus. Instead, Congress passed a tax cut...much of the benefit went to the bankers responsible for the crisis." - Joseph Stiglitz
As we look back on 2010, the most significant economic event of the year was what didn't happen: Unemployment failed to come down, stubbornly hovering around 9.5% almost four years after the bubble broke, three years after the beginning of the recession and more than two years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
And, above and beyond any other reason, this stagnation persisted because our political leaders failed to muster the requisite courage to tackle our problems at their source.
With one of six Americans who would like a full-time job still not able to get one, with more than 40% of those unemployed being without a job for more than six months - a level not seen since such records were kept - but with the bankers who caused the whole mess receiving the same megabonuses as before the crisis as if nothing had happened, no wonder the anger within the country is palpable.
The bankers had used their money and political influence first to buy deregulation, then to get a massive bailout and finally, this year, to prevent effective reregulation.
Read more
And, above and beyond any other reason, this stagnation persisted because our political leaders failed to muster the requisite courage to tackle our problems at their source.
With one of six Americans who would like a full-time job still not able to get one, with more than 40% of those unemployed being without a job for more than six months - a level not seen since such records were kept - but with the bankers who caused the whole mess receiving the same megabonuses as before the crisis as if nothing had happened, no wonder the anger within the country is palpable.
The bankers had used their money and political influence first to buy deregulation, then to get a massive bailout and finally, this year, to prevent effective reregulation.
Read more
Friday, March 25, 2011
More Bad Nuke News From Japan
TOKYO (AP) - A suspected breach in the core at one reactor at a stricken Fukushima nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, Japanese officials revealed Friday - a situation the prime minister called "very grave and serious."
A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a pessimistic note at a briefing hours after nuclear safety officials said they suspected a breach at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that would be a major setback in the urgent mission to stop the facility from leaking radiation.
The uncertain situation halted work at the nuclear complex, where dozens had been trying feverishly to stop the overheated plant from leaking dangerous radiation. The plant has leaked some low levels of radiation, but a breach could mean a much larger release of contaminants.
HERE
Three men working inside the No. 3 reactor stepped into water this week that had 10,000 times the amount of radiation typical for that locale, Nishiyama said. That water likely indicates "some sort of leakage" from the reactor core, signaling a possible break of the containment vessel that houses the core.
The containment vessel is designed to prevent radioactive material from escaping into the atmosphere, even if other parts of the reactor are damaged. A rupture in the containment vessel could pose problems for workers who are trying to prevent that, depending on its severity.
The three workers who were exposed to radiation by stepping in the contaminated water had the highest levels of radiation recorded so far, said Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns the plant.
HERE
TOKYO (Reuters) – The most difficult thing in a nuclear crisis, the Tokyo firefighter said, was the inability to sense where the danger was.
The Tokyo Fire Department's elite rescue team was among those called in to cool down a nuclear plant north of the capital that was badly damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami and was leaking radiation.
"We usually detect dangers, like fire and smoke, with our eyes, ears and nose, and eliminate some of them, if not all," said Yukio Takayama, a leader of the team.
Japanese firemen battle invisible danger
More Japanese crew exposed to radiation
(CNN) -- Colorado and Oregon have joined several other Western states in reporting trace amounts of radioactive particles that have likely drifted about 5,000 miles from a quake and tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant in Japan, officials say.
But, on a portion of its website dedicated to tracking such radiation, the Environmental Protection Agency noted Wednesday that these and other readings "show typical fluctuation in background radiation levels" and -- thus far -- "are far below levels of concern."
Sampling from a monitor in Colorado -- part of a national network of stations on the lookout for radioactivity -- detected miniscule amounts of iodine-131, a radioactive form of iodine, the state's public health and environmental department said Wednesday in a press release.
On the same day in Portland, Oregon, tiny quantities of iodine-131 were also detected by an Environmental Protection Agency air monitor, Oregon public health officials said.
HERE
A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a pessimistic note at a briefing hours after nuclear safety officials said they suspected a breach at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that would be a major setback in the urgent mission to stop the facility from leaking radiation.
The uncertain situation halted work at the nuclear complex, where dozens had been trying feverishly to stop the overheated plant from leaking dangerous radiation. The plant has leaked some low levels of radiation, but a breach could mean a much larger release of contaminants.
HERE
Three men working inside the No. 3 reactor stepped into water this week that had 10,000 times the amount of radiation typical for that locale, Nishiyama said. That water likely indicates "some sort of leakage" from the reactor core, signaling a possible break of the containment vessel that houses the core.
The containment vessel is designed to prevent radioactive material from escaping into the atmosphere, even if other parts of the reactor are damaged. A rupture in the containment vessel could pose problems for workers who are trying to prevent that, depending on its severity.
The three workers who were exposed to radiation by stepping in the contaminated water had the highest levels of radiation recorded so far, said Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns the plant.
HERE
TOKYO (Reuters) – The most difficult thing in a nuclear crisis, the Tokyo firefighter said, was the inability to sense where the danger was.
The Tokyo Fire Department's elite rescue team was among those called in to cool down a nuclear plant north of the capital that was badly damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami and was leaking radiation.
"We usually detect dangers, like fire and smoke, with our eyes, ears and nose, and eliminate some of them, if not all," said Yukio Takayama, a leader of the team.
Japanese firemen battle invisible danger
More Japanese crew exposed to radiation
(CNN) -- Colorado and Oregon have joined several other Western states in reporting trace amounts of radioactive particles that have likely drifted about 5,000 miles from a quake and tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant in Japan, officials say.
But, on a portion of its website dedicated to tracking such radiation, the Environmental Protection Agency noted Wednesday that these and other readings "show typical fluctuation in background radiation levels" and -- thus far -- "are far below levels of concern."
Sampling from a monitor in Colorado -- part of a national network of stations on the lookout for radioactivity -- detected miniscule amounts of iodine-131, a radioactive form of iodine, the state's public health and environmental department said Wednesday in a press release.
On the same day in Portland, Oregon, tiny quantities of iodine-131 were also detected by an Environmental Protection Agency air monitor, Oregon public health officials said.
HERE
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Republican Assault On Working Families
If you're the 1 out of 8 Americans receiving food stamps and ANYONE in your family participates in a strike, Repugs want to kick you off the program. It's a Republican twofer - starve the poor AND destroy the working class! Now get to work, peon... and don't dare question your "betters!" Your reward will come in Heaven.~Republicandirtytricks.com
House bill would cut off food stamps to striking workers’ families
http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/03/house-bill-would-cut-off-food-stamps-to-striking-workers-families-shirtwaist-fire-anniversary-comes-amid-labor-war/
House bill would cut off food stamps to striking workers’ families
http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/03/house-bill-would-cut-off-food-stamps-to-striking-workers-families-shirtwaist-fire-anniversary-comes-amid-labor-war/
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Radical Right Wing Agenda: Tentherism
AZ Senate President Russell Pearce Takes Tentherism To New Level: ‘You Are Not A Citizen Of The United States’
One of the most radical offshoots of modern conservatism in the United States is called “tentherism,” which invokes the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment to claim that a whole host of federal government powers are illegitimate, from the operations of the Social Security program to the national highway system, and that states are supreme.
During a speech at the Oceanside Tea Party rally in recent months, Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce (R) took this philosophy to a new extreme. In the speech, where he denounced the federal government’s efforts to stop the implementation of the state’s radical anti-immigrant law, Pearce claimed that Americans aren’t even citizens of the United States, that they are rather citizens of “sovereign states,” meaning that we should be loyal to the laws of individual states rather than the federal government: WOW
One of the most radical offshoots of modern conservatism in the United States is called “tentherism,” which invokes the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment to claim that a whole host of federal government powers are illegitimate, from the operations of the Social Security program to the national highway system, and that states are supreme.
During a speech at the Oceanside Tea Party rally in recent months, Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce (R) took this philosophy to a new extreme. In the speech, where he denounced the federal government’s efforts to stop the implementation of the state’s radical anti-immigrant law, Pearce claimed that Americans aren’t even citizens of the United States, that they are rather citizens of “sovereign states,” meaning that we should be loyal to the laws of individual states rather than the federal government: WOW
15 of the deadliest US corporations
These U.S. corporations, if they were individual human beings, would be locked up for life. Instead, they continue raking in the big bucks. Human rights abuses, murder, war, eco disasters, and animal exploitation keep these evil companies raking in the green.
THE SHOCKING NEWS HERE
THE SHOCKING NEWS HERE
Sunday, March 20, 2011
VIDEO COMPILATION: Fox News is pushing a new line of attack on Obama that he's "on vacation" during the conflict in Libya.
“He’s going on vacation; he’s going to Rio!” an incredulous Steve Doocy commented. “He’s on vacation in Rio,” Fox contributor Ralph Peters said, echoing the network’s attack. Referencing Rio, Washington Times columnist Charles Hurt opined, “President Obama has absolutely abdicated his role as leader of the free world.” Watch a compilation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gfP8QY3wD4&feature=player_embedded
Obama’s pre-scheduled Latin American trip is intended to strengthen the U.S.’s trading role with some of the world’s fastest growing markets. But the agenda of the trip has been overshadowed, as Obama has turned his focus to Libya.
HOW DARE OBAMA TRY TO FIX OUR ECONOMY WHILE REPUBLICANS LUST OVER ANOTHER WAR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gfP8QY3wD4&feature=player_embedded
Obama’s pre-scheduled Latin American trip is intended to strengthen the U.S.’s trading role with some of the world’s fastest growing markets. But the agenda of the trip has been overshadowed, as Obama has turned his focus to Libya.
HOW DARE OBAMA TRY TO FIX OUR ECONOMY WHILE REPUBLICANS LUST OVER ANOTHER WAR
Saturday, March 19, 2011
A Biologist Refutes Ann Coulter
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/03/will_radiation_hormesis_protec.php
Guess Who Isn't 'Sharing The Sacrifice'?
Republicans in Congress have told us we must all 'share the sacrifice'. While the poor and middle classes do some 'sharing', guess who isn't...
For many U.S. chief executives, bonuses bounced back last year at a speedy clip.
CEO bonuses at 50 major corporations jumped a median of 30.5%, the biggest gain in at least three years, according to a study of the first batch of corporate CEO pay disclosures by consulting firm Hay Group for The Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206903329068840.html
Meanwhile, for the rest of us...
Austerity nation – 45 million Americans on food assistance programs. Americans shopping at discount dollar stores confronting the realities of a shrinking dollar and disappearing middle class.
From November to December of 2010 487,000 Americans were added to the food stamp program. Keep in mind this all occurred while the stock market continued to soar and has rallied nearly 100 percent from the lows reached in March of 2009. Working and middle class Americans barely have enough to pay for the monthly bills so speculating in Wall Street is likely the least of their concerns. The data on food stamp usage usually trails the current calendar date by one quarter. The latest data we have is from December of 2010. However, we are adding roughly 300,000 people per month to the food stamp program called SNAP. If that is the case, as of today we now have 45,000,000 Americans participating in the food stamp program. We’ve noted trends in the economy where people line up at mid-night during certain key dates in the month at Wal-Mart locations waiting for their debit cards to refill so they can purchase food for their families.
http://www.mybudget360.com/austerity-nation-45-million-americans-on-food-assistance-programs-financial-shrinking-middle-class-hittng-wallets/
For many U.S. chief executives, bonuses bounced back last year at a speedy clip.
