Books, Literature & Ideas
Ralph Nader Was Right About Barack Obama
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 13:43 — Dave Culver
We owe Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney an apology. They were right about Barack Obama. They were right about the corporate state. They had the courage of their convictions and they stood fast despite wholesale defections and ridicule by liberals and progressives.
Chris Hedges, Common Dreams
We owe Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney an apology. They were right about Barack Obama. They were right about the corporate state. They had the courage of their convictions and they stood fast despite wholesale defections and ridicule by liberals and progressives.
Obama lies as cravenly, if not as crudely, as George W. Bush. He promised us that the transfer of $12.8 trillion in taxpayer money to Wall Street would open up credit and lending to the average consumer. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), however, admitted last week that banks have reduced lending at the sharpest pace since 1942. As a senator, Obama promised he would filibuster amendments to the FISA Reform Act that retroactively made legal the wiretapping and monitoring of millions of American citizens without warrant; instead he supported passage of the loathsome legislation. He told us he would withdraw American troops from Iraq, close the detention facility at Guantánamo, end torture, restore civil liberties such as habeas corpus and create new jobs. None of this has happened.
Series: The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the United States of America - Part II
Fri, 03/05/2010 - 12:47 — Dave Culver“The war against working people should be understood to be a real war…. Specifically in the U.S., which happens to have a highly class-conscious business class…. And they have long seen themselves as fighting a bitter class war, except they don’t want anybody else to know about it.” — Noam Chomsky
David DeGraw, AmpedStatus
This is the second-part of a six-part report: The Rise of the Economic Elit
As a record number of US citizens are struggling to get by, many of the largest corporations are experiencing record-breaking profits, and CEOs are receiving record-breaking bonuses. How could this be happening; how did we get to this point?
The Economic Elite have escalated their attack on US workers over the past few years; however, this attack began to build intensity in the 1970s. In 1970, CEOs made $25 for every $1 the average worker made. Due to technological advancements, production and profit levels exploded from 1970 - 2000. With the lion’s share of increased profits going to the CEOs, this pay ratio dramatically rose to $90 for CEOs to $1 for the average worker.
As ridiculous as that seems, an in-depth study in 2004 on the explosion of CEO pay revealed that, including stock options and other benefits, CEO pay is more accurately $500 to $1.
Related:
Chris Ayres: A tax on all your houses
Wed, 03/03/2010 - 10:25 — Dave CulverExcept mine. That, folks, is what will finally erase the federal deficit.
Chris Ayres, Los Angeles Times Syndicated Columnist, in Star Tribune | MN
Being of pale skin, I wholeheartedly applaud the provision in the Senate's health-care bill to tax indoor sunbed treatments at 10 percent. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best and most effective kind of tax -- i.e., the kind that someone else will have to pay. (And the orange-hued among us will pay dearly -- to the tune of about $2.7 billion over the next decade, according to projections.)
I'd be happy to suggest some other money-raising initiatives to the Senate along the same lines. Like a tax on people who don't live in my house. Or a tax on everyone whose name isn't Chris. Or a special levy for those who weren't dumped by a girl named Katy (if only I'd had a tan) circa 1994.
Is the Future Bright for Progressive Media?
Mon, 03/01/2010 - 21:07 — Dave Culver- A new book highlights how progressive media has achieved more influence than ever before. But there's still work to be done.
- Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media (New Press) ~ Jessica Clark and Tracy Van Slyke
Keith Olbermann: 'Last Night My Father Asked Me to Kill Him'
Mon, 03/01/2010 - 10:54 — Dave Culver
- What Is This Country For If Not to Take Care of It's People?
- There's something deep in the psyche of Americans that drives them to defend to the death their right to deny health care to millions of their fellow citizens.
Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, in Democratic Underground
Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Jenni Charrier
Last Friday night, my father asked me to kill him.
This is not the central fact around which tomorrow's (Feb 24) health care summit at Blair House will, or should, revolve. But I'd like it on the record somewhere that I asked all those going there, including the President, to think more about people like my father - patients, in our hospitals, at this moment - and less about elections and political points and "crashing the party."