CEO bonuses at 50 major corporations jumped a median of 30.5%, the biggest gain in at least three years, according to a study of the first batch of corporate CEO pay disclosures by consulting firm Hay Group for The Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206903329068840.html
Meanwhile, for the rest of us...
Austerity nation – 45 million Americans on food assistance programs. Americans shopping at discount dollar stores confronting the realities of a shrinking dollar and disappearing middle class.
From November to December of 2010 487,000 Americans were added to the food stamp program. Keep in mind this all occurred while the stock market continued to soar and has rallied nearly 100 percent from the lows reached in March of 2009. Working and middle class Americans barely have enough to pay for the monthly bills so speculating in Wall Street is likely the least of their concerns. The data on food stamp usage usually trails the current calendar date by one quarter. The latest data we have is from December of 2010. However, we are adding roughly 300,000 people per month to the food stamp program called SNAP. If that is the case, as of today we now have 45,000,000 Americans participating in the food stamp program. We’ve noted trends in the economy where people line up at mid-night during certain key dates in the month at Wal-Mart locations waiting for their debit cards to refill so they can purchase food for their families.
http://www.mybudget360.com/austerity-nation-45-million-americans-on-food-assistance-programs-financial-shrinking-middle-class-hittng-wallets/
Friday, March 18, 2011
Ann Coulter: Radiation is good for you
I can't figure out if Ann Coulter is a she or a he. Anyhoo, I'm pretty sure he/she isn't a medical expert, especially after reading this story!
Ann Coulter appeared on Thursday's "O'Reilly Factor" to advance an argument that she made in a column this week: that radiation is "good for you."
There has been a high degree of concern about the levels of radiation being released into the environment due to the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. But, in a column called "A Glowing Report On Radiation," Coulter said that many scientists have been studying the effects of radiation and have found that, as she put it," at some level--much higher than the minimums set by the U.S. government--radiation is good for you," and actually reduced the risk of cancer.
She repeated this assertion to a skeptical Bill O'Reilly, who told her that, even if there was scientific discussion going on about the effects of radiation, it was the media's job to be "responsible" and "err on the side of caution" about radiation. "You have to report the worst-case scenario," he said, adding that there is a clear scientific consensus that "some radiation will kill you."
Coulter said she disagreed, and said that the scientific consensus has changed, but that the media are not reporting it.
"So by your account we should all be heading towards the nuclear reactor," O'Reilly said.
GLOW IN THE DARK
Ann Coulter appeared on Thursday's "O'Reilly Factor" to advance an argument that she made in a column this week: that radiation is "good for you."
There has been a high degree of concern about the levels of radiation being released into the environment due to the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. But, in a column called "A Glowing Report On Radiation," Coulter said that many scientists have been studying the effects of radiation and have found that, as she put it," at some level--much higher than the minimums set by the U.S. government--radiation is good for you," and actually reduced the risk of cancer.
She repeated this assertion to a skeptical Bill O'Reilly, who told her that, even if there was scientific discussion going on about the effects of radiation, it was the media's job to be "responsible" and "err on the side of caution" about radiation. "You have to report the worst-case scenario," he said, adding that there is a clear scientific consensus that "some radiation will kill you."
Coulter said she disagreed, and said that the scientific consensus has changed, but that the media are not reporting it.
"So by your account we should all be heading towards the nuclear reactor," O'Reilly said.
GLOW IN THE DARK
Mayor of town near stricken Japanese nuclear plant claims his people have been 'abandoned'
The voice on the phone was calm and dignified, as befitted a proud Japanese mayor, yet this somehow made his fury more forceful.
Hours after the tsunami struck, Katsunobu Sakurai told me, he had sought advice from the government on whether to evacuate the 71,000 people in his city, which is just 12 miles downwind of the Fukushima nuclear plant.
At first ministerial officials simply ignored his calls. When he did manage to speak to them, they assured him there was no cause for concern; a message he accepted and dutifully relayed.
He had toed the line because that is what Japan's civic leaders invariably do. But yesterday, far too late, the mayor of Minamisoma finally realised that he had been deceived, at best, and perhaps even lied to.
'Of course I am angry,' he told me through an interpreter yesterday. 'I was ignored and then badly misled, and as a result the people were abandoned here to die.
HAY, WHAT ABOUT US?
Hours after the tsunami struck, Katsunobu Sakurai told me, he had sought advice from the government on whether to evacuate the 71,000 people in his city, which is just 12 miles downwind of the Fukushima nuclear plant.
At first ministerial officials simply ignored his calls. When he did manage to speak to them, they assured him there was no cause for concern; a message he accepted and dutifully relayed.
He had toed the line because that is what Japan's civic leaders invariably do. But yesterday, far too late, the mayor of Minamisoma finally realised that he had been deceived, at best, and perhaps even lied to.
'Of course I am angry,' he told me through an interpreter yesterday. 'I was ignored and then badly misled, and as a result the people were abandoned here to die.
HAY, WHAT ABOUT US?
"Chernobyl solution" may be last resort for Japan reactors
TOKYO, March 18 (Reuters) - A "Chernobyl solution" may be the last resort for dealing with Japan's stricken nuclear plant, but burying it in sand and concrete is a messy fix that might leave part of the country as an off-limits radioactive sore for decades.
Japanese authorities say it is still too early to talk about long-term measures while cooling the plant's six reactors and associated fuel-storage pools, comes first.
"It's just not that easy," Murray Jennex, a professor at San Diego State University in California, said when asked about the so-called Chernobyl option for dealing with damaged reactors, named after the Ukrainian nuclear plant that exploded in 1986.
"They (reactors) are kind of like a coffee maker. If you leave it on the heat, they boil dry and then they crack," he said.
"Putting concrete on that wouldn't help keep your coffee maker safe. But eventually, yes, you could build a concrete shield and be done with it."
COVER IT AN' FUGEDDABOUDID
Japanese authorities say it is still too early to talk about long-term measures while cooling the plant's six reactors and associated fuel-storage pools, comes first.
"It's just not that easy," Murray Jennex, a professor at San Diego State University in California, said when asked about the so-called Chernobyl option for dealing with damaged reactors, named after the Ukrainian nuclear plant that exploded in 1986.
"They (reactors) are kind of like a coffee maker. If you leave it on the heat, they boil dry and then they crack," he said.
"Putting concrete on that wouldn't help keep your coffee maker safe. But eventually, yes, you could build a concrete shield and be done with it."
COVER IT AN' FUGEDDABOUDID
Nuclear Crisis in Japan Follows Decades of Faked Safety Reports, Accidents
The unfolding disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant follows decades of falsified safety reports, fatal accidents and underestimated earthquake risk in Japan’s atomic power industry.
The destruction caused by last week’s 9.0 earthquake and tsunami comes less than four years after a 6.8 quake shut the world’s biggest atomic plant, also run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. In 2002 and 2007, revelations the utility had faked repair records forced the resignation of the company’s chairman and president, and a three-week shutdown of all 17 of its reactors.
With almost no oil or gas reserves of its own, nuclear power has been a national priority for Japan since the end of World War II, a conflict the country fought partly to secure oil supplies. Japan has 54 operating nuclear reactors -- more than any other country except the U.S. and France -- to power its industries, pitting economic demands against safety concerns in the world’s most earthquake-prone country.
Nuclear engineers and academics who have worked in Japan’s atomic power industry spoke in interviews of a history of accidents, faked reports and inaction by a succession of Liberal Democratic Party governments that ran Japan for nearly all of the postwar period.
YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH SO WE'LL FAKE IT UP FOR 'YA
The destruction caused by last week’s 9.0 earthquake and tsunami comes less than four years after a 6.8 quake shut the world’s biggest atomic plant, also run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. In 2002 and 2007, revelations the utility had faked repair records forced the resignation of the company’s chairman and president, and a three-week shutdown of all 17 of its reactors.
With almost no oil or gas reserves of its own, nuclear power has been a national priority for Japan since the end of World War II, a conflict the country fought partly to secure oil supplies. Japan has 54 operating nuclear reactors -- more than any other country except the U.S. and France -- to power its industries, pitting economic demands against safety concerns in the world’s most earthquake-prone country.
Nuclear engineers and academics who have worked in Japan’s atomic power industry spoke in interviews of a history of accidents, faked reports and inaction by a succession of Liberal Democratic Party governments that ran Japan for nearly all of the postwar period.
YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH SO WE'LL FAKE IT UP FOR 'YA
BULLETIN: JUDGE BLOCKS IMPLEMENTATION OF WISCONSIN ANTI-COLLECTIVE BARGAINING BILL
A Wisconsin judge just issued an order temporarily blocking Gov. Scott Walker’s assault on collective bargaining rights from going into effect.
WORD ON THE RULING
WORD ON THE RULING
How Corporations Cheat Uncle Sam And The Taxpayers
Corporations depend upon America's infrastructure, but they don't want to pay for it!
CHEATIN' THE TAXPAYER
CHEATIN' THE TAXPAYER
Thursday, March 17, 2011
UN Authorizes Military Action In Libya!
(Reuters) - The United Nations authorised military action to curb Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Thursday, hours after he threatened to storm the rebel bastion of Benghazi overnight, showing "no mercy, no pity."
"We will come, zenga, zenga. House by house, room by room," he said in a radio address to the eastern city.
Al Jazeera television showed thousands of Benghazi residents in a central square celebrating the U.N. vote, waving anti-Gaddafi tricolour flags and chanting defiance of the man who has ruled for four decades. Fireworks burst over the city.
Gaddafi had warned that only those who lay down their arms would be spared vengeance to be exacted on 'rats and dogs'.
"It's over. The issue has been decided," Gaddafi said. "We are coming tonight...We will find you in your closets.
"We will have no mercy and no pity."
The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution endorsing a no-fly zone to halt government troops now around 100 km (60 miles) from Benghazi. It also authorised "all necessary measures" -- code for military action -- to protect civilians against Gaddafi's forces.
But time was clearly running short for the city that has been the heart of Libya's revolution.
Residents said the Libyan air force unleashed three air raids on the city of 670,000 on Thursday and there has been fierce fighting along the Mediterranean coastal road as Gaddafi moves to crush the month-old insurrection.
French diplomatic sources said military action could come within hours, and could include France, Britain and possibly the United States and one or more Arab states; but a U.S. military official said no immediate U.S. action was expected following the vote.
WAR ON KADDAFI
"We will come, zenga, zenga. House by house, room by room," he said in a radio address to the eastern city.
Al Jazeera television showed thousands of Benghazi residents in a central square celebrating the U.N. vote, waving anti-Gaddafi tricolour flags and chanting defiance of the man who has ruled for four decades. Fireworks burst over the city.
Gaddafi had warned that only those who lay down their arms would be spared vengeance to be exacted on 'rats and dogs'.
"It's over. The issue has been decided," Gaddafi said. "We are coming tonight...We will find you in your closets.
"We will have no mercy and no pity."
The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution endorsing a no-fly zone to halt government troops now around 100 km (60 miles) from Benghazi. It also authorised "all necessary measures" -- code for military action -- to protect civilians against Gaddafi's forces.
But time was clearly running short for the city that has been the heart of Libya's revolution.
Residents said the Libyan air force unleashed three air raids on the city of 670,000 on Thursday and there has been fierce fighting along the Mediterranean coastal road as Gaddafi moves to crush the month-old insurrection.
French diplomatic sources said military action could come within hours, and could include France, Britain and possibly the United States and one or more Arab states; but a U.S. military official said no immediate U.S. action was expected following the vote.
WAR ON KADDAFI
WHADDAYA MEAN I DIDN'T GET AN 'A'!
Supporters of legislation that would allow students and faculty to carry concealed handguns at colleges and universities in Texas say their goal is to make campuses safer.
But some of the Dallas-area students they hope to protect say they’d feel less secure knowing their peers might be armed.
“If the gun was out there, I would feel uneasy,” said Russell Ansley, a junior at the University of Texas at Dallas. “It could create an atmosphere of hostility.”
Phil Montgomery, a junior at the University of North Texas, said he’d rather see more security officers than ask students to pitch in.
“I don’t feel I should have to take a gun in order to be safe at school,” he said. “Having an officer or two in a building would be more beneficial than having any kid that wanted to bring their own weapons to school.”
BANG BANG I SHOT YOU DEAD
But some of the Dallas-area students they hope to protect say they’d feel less secure knowing their peers might be armed.
“If the gun was out there, I would feel uneasy,” said Russell Ansley, a junior at the University of Texas at Dallas. “It could create an atmosphere of hostility.”
Phil Montgomery, a junior at the University of North Texas, said he’d rather see more security officers than ask students to pitch in.
“I don’t feel I should have to take a gun in order to be safe at school,” he said. “Having an officer or two in a building would be more beneficial than having any kid that wanted to bring their own weapons to school.”
BANG BANG I SHOT YOU DEAD
Is The Middle Class Beginning To Fight Back?
The Main Street Movement
Earlier this month, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) "sent shockwaves across the state" when he unveiled a budgetary bill that would strip most of the state's public workers of collective bargaining rights, essentially devastating state government employees' ability to negotiate for fair wages, benefits, and working conditions. At the time, many local news observers thought the bill would easily pass. After all, Republicans won commanding majorities in the legislature during the last election and stood united in support of the bill. Yet on the eve of the bill's certain passage, all 14 state Senate Democrats fled the state, denying the Senate the quorum needed to proceed and freezing the anti-labor bill in its tracks. Tens of thousands of Wisconsinites then took to the streets in support of the "Wisconsin 14," invigorating a nascent progressive movement. And all around the country, Americans inspired by Wisconsin's example are taking action and battling attempts by conservative-led state governments to attack organized labor, slash education and environmental funding, and to make America a country where only the privileged and well-connected can prosper.
While conservatives may believe that the last election gave them a wide mandate to decimate the social safety net and enact policies that will make us an even more unequal country, it appears that Americans disagree. By trying to enact their radical agenda, conservatives have stirred America's Main Street into action. The progressive protests that are sweeping the country are defending the American Dream itself, the idea that anyone, no matter what their socioeconomic background, can succeed and prosper.
THE HOPEFUL NEWS
Earlier this month, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) "sent shockwaves across the state" when he unveiled a budgetary bill that would strip most of the state's public workers of collective bargaining rights, essentially devastating state government employees' ability to negotiate for fair wages, benefits, and working conditions. At the time, many local news observers thought the bill would easily pass. After all, Republicans won commanding majorities in the legislature during the last election and stood united in support of the bill. Yet on the eve of the bill's certain passage, all 14 state Senate Democrats fled the state, denying the Senate the quorum needed to proceed and freezing the anti-labor bill in its tracks. Tens of thousands of Wisconsinites then took to the streets in support of the "Wisconsin 14," invigorating a nascent progressive movement. And all around the country, Americans inspired by Wisconsin's example are taking action and battling attempts by conservative-led state governments to attack organized labor, slash education and environmental funding, and to make America a country where only the privileged and well-connected can prosper.
While conservatives may believe that the last election gave them a wide mandate to decimate the social safety net and enact policies that will make us an even more unequal country, it appears that Americans disagree. By trying to enact their radical agenda, conservatives have stirred America's Main Street into action. The progressive protests that are sweeping the country are defending the American Dream itself, the idea that anyone, no matter what their socioeconomic background, can succeed and prosper.
THE HOPEFUL NEWS
The War On The Middle Class
REPORT: In 12 States, GOP Plans To Slash Corporate Taxes While Increasing Burden on Working Families
ThinkProgress has been documenting conservative efforts to shift the burden of record budget shortfalls onto middle-class Americans, while simultaneously doling out tax cuts to corporations. While progressive governors have proposed raising revenue from those who can afford it, alongside painful cuts to programs, Republican governors have unveiled budgets that cut taxes for corporations and raise them on the middle-class and working poor.
Despite calling for “shared sacrifice” in their plans, Republican governors have yet to ask corporations to share the burden of record budget shortfalls. Ultimately, choosing big business over Main Street could undermine the already slow economic recovery. However, a Main Street Movement in many of these states has emerged to protest placing the burden of deficit reduction solely onto the backs of the middle-class and public employees.
SHARE THE SACRIFICE
ThinkProgress has been documenting conservative efforts to shift the burden of record budget shortfalls onto middle-class Americans, while simultaneously doling out tax cuts to corporations. While progressive governors have proposed raising revenue from those who can afford it, alongside painful cuts to programs, Republican governors have unveiled budgets that cut taxes for corporations and raise them on the middle-class and working poor.
Despite calling for “shared sacrifice” in their plans, Republican governors have yet to ask corporations to share the burden of record budget shortfalls. Ultimately, choosing big business over Main Street could undermine the already slow economic recovery. However, a Main Street Movement in many of these states has emerged to protest placing the burden of deficit reduction solely onto the backs of the middle-class and public employees.
SHARE THE SACRIFICE
U.N. Security Council to vote on more than no-fly zone for Libya
Kaddafi is in the process of wiping out the brave freedom fighters who attempted to end his harsh rule in Libya. The freedom fighters had hoped for assistance from the USA, but, as I understand it from Republicans, we are broke, so we cannot afford to help in the battle against Kaddafi. The UN needs to step up to the plate!
United Nations (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council will vote Thursday evening on whether to impose a no-fly zone -- and potentially take other steps -- to try to halt Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's attacks against rebel positions in his country.
The draft the council will vote on includes language stating that "all necessary means" could be used to prevent the "slaughter of civilians," a diplomat said.
The vote is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.
Opposition leaders are eager for U.N. action because of recent gains made by Gadhafi forces during bloody battles and an imminent offensive against Benghazi.
MORE WAR
United Nations (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council will vote Thursday evening on whether to impose a no-fly zone -- and potentially take other steps -- to try to halt Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's attacks against rebel positions in his country.
The draft the council will vote on includes language stating that "all necessary means" could be used to prevent the "slaughter of civilians," a diplomat said.
The vote is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.
Opposition leaders are eager for U.N. action because of recent gains made by Gadhafi forces during bloody battles and an imminent offensive against Benghazi.
MORE WAR
U.S. Government Cannot Be Trusted On Radiation Plume
This is the reason potassium iodide pills and geiger counters have sold out and it goes to the heart of the whole Fukushima catastrophe. Governments worldwide have proven themselves completely deceptive and untrustworthy, which is why no one believes their assurances about “harmless” radiation, and have taken steps to prepare themselves for the worst case scenario.
“A United Nations forecast of the possible movement of the radioactive plume coming from crippled Japanese reactors shows it churning across the Pacific, and touching the Aleutian Islands on Thursday before hitting Southern California late Friday,” reports the New York Times.
“Health and nuclear experts emphasize that radiation in the plume will be diluted as it travels and, at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States, even if hints of it are ultimately detectable. In a similar way, radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 spread around the globe and reached the West Coast of the United States in 10 days, its levels measurable but minuscule.”
The same people telling us that the levels are miniscule and the radiation “harmless,” are from the same organizations who assured us that the Chernobyl disaster only killed 9,000 people, when in reality it exposed 550 million Europeans, and 150 to 230 million others in the Northern Hemisphere to notable contamination and led to nearly a million deaths.
MORE AWFULNESS
The War On The Middle Class
In the Arizona Republic today, "Health-care providers say they're under siege from the Legislature, battling against a raft of proposals to shrink the public system and bring illegal-immigration enforcement into hospital corridors and doctors' offices.
"Bills making their way through the legislative process would add fees for people on the state's Medicaid program, withhold federal emergency-care funding from hospitals that treat illegal immigrants and make it a crime if health-care workers fail to report people without proper documentation. "We feel like we're getting assaulted from all sides," said Tara McCollum Plese of the Arizona Association of Community Health Centers. "My folks are just frantic right now."
Wait for it. The other shoe drops, "Republican lawmakers who support the bills say the state can no longer afford its burgeoning indigent-health-care program, which now insures more than 1.3 million Arizonans, and they believe those who qualify should shoulder more of the costs."
Let them die. Let them suffer. Let them go broke. Those lousy indigents have no right to anything -- it may as well be directly stated. In Arizona , the poor are expendable.
The GOP loves sending our boys and girls to wars. When that is the method that the GOP exhibits its hatred of US citizens it is pretty simple to look up the casualties to see how many people died. With this tactic there is not a direct correlation between policy and fatality, but as the article states "Well, no matter. Arizona is about to become the first stare in the nation that definitively attaches a value to human life in dollars and cents. And 1.3 million lives have a value of exactly zero. Zero. A tragedy in the making wouldn't even touch an accurate description of it all."
Associated Content
Republicans in Missouri want to repeal child labor laws:
SB 222 – This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.
This law has been temporarily withdrawn due to public outcry.
Texas, a state that underfunds education in the best of times, is now experiencing huge budget shortfalls, in spite of being tight on spending. Proposed budget cuts could lay-off 100,000 school employees, 60,000 nursing home workers and eliminate 9,600 state jobs this year.
Texas Economic Miracle In Peril
Quite a hit on Texas’ poor and middle class folks.
Unfortunately, more to come.
"Bills making their way through the legislative process would add fees for people on the state's Medicaid program, withhold federal emergency-care funding from hospitals that treat illegal immigrants and make it a crime if health-care workers fail to report people without proper documentation. "We feel like we're getting assaulted from all sides," said Tara McCollum Plese of the Arizona Association of Community Health Centers. "My folks are just frantic right now."
Wait for it. The other shoe drops, "Republican lawmakers who support the bills say the state can no longer afford its burgeoning indigent-health-care program, which now insures more than 1.3 million Arizonans, and they believe those who qualify should shoulder more of the costs."
Let them die. Let them suffer. Let them go broke. Those lousy indigents have no right to anything -- it may as well be directly stated. In Arizona , the poor are expendable.
The GOP loves sending our boys and girls to wars. When that is the method that the GOP exhibits its hatred of US citizens it is pretty simple to look up the casualties to see how many people died. With this tactic there is not a direct correlation between policy and fatality, but as the article states "Well, no matter. Arizona is about to become the first stare in the nation that definitively attaches a value to human life in dollars and cents. And 1.3 million lives have a value of exactly zero. Zero. A tragedy in the making wouldn't even touch an accurate description of it all."
Associated Content
Republicans in Missouri want to repeal child labor laws:
SB 222 – This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.
This law has been temporarily withdrawn due to public outcry.
Texas, a state that underfunds education in the best of times, is now experiencing huge budget shortfalls, in spite of being tight on spending. Proposed budget cuts could lay-off 100,000 school employees, 60,000 nursing home workers and eliminate 9,600 state jobs this year.
Texas Economic Miracle In Peril
Quite a hit on Texas’ poor and middle class folks.
Unfortunately, more to come.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Excellent Opinion From Alternet
GOPer Who Tried to Change Definition of Rape Now Promoting Women's Rights -- But Only in China
By Akiba Solomon | ColorLines
The Only Constitutional Crisis in Wisconsin Is the One Created by Walker's Administration
By John Nichols | The Nation
Georgia GOP Raising Taxes On Girl Scout Cookies While Cutting Taxes On Foreign Corporations
By Alex Seitz-Wald | Think Progress
Do the Koch Brothers Control Your Local Media?
By whereisboblafollette | Daily Kos
By Akiba Solomon | ColorLines
The Only Constitutional Crisis in Wisconsin Is the One Created by Walker's Administration
By John Nichols | The Nation
Georgia GOP Raising Taxes On Girl Scout Cookies While Cutting Taxes On Foreign Corporations
By Alex Seitz-Wald | Think Progress
Do the Koch Brothers Control Your Local Media?
By whereisboblafollette | Daily Kos
Monday, March 7, 2011
Libya Rebels Reject Potential Gaddafi Offer To Step Down: Reports
Al Jazeera said Gaddafi had proposed to Libyan rebels to hold a meeting of parliament to pave the way for him to step down with certain guarantees.
It said Gaddafi made the proposal to the interim council, which speaks for mostly eastern areas controlled by his opponents. It quoted sources in the council as saying Gaddafi wanted guarantees of personal safety for him and his family and a pledge that they not be put on trial.
Al Jazeera said sources from the council told its correspondent in Benghazi that the offer was rejected because it would have amounted to an "honourable" exit for Gaddafi and would offend his victims.
HERE
And he wants some money.
It said Gaddafi made the proposal to the interim council, which speaks for mostly eastern areas controlled by his opponents. It quoted sources in the council as saying Gaddafi wanted guarantees of personal safety for him and his family and a pledge that they not be put on trial.
Al Jazeera said sources from the council told its correspondent in Benghazi that the offer was rejected because it would have amounted to an "honourable" exit for Gaddafi and would offend his victims.
HERE
And he wants some money.
AMERICA IS NOT BROKE A Speech By Michael Moore
America is not broke.
Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
Today just 400 Americans have the same wealth as half of all Americans combined.
Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have as much loot, stock and property as the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.
And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we'd have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic -- and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.
I have nothing more than a high school degree. But back when I was in school, every student had to take one semester of economics in order to graduate. And here's what I learned: Money doesn't grow on trees. It grows when we make things. It grows when we have good jobs with good wages that we use to buy the things we need and thus create more jobs. It grows when we provide an outstanding educational system that then grows a new generation of inventors, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and thinkers who come up with the next great idea for the planet. And that new idea creates new jobs and that creates revenue for the state. But if those who have the most money don't pay their fair share of taxes, the state can't function. The schools can't produce the best and the brightest who will go on to create those jobs. If the wealthy get to keep most of their money, we have seen what they will do with it: recklessly gamble it on crazy Wall Street schemes and crash our economy. The crash they created cost us millions of jobs. That too caused a reduction in tax revenue. Everyone ended up suffering because of what the rich did.
The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. Saying that the country is broke is repeating a Big Lie. It's one of the three biggest lies of the decade: 1) America is broke, 2) Iraq has WMD, and 3) The Packers can't win the Super Bowl without Brett Favre.
The truth is, there's lots of money to go around. LOTS. It's just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates. They know they have committed crimes to make this happen and they know that someday you may want to see some of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them. But just in case that doesn't work, they've got their gated communities, and the luxury jet is always fully fueled, the engines running, waiting for that day they hope never comes. To help prevent that day when the people demand their country back, the wealthy have done two very smart things:
1. They control the message. By owning most of the media they have expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of the American Dream and to vote for their politicians. Their version of the Dream says that you, too, might be rich some day -- this is America, where anything can happen if you just apply yourself! They have conveniently provided you with believable examples to show you how a poor boy can become a rich man, how the child of a single mother in Hawaii can become president, how a guy with a high school education can become a successful filmmaker. They will play these stories for you over and over again all day long so that the last thing you will want to do is upset the apple cart -- because you -- yes, you, too! -- might be rich/president/an Oscar-winner some day! The message is clear: keep you head down, your nose to the grindstone, don't rock the boat and be sure to vote for the party that protects the rich man that you might be some day.
2. They have created a poison pill that they know you will never want to take. It is their version of mutually assured destruction. And when they threatened to release this weapon of mass economic annihilation in September of 2008, we blinked. As the economy and the stock market went into a tailspin, and the banks were caught conducting a worldwide Ponzi scheme, Wall Street issued this threat: Either hand over trillions of dollars from the American taxpayers or we will crash this economy straight into the ground. Fork it over or it's Goodbye savings accounts. Goodbye pensions. Goodbye United States Treasury. Goodbye jobs and homes and future. It was friggin' awesome and it scared the shit out of everyone. "Here! Take our money! We don't care. We'll even print more for you! Just take it! But, please, leave our lives alone, PLEASE!"
The executives in the board rooms and hedge funds could not contain their laughter, their glee, and within three months they were writing each other huge bonus checks and marveling at how perfectly they had played a nation full of suckers. Millions lost their jobs anyway, and millions lost their homes. But there was no revolt (see #1).
Until now. On Wisconsin! Never has a Michigander been more happy to share a big, great lake with you! You have aroused the sleeping giant known as the working people of the United States of America. Right now the earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those who are in charge. Your message has inspired people in all 50 states and that message is: WE HAVE HAD IT! We reject anyone who tells us America is broke and broken. It's just the opposite! We are rich with talent and ideas and hard work and, yes, love. Love and compassion toward those who have, through no fault of their own, ended up as the least among us. But they still crave what we all crave: Our country back! Our democracy back! Our good name back! The United States of America. NOT the Corporate States of America. The United States of America!
So how do we make this happen? Well, we do it with a little bit of Egypt here, a little bit of Madison there. And let us pause for a moment and remember that it was a poor man with a fruit stand in Tunisia who gave his life so that the world might focus its attention on how a government run by billionaires for billionaires is an affront to freedom and morality and humanity.
Thank you, Wisconsin. You have made people realize this was our last best chance to grab the final thread of what was left of who we are as Americans. For three weeks you have stood in the cold, slept on the floor, skipped out of town to Illinois -- whatever it took, you have done it, and one thing is for certain: Madison is only the beginning. The smug rich have overplayed their hand. They couldn't have just been content with the money they raided from the treasury. They couldn't be satiated by simply removing millions of jobs and shipping them overseas to exploit the poor elsewhere. No, they had to have more -- something more than all the riches in the world. They had to have our soul. They had to strip us of our dignity. They had to shut us up and shut us down so that we could not even sit at a table with them and bargain about simple things like classroom size or bulletproof vests for everyone on the police force or letting a pilot just get a few extra hours sleep so he or she can do their job -- their $19,000 a year job. That's how much some rookie pilots on commuter airlines make, maybe even the rookie pilot who flew me here to Madison today. He told me he's stopped hoping for a pay increase. All he's asking for now is enough down time so that he doesn't have to sleep in his car between shifts at O'Hare airport. That's how despicably low we have sunk! The wealthy couldn't be content with just paying this man $19,000 a year. They had to take away his sleep. They had to demean him and dehumanize him and rub his face in it. After all, he's just another slob, isn't he?
And that, my friends, is Corporate America's fatal mistake. But trying to destroy us they have given birth to a movement -- a movement that is becoming a massive, nonviolent revolt across the country. We all knew there had to be a breaking point some day, and that point is upon us. Many people in the media don't understand this. They say they were caught off guard about Egypt, never saw it coming. Now they act surprised and flummoxed about why so many hundreds of thousands have come to Madison over the last three weeks during brutal winter weather. "Why are they all standing out there in the cold?" I mean, there was that election in November and that was supposed to be that!
"There's something happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you ...?"
America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers. And we aim to fix that compass and steer the ship ourselves from now on. Never forget, as long as that Constitution of ours still stands, it's one person, one vote, and it's the thing the rich hate most about America -- because even though they seem to hold all the money and all the cards, they begrudgingly know this one unshakeable basic fact: There are more of us than there are of them!
Madison, do not retreat. We are with you. We will win together.
HERE
Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
Today just 400 Americans have the same wealth as half of all Americans combined.
Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have as much loot, stock and property as the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.
And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we'd have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic -- and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.
I have nothing more than a high school degree. But back when I was in school, every student had to take one semester of economics in order to graduate. And here's what I learned: Money doesn't grow on trees. It grows when we make things. It grows when we have good jobs with good wages that we use to buy the things we need and thus create more jobs. It grows when we provide an outstanding educational system that then grows a new generation of inventors, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and thinkers who come up with the next great idea for the planet. And that new idea creates new jobs and that creates revenue for the state. But if those who have the most money don't pay their fair share of taxes, the state can't function. The schools can't produce the best and the brightest who will go on to create those jobs. If the wealthy get to keep most of their money, we have seen what they will do with it: recklessly gamble it on crazy Wall Street schemes and crash our economy. The crash they created cost us millions of jobs. That too caused a reduction in tax revenue. Everyone ended up suffering because of what the rich did.
The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. Saying that the country is broke is repeating a Big Lie. It's one of the three biggest lies of the decade: 1) America is broke, 2) Iraq has WMD, and 3) The Packers can't win the Super Bowl without Brett Favre.
The truth is, there's lots of money to go around. LOTS. It's just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates. They know they have committed crimes to make this happen and they know that someday you may want to see some of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them. But just in case that doesn't work, they've got their gated communities, and the luxury jet is always fully fueled, the engines running, waiting for that day they hope never comes. To help prevent that day when the people demand their country back, the wealthy have done two very smart things:
1. They control the message. By owning most of the media they have expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of the American Dream and to vote for their politicians. Their version of the Dream says that you, too, might be rich some day -- this is America, where anything can happen if you just apply yourself! They have conveniently provided you with believable examples to show you how a poor boy can become a rich man, how the child of a single mother in Hawaii can become president, how a guy with a high school education can become a successful filmmaker. They will play these stories for you over and over again all day long so that the last thing you will want to do is upset the apple cart -- because you -- yes, you, too! -- might be rich/president/an Oscar-winner some day! The message is clear: keep you head down, your nose to the grindstone, don't rock the boat and be sure to vote for the party that protects the rich man that you might be some day.
2. They have created a poison pill that they know you will never want to take. It is their version of mutually assured destruction. And when they threatened to release this weapon of mass economic annihilation in September of 2008, we blinked. As the economy and the stock market went into a tailspin, and the banks were caught conducting a worldwide Ponzi scheme, Wall Street issued this threat: Either hand over trillions of dollars from the American taxpayers or we will crash this economy straight into the ground. Fork it over or it's Goodbye savings accounts. Goodbye pensions. Goodbye United States Treasury. Goodbye jobs and homes and future. It was friggin' awesome and it scared the shit out of everyone. "Here! Take our money! We don't care. We'll even print more for you! Just take it! But, please, leave our lives alone, PLEASE!"
The executives in the board rooms and hedge funds could not contain their laughter, their glee, and within three months they were writing each other huge bonus checks and marveling at how perfectly they had played a nation full of suckers. Millions lost their jobs anyway, and millions lost their homes. But there was no revolt (see #1).
Until now. On Wisconsin! Never has a Michigander been more happy to share a big, great lake with you! You have aroused the sleeping giant known as the working people of the United States of America. Right now the earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those who are in charge. Your message has inspired people in all 50 states and that message is: WE HAVE HAD IT! We reject anyone who tells us America is broke and broken. It's just the opposite! We are rich with talent and ideas and hard work and, yes, love. Love and compassion toward those who have, through no fault of their own, ended up as the least among us. But they still crave what we all crave: Our country back! Our democracy back! Our good name back! The United States of America. NOT the Corporate States of America. The United States of America!
So how do we make this happen? Well, we do it with a little bit of Egypt here, a little bit of Madison there. And let us pause for a moment and remember that it was a poor man with a fruit stand in Tunisia who gave his life so that the world might focus its attention on how a government run by billionaires for billionaires is an affront to freedom and morality and humanity.
Thank you, Wisconsin. You have made people realize this was our last best chance to grab the final thread of what was left of who we are as Americans. For three weeks you have stood in the cold, slept on the floor, skipped out of town to Illinois -- whatever it took, you have done it, and one thing is for certain: Madison is only the beginning. The smug rich have overplayed their hand. They couldn't have just been content with the money they raided from the treasury. They couldn't be satiated by simply removing millions of jobs and shipping them overseas to exploit the poor elsewhere. No, they had to have more -- something more than all the riches in the world. They had to have our soul. They had to strip us of our dignity. They had to shut us up and shut us down so that we could not even sit at a table with them and bargain about simple things like classroom size or bulletproof vests for everyone on the police force or letting a pilot just get a few extra hours sleep so he or she can do their job -- their $19,000 a year job. That's how much some rookie pilots on commuter airlines make, maybe even the rookie pilot who flew me here to Madison today. He told me he's stopped hoping for a pay increase. All he's asking for now is enough down time so that he doesn't have to sleep in his car between shifts at O'Hare airport. That's how despicably low we have sunk! The wealthy couldn't be content with just paying this man $19,000 a year. They had to take away his sleep. They had to demean him and dehumanize him and rub his face in it. After all, he's just another slob, isn't he?
And that, my friends, is Corporate America's fatal mistake. But trying to destroy us they have given birth to a movement -- a movement that is becoming a massive, nonviolent revolt across the country. We all knew there had to be a breaking point some day, and that point is upon us. Many people in the media don't understand this. They say they were caught off guard about Egypt, never saw it coming. Now they act surprised and flummoxed about why so many hundreds of thousands have come to Madison over the last three weeks during brutal winter weather. "Why are they all standing out there in the cold?" I mean, there was that election in November and that was supposed to be that!
"There's something happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you ...?"
America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers. And we aim to fix that compass and steer the ship ourselves from now on. Never forget, as long as that Constitution of ours still stands, it's one person, one vote, and it's the thing the rich hate most about America -- because even though they seem to hold all the money and all the cards, they begrudgingly know this one unshakeable basic fact: There are more of us than there are of them!
Madison, do not retreat. We are with you. We will win together.
HERE
Sunday, March 6, 2011
22 Statistics That Prove The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/22-statistics-that-prove-the-middle-class-is-being-systematically-wiped-out-of-existence-in-america-2010-7##ixzz1FpRNmCym
The 22 statistics that you are about to read prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/22-statistics-that-prove-the-middle-class-is-being-systematically-wiped-out-of-existence-in-america-2010-7##ixzz1FpRYhU9U
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/22-statistics-that-prove-the-middle-class-is-being-systematically-wiped-out-of-existence-in-america-2010-7##ixzz1FpRYhU9U
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Public Employee Unions Don't Get One Penny from Taxpayers and Can't Require Membership, But the Big Lie That They Do Is Everywhere
Let us begin with this simple, indisputable truth: public employees' unions don't get a single red cent from taxpayers. And they aren't a mechanism to “force” working people to support Democrats – that's completely illegal.
Public sector workers are employed by the government, but they are private citizens. Once a private citizen earns a dollar from the sweat of his or her brow, it no longer belongs to his or her employer. In the case of public workers, it is no longer a “taxpayer dollar”; it is a dollar held privately by an American citizen. Public sector unions are financed through the dues paid by these private citizens, who elected to be part of a union – not a single taxpayer dollar is involved, and no worker is forced to join a union against his or her wishes. No worker in the United States is required to give one red cent to support a political cause he or she doesn't agree with.
There is no distinction between the role public- and private-sector unions play: both represent their members in negotiations with their employers. At the federal level, both are prohibited from using their members' dues for political purposes. They donate to political campaigns – to elect lawmakers who will stand up for the interests of working people – but only out of voluntary contributions their members choose to make to their PACs.
“Unions cannot, from their general funds, contribute a dime to any federal candidate or national political party,” says Laurence Gold, an attorney with the AFL-CIO. “They can only do it through their separate political PAC and only according to strict limits.”
The states have a patchwork of different laws, and many do allow unions to donate to campaigns. But membership is entirely voluntary – when a group of workers elect to form a union, it doesn't mean that everyone must sign up. The union negotiates on behalf of all the workers in the group – and all of the workers get the job security and other benefits that come with collective bargaining -- but by law it can't compel them to pay union dues. “It is a right-wing canard that anyone needs to join a union,” Gold told AlterNet. “If a union member doesn't like what his or her union is doing, he or she is ultimately free to walk, without any diminution in their employment rights. They still get all the benefits and the union still has to represent them – just like it did the day before.”
HERE
Public sector workers are employed by the government, but they are private citizens. Once a private citizen earns a dollar from the sweat of his or her brow, it no longer belongs to his or her employer. In the case of public workers, it is no longer a “taxpayer dollar”; it is a dollar held privately by an American citizen. Public sector unions are financed through the dues paid by these private citizens, who elected to be part of a union – not a single taxpayer dollar is involved, and no worker is forced to join a union against his or her wishes. No worker in the United States is required to give one red cent to support a political cause he or she doesn't agree with.
There is no distinction between the role public- and private-sector unions play: both represent their members in negotiations with their employers. At the federal level, both are prohibited from using their members' dues for political purposes. They donate to political campaigns – to elect lawmakers who will stand up for the interests of working people – but only out of voluntary contributions their members choose to make to their PACs.
“Unions cannot, from their general funds, contribute a dime to any federal candidate or national political party,” says Laurence Gold, an attorney with the AFL-CIO. “They can only do it through their separate political PAC and only according to strict limits.”
The states have a patchwork of different laws, and many do allow unions to donate to campaigns. But membership is entirely voluntary – when a group of workers elect to form a union, it doesn't mean that everyone must sign up. The union negotiates on behalf of all the workers in the group – and all of the workers get the job security and other benefits that come with collective bargaining -- but by law it can't compel them to pay union dues. “It is a right-wing canard that anyone needs to join a union,” Gold told AlterNet. “If a union member doesn't like what his or her union is doing, he or she is ultimately free to walk, without any diminution in their employment rights. They still get all the benefits and the union still has to represent them – just like it did the day before.”
HERE
Friday, March 4, 2011
The Decline of Glenn Beck
Just six months later, however, Beck seems to have traveled somewhere else entirely. His ratings and reputation are in steep decline: His show has lost more than one million viewers over the course of the past year, falling from an average of 2.9 million in January 2010 to 1.8 million in January 2011. He now ranks fifth among Fox’s six weekday talk hosts, trailing lesser-known personalities like Shepard Smith and Bret Baier. Beck’s three-hour radio show has been dropped in several major cities, including New York and Philadelphia, and has seen a ratings decline in most other markets. “It’s hard to gain a million viewers,” says Eric Boehlert, who follows Beck’s shows for the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters, “but it’s really hard to lose a million viewers.” And Beck’s fall contrasts with the fortunes of other Fox News hosts, like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, whose TV ratings stayed solid throughout 2010.
Beck’s commercial viability also seems to have suffered. His viewership among 25- to 54-year-olds, a prized advertising demographic, declined by almost one-half in 2010. An advertising boycott organized by liberal groups has caused over 300 companies—including Procter & Gamble, UPS, Coca-Cola, and Wal-Mart—to stop showing commercials during Beck’s show. The Beck brand isn’t what it used to be off the airwaves either: His most recent non-fiction book, Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth and Treasure, was his first book in eight years not to reach number one on The New York Times best-seller list.
Meanwhile, as a group, prominent conservatives have seemed more willing to speak out against Beck recently. Though some on the right always disparaged him—several profiles last year included anonymous Fox insiders criticizing Beck—almost none were willing to do so with their names attached. Recently, however, conservatives have been criticizing Beck openly. Bill O’Reilly, who feted him for an hour after the Restoring Honor rally, has rapidly become more and more dismissive. The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol has criticized Beck’s “rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East.” Conservative Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin called Beck a “ranting extremist,” and former Bush administration staffer Pete Wehner wrote for Commentary’s website, “If conservatism were ever to hitch its wagon to this self-described rodeo clown, it would collapse as a movement.”
HERE
How To Kill A Recovery
The economic news has been better lately. New claims for unemployment insurance are down; business and consumer surveys suggest solid growth. We’re still near the bottom of a very deep hole, but at least we’re climbing.
... we have a lot of evidence from other countries about the prospects for “expansionary austerity” — and that evidence is all negative. Last October, a comprehensive study by the International Monetary Fund concluded that “the idea that fiscal austerity stimulates economic activity in the short term finds little support in the data.”
And do you remember the lavish praise heaped on Britain’s conservative government, which announced harsh austerity measures after it took office last May? How’s that going? Well, business confidence did not, in fact, rise when the plan was announced; it plunged, and has yet to recover. And recent surveys suggest that confidence has fallen even further among both businesses and consumers, indicating, as one report put it, that the private sector is “unprepared to fill the hole left by public sector cuts.”
Which brings us back to the U.S. budget debate.
Over the next few weeks, House Republicans will try to blackmail the Obama administration into accepting their proposed spending cuts, using the threat of a government shutdown. They’ll claim that those cuts would be good for America in both the short term and the long term.
But the truth is exactly the reverse: Republicans have managed to come up with spending cuts that would do double duty, both undermining America’s future and threatening to abort a nascent economic recovery.
BEST COMMENT ON THE ARTICLE:
This is spot on, Professor Krugman. The only thing I would add is that halting the economic recovery is not a bug in the Republicans' plans, it is a feature of those plans. And the reason for this is that Republicans know that the only way they can defeat President Obama in 2012 is if the economy is struggling. And, as Mitch McConnell and other Republicans have made clear, defeating President Obama is their number one goal.
If you think I am being hyperbolic in suggesting that Republicans would purposely try to drive the economy down just to win an election, keep in mind how Republicans behaved in 2009 and 2010 as President Obama and the Democrats tried to pull the economy out of the Bush Recession. Rather than help to create jobs:
* Republicans Eliminated 130,000 Jobs by filibustering the extension of the TANF Emergency Fund, which provided funding for small businesses, non-profits, and local governments to employ people.
* Republicans Obstructed Small Business Aid by filibustering legislation that provides a $30 billion small business lending fund and $12 billion in small business tax breaks. While the Democrats first proposed this legislation in February 2010, they were not able to overcome the Republican filibuster until September 2010.
* Republicans Filibustered the Most Effective Stimulus Available delaying the extension of unemployment benefits on multiple occasions. The Congressional Budget Office and other experts have identified unemployment benefits as the most effective stimulus policy because it puts money directly in the hands of people who will spend it almost immediately on necessary staples like food, gasoline, and rent.
* Republicans Triggered Layoffs of State and Local Public Servants by removing aid to state and local governments from the stimulus bill and filibustering an aid package proposed last summer to avoid layoffs of teachers, firefighters, and police officers. While the private sector has seen job growth throughout 2010, overall job numbers are down because cash-strapped local governments are laying off tens of thousands of people.
* Republicans Obstructed the Appointment of Qualified Nominees for 20 positions in the U.S. Treasury and three Federal Reserve Board of Governors positions, delaying the ability of the Obama Administration to operate at full capacity as it seeks to fix our economy.
In short, Republicans did everything they could to try to prevent President Obama and the Democrats from implementing policies that will allow for a full economic recovery. The result was that the economy continued to struggle and Republicans took the House last November. Now they are trying for a repeat performance.
http://www.winningprogressive.org
Paul Krugman
... we have a lot of evidence from other countries about the prospects for “expansionary austerity” — and that evidence is all negative. Last October, a comprehensive study by the International Monetary Fund concluded that “the idea that fiscal austerity stimulates economic activity in the short term finds little support in the data.”
And do you remember the lavish praise heaped on Britain’s conservative government, which announced harsh austerity measures after it took office last May? How’s that going? Well, business confidence did not, in fact, rise when the plan was announced; it plunged, and has yet to recover. And recent surveys suggest that confidence has fallen even further among both businesses and consumers, indicating, as one report put it, that the private sector is “unprepared to fill the hole left by public sector cuts.”
Which brings us back to the U.S. budget debate.
Over the next few weeks, House Republicans will try to blackmail the Obama administration into accepting their proposed spending cuts, using the threat of a government shutdown. They’ll claim that those cuts would be good for America in both the short term and the long term.
But the truth is exactly the reverse: Republicans have managed to come up with spending cuts that would do double duty, both undermining America’s future and threatening to abort a nascent economic recovery.
BEST COMMENT ON THE ARTICLE:
This is spot on, Professor Krugman. The only thing I would add is that halting the economic recovery is not a bug in the Republicans' plans, it is a feature of those plans. And the reason for this is that Republicans know that the only way they can defeat President Obama in 2012 is if the economy is struggling. And, as Mitch McConnell and other Republicans have made clear, defeating President Obama is their number one goal.
If you think I am being hyperbolic in suggesting that Republicans would purposely try to drive the economy down just to win an election, keep in mind how Republicans behaved in 2009 and 2010 as President Obama and the Democrats tried to pull the economy out of the Bush Recession. Rather than help to create jobs:
* Republicans Eliminated 130,000 Jobs by filibustering the extension of the TANF Emergency Fund, which provided funding for small businesses, non-profits, and local governments to employ people.
* Republicans Obstructed Small Business Aid by filibustering legislation that provides a $30 billion small business lending fund and $12 billion in small business tax breaks. While the Democrats first proposed this legislation in February 2010, they were not able to overcome the Republican filibuster until September 2010.
* Republicans Filibustered the Most Effective Stimulus Available delaying the extension of unemployment benefits on multiple occasions. The Congressional Budget Office and other experts have identified unemployment benefits as the most effective stimulus policy because it puts money directly in the hands of people who will spend it almost immediately on necessary staples like food, gasoline, and rent.
* Republicans Triggered Layoffs of State and Local Public Servants by removing aid to state and local governments from the stimulus bill and filibustering an aid package proposed last summer to avoid layoffs of teachers, firefighters, and police officers. While the private sector has seen job growth throughout 2010, overall job numbers are down because cash-strapped local governments are laying off tens of thousands of people.
* Republicans Obstructed the Appointment of Qualified Nominees for 20 positions in the U.S. Treasury and three Federal Reserve Board of Governors positions, delaying the ability of the Obama Administration to operate at full capacity as it seeks to fix our economy.
In short, Republicans did everything they could to try to prevent President Obama and the Democrats from implementing policies that will allow for a full economic recovery. The result was that the economy continued to struggle and Republicans took the House last November. Now they are trying for a repeat performance.
http://www.winningprogressive.org
Paul Krugman
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Republicans' Hollow Cry Of 'Broke'
“We’re broke! We’re broke!” Speaker John Boehner said on Sunday. “We’re broke in this state,” Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said a few days ago. “New Jersey’s broke,” Gov. Chris Christie has said repeatedly. The United States faces a “looming bankruptcy,” Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist, wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
It’s all obfuscating nonsense, of course, a scare tactic employed for political ends. A country with a deficit is not necessarily any more “broke” than a family with a mortgage or a college loan. And states have to balance their budgets. Though it may disappoint many conservatives, there will be no federal or state bankruptcies.
The federal deficit is too large for comfort, and most states are struggling to balance their books. Some of that is because of excessive spending, and much is because the recession has driven down tax revenues. But a substantial part was caused by deliberate decisions by state and federal lawmakers to drain government of resources by handing out huge tax cuts, mostly to the rich. As governments begin to stagger from the self-induced hemorrhaging, Republican politicians like Mr. Boehner and Mr. Walker cry poverty and use it as an excuse to break unions and kill programs they never liked in flush years.
On Wednesday, to cite just the latest example, House Republicans successfully pressured the Senate to approve a bill cutting $4 billion in spending just to keep the federal government from shutting down for the next two weeks. In a matter of days, the Senate will be forced to take up the House bill to make more than $61 billion in ruinous cuts over the next seven months, all under the pretext of “fiscal responsibility.” (At least the White House says it will be involved in the next round.) Many Republican governors are employing the same tactic.
But now voters are starting to notice the effects of these cuts and to get angry at the ideological overreach.
HERE
It’s all obfuscating nonsense, of course, a scare tactic employed for political ends. A country with a deficit is not necessarily any more “broke” than a family with a mortgage or a college loan. And states have to balance their budgets. Though it may disappoint many conservatives, there will be no federal or state bankruptcies.
The federal deficit is too large for comfort, and most states are struggling to balance their books. Some of that is because of excessive spending, and much is because the recession has driven down tax revenues. But a substantial part was caused by deliberate decisions by state and federal lawmakers to drain government of resources by handing out huge tax cuts, mostly to the rich. As governments begin to stagger from the self-induced hemorrhaging, Republican politicians like Mr. Boehner and Mr. Walker cry poverty and use it as an excuse to break unions and kill programs they never liked in flush years.
On Wednesday, to cite just the latest example, House Republicans successfully pressured the Senate to approve a bill cutting $4 billion in spending just to keep the federal government from shutting down for the next two weeks. In a matter of days, the Senate will be forced to take up the House bill to make more than $61 billion in ruinous cuts over the next seven months, all under the pretext of “fiscal responsibility.” (At least the White House says it will be involved in the next round.) Many Republican governors are employing the same tactic.
But now voters are starting to notice the effects of these cuts and to get angry at the ideological overreach.
HERE
An investment that worked: The Recovery Act two years later
The Recovery Act, signed into law Feb. 17, 2009, passed as a response to what is now known as the Great Recession. It was designed to cushion the economy’s free-fall, create jobs, and return the country to economic growth. Given that the Great Recession officially ended 20 months ago, it is reasonable to step back upon the act’s second anniversary and assess its impact.
The Recovery Act clearly has been effective at providing the economic support for spurring output and employment that was promised by its architects:
The Recovery Act was enacted at a time when the private economy was contracting by more than a 6% annual rate and losing more than 750,000 jobs a month. In the first full quarter after its enactment, the Recovery Act had cut average monthly private job losses by more than a third and slowed the economic contraction to a -0.7% annual rate. Private job loss fell again, by over half, in the following quarter and then fell by nearly half in the quarter after that, at which point the economy was growing at a 5% annual rate. Clearly, the economy and private job market began to recover right when the Recovery Act began to take effect.
EPI analysis shows that by the end of 2010 the Recovery Act had created or saved 3-4 million jobs, and up to 5 million full-time equivalent jobs. It had also boosted gross domestic product by up to $560 billion and reduced the unemployment rate up to 1.8 percentage points. (This finding is consistent with analyses by the Congressional Budget Office, the Council of Economic Advisors, and private-sector forecasters.)
The process by which the Recovery Act produced positive economic activity is straightforward. The bursting of the housing bubble inflicted a huge negative shock on spending in the U.S. economy. As household wealth evaporated due to plummeting real estate prices, both households and businesses radically cut back their demand for goods and services and demand for new construction dried up.. The Recovery Act helped offset this decline in private-sector demand by boosting public sector purchasing. Many kinds of spending outlays (or tax cuts) could have fulfilled this shock-absorbing function in the very short-run. And indeed, the Recovery Act was a portfolio of various spending increases and tax cuts (a portfolio much more heavily weighted toward tax cuts than most observers realized).
MORE
The Recovery Act clearly has been effective at providing the economic support for spurring output and employment that was promised by its architects:
The Recovery Act was enacted at a time when the private economy was contracting by more than a 6% annual rate and losing more than 750,000 jobs a month. In the first full quarter after its enactment, the Recovery Act had cut average monthly private job losses by more than a third and slowed the economic contraction to a -0.7% annual rate. Private job loss fell again, by over half, in the following quarter and then fell by nearly half in the quarter after that, at which point the economy was growing at a 5% annual rate. Clearly, the economy and private job market began to recover right when the Recovery Act began to take effect.
EPI analysis shows that by the end of 2010 the Recovery Act had created or saved 3-4 million jobs, and up to 5 million full-time equivalent jobs. It had also boosted gross domestic product by up to $560 billion and reduced the unemployment rate up to 1.8 percentage points. (This finding is consistent with analyses by the Congressional Budget Office, the Council of Economic Advisors, and private-sector forecasters.)
The process by which the Recovery Act produced positive economic activity is straightforward. The bursting of the housing bubble inflicted a huge negative shock on spending in the U.S. economy. As household wealth evaporated due to plummeting real estate prices, both households and businesses radically cut back their demand for goods and services and demand for new construction dried up.. The Recovery Act helped offset this decline in private-sector demand by boosting public sector purchasing. Many kinds of spending outlays (or tax cuts) could have fulfilled this shock-absorbing function in the very short-run. And indeed, the Recovery Act was a portfolio of various spending increases and tax cuts (a portfolio much more heavily weighted toward tax cuts than most observers realized).
MORE
Oh Great. Now Our Warmongers Wanna Go To War In Libya
Sheesh. Even Robert Gates believes that is a bad idea!
How Recent Tax Cuts For Wealthy Americans Hurt The Rest Of Us (Who Just Happen To Be The Majority)
(Wealthy Americans) claim that they can invest the money they save from taxes and thereby create jobs, etc. But do they? In fact, cutting rich people's taxes is often very bad for the rest of us (beyond the worsening inequality and hobbled government it produces). A case in point is the ongoing budget crisis in Wisconsin, which was created when the guv'ner gave massive tax incentives to corporations to 'create jobs' (I was taught at SFA that demand for products creates jobs and demand can't be created by giving tax incentives to corporations. Demand comes from consumers, who are being hurt by tax cuts to the wealthy.) So who now must cover those tax incentives (cuts)? Teachers, firemen and women, policemen and women, snowplow drivers, nurses, and anyone in Wisconsin who utilizes state resources in any way.
Several examples show this. First, a good part of the money the rich save from taxes is then lent by them to the government (in the form of buying US Treasury securities for their personal investment portfolios). It would obviously be better for the government to tax the rich to maintain its expenditures, and thereby avoid deficits and debts. Then the government would not need to tax the rest of us to pay interest on those debts to the rich.
Second, the richest Americans take the money they save from taxes and invest big parts of it in China, India and elsewhere. That often produces more jobs over there, fewer jobs here, and more imports of goods produced abroad. US dollars flow out to pay for those imports and so accumulate in the hands of foreign banks and foreign governments. They, in turn, lend from that wealth to the US government because it does not tax our rich, and so we get taxed to pay for the interest Washington has to give those foreign banks and governments. The largest single recipient of such interest payments today is the People's Republic of China.
Third, the richest Americans take the money they don't pay in taxes and invest it in hedge funds and with stockbrokers to make profitable investments. These days, that often means speculating in oil and food, which drives up their prices, undermines economic recovery for the mass of Americans, and produces acute suffering around the globe. Those hedge funds and brokers likewise use part of the money rich people save from taxes to speculate in the US stock markets. That has recently driven stock prices higher: hence, the stock market recovery. And that mostly helps – you guessed it – the richest Americans who own most of the stocks.
Common Dreams, italicized comments by me.
Several examples show this. First, a good part of the money the rich save from taxes is then lent by them to the government (in the form of buying US Treasury securities for their personal investment portfolios). It would obviously be better for the government to tax the rich to maintain its expenditures, and thereby avoid deficits and debts. Then the government would not need to tax the rest of us to pay interest on those debts to the rich.
Second, the richest Americans take the money they save from taxes and invest big parts of it in China, India and elsewhere. That often produces more jobs over there, fewer jobs here, and more imports of goods produced abroad. US dollars flow out to pay for those imports and so accumulate in the hands of foreign banks and foreign governments. They, in turn, lend from that wealth to the US government because it does not tax our rich, and so we get taxed to pay for the interest Washington has to give those foreign banks and governments. The largest single recipient of such interest payments today is the People's Republic of China.
Third, the richest Americans take the money they don't pay in taxes and invest it in hedge funds and with stockbrokers to make profitable investments. These days, that often means speculating in oil and food, which drives up their prices, undermines economic recovery for the mass of Americans, and produces acute suffering around the globe. Those hedge funds and brokers likewise use part of the money rich people save from taxes to speculate in the US stock markets. That has recently driven stock prices higher: hence, the stock market recovery. And that mostly helps – you guessed it – the richest Americans who own most of the stocks.
Common Dreams, italicized comments by me.
Plutocracy Now: What Wisconsin Is Really About
IN 2008, A LIBERAL Democrat was elected president. Landslide votes gave Democrats huge congressional majorities. Eight years of war and scandal and George W. Bush had stigmatized the Republican Party almost beyond redemption. A global financial crisis had discredited the disciples of free-market fundamentalism, and Americans were ready for serious change.
Or so it seemed. But two years later, Wall Street is back to earning record profits, andconservatives are triumphant. To understand why this happened, it's not enough to examine polls and tea parties and the makeup of Barack Obama's economic team. You have to understand how we fell so short, and what we rightfully should have expected from Obama's election. And you have to understand two crucial things about American politics.
The first is this: Income inequality has grown dramatically since the mid-'70s—far more in the US than in most advanced countries—and the gap is only partly related to college grads outperforming high-school grads. Rather, the bulk of our growing inequality has been a product of skyrocketing incomes among the richest 1 percent and—even more dramatically—among the top 0.1 percent. It has, in other words, been CEOs and Wall Street traders at the very tippy-top who are hoovering up vast sums of money fromeveryone, even those who by ordinary standards are pretty well off.
Second, American politicians don't care much about voters with moderate incomes. Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels studied the voting behavior of US senators in the early '90s and discovered that they respond far more to the desires of high-income groups than to anyone else. By itself, that's not a surprise. He also found that Republicans don't respond at all to the desires of voters with modest incomes. Maybe that's not a surprise, either. But this should be: Bartels found that Democratic senators don't respond to the desires of these voters, either. At all.
It doesn't take a multivariate correlation to conclude that these two things are tightly related: If politicians care almost exclusively about the concerns of the rich, it makes sense that over the past decades they've enacted policies that have ended up benefiting the rich. And if you're not rich yourself, this is a problem. First and foremost, it's an economic problem because it's siphoned vast sums of money from the pockets of most Americans into those of the ultrawealthy. At the same time, relentless concentration of wealth and power among the rich is deeply corrosive in a democracy, and this makes it a profoundly political problem as well.
HERE
Or so it seemed. But two years later, Wall Street is back to earning record profits, andconservatives are triumphant. To understand why this happened, it's not enough to examine polls and tea parties and the makeup of Barack Obama's economic team. You have to understand how we fell so short, and what we rightfully should have expected from Obama's election. And you have to understand two crucial things about American politics.
The first is this: Income inequality has grown dramatically since the mid-'70s—far more in the US than in most advanced countries—and the gap is only partly related to college grads outperforming high-school grads. Rather, the bulk of our growing inequality has been a product of skyrocketing incomes among the richest 1 percent and—even more dramatically—among the top 0.1 percent. It has, in other words, been CEOs and Wall Street traders at the very tippy-top who are hoovering up vast sums of money fromeveryone, even those who by ordinary standards are pretty well off.
Second, American politicians don't care much about voters with moderate incomes. Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels studied the voting behavior of US senators in the early '90s and discovered that they respond far more to the desires of high-income groups than to anyone else. By itself, that's not a surprise. He also found that Republicans don't respond at all to the desires of voters with modest incomes. Maybe that's not a surprise, either. But this should be: Bartels found that Democratic senators don't respond to the desires of these voters, either. At all.
It doesn't take a multivariate correlation to conclude that these two things are tightly related: If politicians care almost exclusively about the concerns of the rich, it makes sense that over the past decades they've enacted policies that have ended up benefiting the rich. And if you're not rich yourself, this is a problem. First and foremost, it's an economic problem because it's siphoned vast sums of money from the pockets of most Americans into those of the ultrawealthy. At the same time, relentless concentration of wealth and power among the rich is deeply corrosive in a democracy, and this makes it a profoundly political problem as well.
HERE
War On The Middle Class
When I saw the following quote from Ed Schultz, I thought to myself, “Oh, come on now!” Well, it turns out ol’ Ed is correct! Here’s the quote:
Schultz: "They got more millionaires in New Jersey than they do teachers, but we got to have the teachers pay for everything."
Here’s the numbers:
227,840 millionaire households in New Jersey
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1952253/posts
112,933 number of teachers in new jersey
http://www.state.nj.us/education/data/fact.htm
Now, here’s the op ed from Ed Schultz:
Why Don't Teachers Get the Respect They Deserve? Republicans Would Rather Destroy Schools Than Raise Taxes on Millionaires.
http://www.alternet.org/news/150115/why_don't_teachers_get_the_respect_they_deserve_republicans_would_rather_destroy_schools_than_raise_taxes_on_millionaires/?page=entire
Schultz: "They got more millionaires in New Jersey than they do teachers, but we got to have the teachers pay for everything."
Here’s the numbers:
227,840 millionaire households in New Jersey
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1952253/posts
112,933 number of teachers in new jersey
http://www.state.nj.us/education/data/fact.htm
Now, here’s the op ed from Ed Schultz:
Why Don't Teachers Get the Respect They Deserve? Republicans Would Rather Destroy Schools Than Raise Taxes on Millionaires.
http://www.alternet.org/news/150115/why_don't_teachers_get_the_respect_they_deserve_republicans_would_rather_destroy_schools_than_raise_taxes_on_millionaires/?page=entire
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Libyan rebels call for US bomb attacks
The attack on Brega, which hosts Libya’s second largest hydrocarbons complex, was the first significant assault by pro-Gaddafi forces on an eastern town held by the opposition since a popular uprising seized control of the region more than a week ago. An oil official in the east said there was no damage to the oil facilities in the fighting. But oil prices surged to near $118 a barrel, nearing a two-and-a-half-year high, on concerns over the assault.
“The people, the youth, the revolution have recaptured Brega after a few hours,” said Hafiz Ghoga, a spokesman for the opposition’s national council.
The Benghazi-based council, which includes representatives from areas seized from the regime, on Wednesday named Moustafa Abdel Jalil, a former justice minister, as its head, and said it should be seen as the legitimate international representative of Libya.
It called for air strikes on the “strongholds of mercenaries” and a no-fly zone over the oil-rich north African state – but not foreign troops on the ground.
Ahmed Gibreed, a spokesman for Mr Abdel Jalil, told the Financial Times the council was hoping the US would take the lead in supporting the opposition and “not just be reactive to what is happening on the ground”.
HERE
Rebels corner fleeing Gadhafi forces after battle
The attack on Brega, a strategic oil facility 460 miles (740 kilometers) east of Gadhafi's stronghold in Tripoli, illustrated the deep difficulties the Libyan leader's armed forces - an array of militiamen, mercenaries and military units - have had in rolling back the uprising that has swept over the entire eastern half of Libya since Feb. 15.
In the capital of Tripoli, Gadhafi warned against U.S. or other Western intervention, vowing to turn Libya into "another Vietnam," and saying any foreign troops coming into his country "will be entering hell and they will drown in blood."
At least 10 anti-Gadhafi fighters were killed and 18 wounded in the battle for Brega, Libya's second- largest petroleum facility, which the opposition has held since last week.
HERE
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Well, we now know where the loonie loozers live!
So-called "birthers" have contended since 2008 that Obama is ineligible to be president. They argue he was actually born in Kenya, his father's homeland. They have also not been satisfied with the "Certification of Live Birth" Obama has released, which is a digital document.
Hatfield's bill would require a certified copy of Obama's original birth certificate be provided.
University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock said the issue was likely more about politics.
"It could be that this individual really does doubt that Barack Obama was born in this country, despite evidence to the contrary," he said. "There are also people who think we have never sent astronauts to the moon. Or, the legislator may not have any real qualms, but figures this may play very well with his constituency in the district back home."
A handful of states, including Georgia, have proposed similar bills since Obama was elected, but five more states joined them during the current legislative session.
HERE
Hatfield's bill would require a certified copy of Obama's original birth certificate be provided.
University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock said the issue was likely more about politics.
"It could be that this individual really does doubt that Barack Obama was born in this country, despite evidence to the contrary," he said. "There are also people who think we have never sent astronauts to the moon. Or, the legislator may not have any real qualms, but figures this may play very well with his constituency in the district back home."
A handful of states, including Georgia, have proposed similar bills since Obama was elected, but five more states joined them during the current legislative session.
HERE
Home Sweet Wall Street
A most dastardly deed occurred last Friday when the Obama administration issued a 29-page policy statement totally abandoning the federal government's time-honored role in helping Americans achieve the goal of homeownership. Instead of punishing the banks that sabotaged the American ideal of a nation of stakeholders by "securitizing" our homesteads into poker chips to be gambled away in the Wall Street casino, Barack Obama now proposes to turn over the entire mortgage industry to those same banks.
The proposal, originated by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, involves nothing less than a total "winding down" of the 80-year-old federal housing program, setting instead a new goal of a two-tiered America in which the masses are content to be mere renters of the American Dream. Such a deal for a country where, as the report concedes, "Half of all renters spend more than a third of their income on housing, and a quarter spend more than half."
This is the same Geithner who during his tenure in the Clinton Treasury Department championed the total deregulation of the then-emerging market in collateralized debt obligations that sliced and diced people's home mortgages into the toxic securities that created what his new report calls the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Later, as president of the New York Fed, he cheered on the banks as they went hog-wild, conning folks into buying homes they couldn't afford and stuffing them into the incomprehensible securities that form the rot at the core of our bankrupt economy.
This is a made-in-the-U.S. nightmare that we inflicted on the world, thanks to an explosion in those toxic securities brought on by the deregulation that most of the Obama economic brain trust supported when they worked for President Bill Clinton and during the ensuing bubble years when they enriched themselves.
HERE
The proposal, originated by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, involves nothing less than a total "winding down" of the 80-year-old federal housing program, setting instead a new goal of a two-tiered America in which the masses are content to be mere renters of the American Dream. Such a deal for a country where, as the report concedes, "Half of all renters spend more than a third of their income on housing, and a quarter spend more than half."
This is the same Geithner who during his tenure in the Clinton Treasury Department championed the total deregulation of the then-emerging market in collateralized debt obligations that sliced and diced people's home mortgages into the toxic securities that created what his new report calls the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Later, as president of the New York Fed, he cheered on the banks as they went hog-wild, conning folks into buying homes they couldn't afford and stuffing them into the incomprehensible securities that form the rot at the core of our bankrupt economy.
This is a made-in-the-U.S. nightmare that we inflicted on the world, thanks to an explosion in those toxic securities brought on by the deregulation that most of the Obama economic brain trust supported when they worked for President Bill Clinton and during the ensuing bubble years when they enriched themselves.
HERE
Tennessee Bill Would Make Some Forms of Shariah a Felony
Tennessee's legislature is considering a bill that would make it a felony to practice some forms of Shariah law, "the most severe measure yet put forth by a national movement whose members believe extremist Muslims want Shariah to supersede the Constitution," the AP reports.
"The bill -- drawn up by conservatives with ties to opponents of a planned Islamic center two blocks from New York City's ground zero and efforts to expand a mosque 30 miles southeast of Nashville -- would face steep constitutional hurdles if enacted ... Muslim groups fear the measure would outlaw central tenets of Islam, such as praying five times a day toward Mecca, abstaining from alcohol or fasting for Ramadan."
HERE
"The bill -- drawn up by conservatives with ties to opponents of a planned Islamic center two blocks from New York City's ground zero and efforts to expand a mosque 30 miles southeast of Nashville -- would face steep constitutional hurdles if enacted ... Muslim groups fear the measure would outlaw central tenets of Islam, such as praying five times a day toward Mecca, abstaining from alcohol or fasting for Ramadan."
HERE
Why the Right Attacked Unions, ACORN and Planned Parenthood
For the past two weeks, all eyes have been glued to Madison, Wisconsin. The collective and joyful resistance to Governor Scott Walker’s power-grabbing budget bill has inspired the demoralized progressive base and put the corporate-backed assault on working people front and center in the national conversation.
But while it's obvious that the right wing is out to break the back of the progressive movement, it’s easy to miss the strategy that guides their selection of specific targets. Their attacks are all carefully aimed at the same critical juncture: institutions that work for people in their daily lives and in the political arena, those that connect people’s personal struggles across the country to the political struggle in Washington. Once we recognize the critical role these progressive service organizations play in building progressive politics, the right’s broader strategy in Wisconsin and elsewhere becomes clear. Scott Walker is a soldier in the same army as James O’ Keefe and Lila Rose, the right-wing video pranksters who tried to smear ACORN and Planned Parenthood.
HERE
But while it's obvious that the right wing is out to break the back of the progressive movement, it’s easy to miss the strategy that guides their selection of specific targets. Their attacks are all carefully aimed at the same critical juncture: institutions that work for people in their daily lives and in the political arena, those that connect people’s personal struggles across the country to the political struggle in Washington. Once we recognize the critical role these progressive service organizations play in building progressive politics, the right’s broader strategy in Wisconsin and elsewhere becomes clear. Scott Walker is a soldier in the same army as James O’ Keefe and Lila Rose, the right-wing video pranksters who tried to smear ACORN and Planned Parenthood.
HERE
Rick Scott Competes With Scott Walker For Most Isolated GOP Governor
But down in Florida, Gov. Rick Scott's steadfast opposition to a national high-speed rail project has put him squarely on an island, with federal, state and even local officials all petitioning him to change course.
The latest chapter in the saga came on Tuesday, when leading Republican and Democratic state Senators formally sued the governor in Florida Supreme Court in an attempt to salvage the high-speed rail plans. Just hours later, the Court announced Scott had until noon on Wednesday to respond in kind. His office responded to the lawsuit (not the Court) with a statement from the governor declaring that his "position remains unchanged."
And why not? Scott has, if anything, shown remarkable imperviousness to political pressure on this front, continually insisting the plan would cost the state an additional $3 billion in overlays -- a number defenders insist is pure fiction. While in D.C. for a national governor's convention on Friday morning, he met with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood at LaHood's office in the southwest corridor of the city. A long, frank discussion ended with the governor promising to provide a list of what he needed to support the high-speed rail project by the end of this week. So far, Transportation officials confirm, he has not provided it.
HERE
Yemen President Says U.S., Israel Behind Unrest
Hundreds of thousands rallied in cities across Yemen against the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in the largest of the protests of the past month, including one addressed by an influential firebrand cleric, a former ally of Saleh, whom the U.S. has linked to al-Qaida.
"Go on until you achieve your demands," Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani told tens of thousands of demonstrators in the capital of Sanaa. A former U.S. ambassador to Yemen called al-Zindani's decision to turn against President Ali Abdullah Saleh a major setback for the president.
HERE
Regulators Reject Proposal That Would Bring Fox-Style News to Canada
As America's middle class battles for its survival on the Wisconsin barricades -- against various Koch Oil surrogates and the corporate toadies at Fox News -- fans of enlightenment, democracy and justice can take comfort from a significant victory north of Wisconsin border. Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canada regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada's right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.
Canada's Radio Act requires that "a licenser may not broadcast....any false or misleading news." The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the "Fairness Doctrine" in 1987. Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper's proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right wing network, "Sun TV News" which Canadians call "Fox News North."
Harper, often referred to as "George W. Bush's Mini Me," is known for having mounted a Bush like war on government scientists, data collectors, transparency, and enlightenment in general. He is a wizard of all the familiar tools of demagoguery; false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness and belligerent religiosity.
HERE
Canada's Radio Act requires that "a licenser may not broadcast....any false or misleading news." The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the "Fairness Doctrine" in 1987. Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper's proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right wing network, "Sun TV News" which Canadians call "Fox News North."
Harper, often referred to as "George W. Bush's Mini Me," is known for having mounted a Bush like war on government scientists, data collectors, transparency, and enlightenment in general. He is a wizard of all the familiar tools of demagoguery; false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness and belligerent religiosity.
HERE
Big Retail Companies Require Job Applicants To Disclose Their Age
Several of the nation's biggest employers, including Target, Kroger and Home Depot, require job applicants to disclose their date of birth in the online application, a practice that employment discrimination lawyers say seems a little fishy.
...
Older workers, especially those that have been out of work for any significant period of time, are having an increasingly difficult time landing jobs in the recession because employers have their pick of younger candidates. A recent Pew report found that those who are older than 55 are most likely to remain jobless for a year or more, and the number and percentage of age discrimination charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have grown noticeably since 2006, rising from 16,548 charges, or 21.8 percent of all such EEOC filings, to 22,778, or 24.4 percent, in fiscal year 2009.
"Some older employees just look old," Heathfield said. "And it's so darn subtle -- an older person can come in for an interview and not get the job, and they'll be informed that a more qualified candidate was hired. They'll never know or be able to prove that two or three people on that committee kept thinking, 'This person's really old.' I'd hate to be looking for a job right now, truthfully."
HERE
...
Older workers, especially those that have been out of work for any significant period of time, are having an increasingly difficult time landing jobs in the recession because employers have their pick of younger candidates. A recent Pew report found that those who are older than 55 are most likely to remain jobless for a year or more, and the number and percentage of age discrimination charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have grown noticeably since 2006, rising from 16,548 charges, or 21.8 percent of all such EEOC filings, to 22,778, or 24.4 percent, in fiscal year 2009.
"Some older employees just look old," Heathfield said. "And it's so darn subtle -- an older person can come in for an interview and not get the job, and they'll be informed that a more qualified candidate was hired. They'll never know or be able to prove that two or three people on that committee kept thinking, 'This person's really old.' I'd hate to be looking for a job right now, truthfully."
HERE
Wisconsin Republicans react to prank phone call to Gadhaffi, er, Walker.
Last week, Ian Murphy of the Buffalo Beast won the week when he called up Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and pretended to be billionaire David Koch. We were pretty impressed by the level of access afforded to the influential Koch dealer. You go ahead and try to get a governor on the phone for a long and rambling conversation that easily, powerful teachers' unions!
Wisconsin lawmakers at the center of the conflagration over Walker's "budget repair" bill have been quick to address the problem that lies at the heart of the Koch prank call, and are responding to it by demanding greater transparency over the special interests and influence peddlers who have direct access to the statehouse moving tocriminalize prank phone calls.
Is HuckaChucklebee becoming a birther?
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says President Barack Obama's childhood in Kenya shaped his world view -- despite the fact that Obama did not visit Kenya until he was in his 20s.
The potential Republican presidential candidate told New York radio station WOR that Obama was raised in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather.
Actually, Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya whom he would barely know. He spent his youth in Hawaii and Indonesia and did not visit his father's homeland until 1987, well after his father's death.
HERE
The potential Republican presidential candidate told New York radio station WOR that Obama was raised in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather.
Actually, Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya whom he would barely know. He spent his youth in Hawaii and Indonesia and did not visit his father's homeland until 1987, well after his father's death.
HERE
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