February 2012
12 posts
“Once upon a time, way back in the stone ages, when Noam Chomsky was first...”
– Matt Taibbi (via soupsoup)
“Advocates for unemployed workers suspect that conservatives who would require...”
– Legislating Under the Influence (via azspot)
Why doesn't the U.S. have a high speed rail that...
other-stuff:
leftist-linguaphile:
No excuses
Excuses are what we have.
Hell why isn’t there a real rail transportation system? Why do passenger trains run on the same track at the pleasure of the freight trains?
“I’ve never defined myself by anything other than my service, and my duty, and...”
– Pinal County, Ariz. Sheriff Paul Babeu • On having to “out” himself in light of a personal scandal. The sheriff, currently running for a Republican Congressional seat in Arizona, had been dogged by rumors that he threatened to deport an ex-lover to Mexico if their relationship a secret wasn’t kept....
Billionaire Sheldon Adelson Says He Might Give... →
randomactsofchaos:
other-stuff:
sarahlee310:
Sheldon Adelson plays as stubbornly in politics as he does in business. So the criticisms that he’s trying to personally buy the presidential election for Newt Gingrich are met with a roll of the eyes. “Those people are either jealous or professional critics,” Adelson tells me during his first interview since he and his wife began funneling $11...
Santorum calls Obama health program bad for... →
other-stuff:
The former Pennsylvania senator, trying to rally conservative voters and put pressure on Republican rival Mitt Romney, said Obama’s 2010 healthcare overhaul gave couples financial incentives to remain unmarried.
“Do you realize that if you are married under Obamacare, you pay a lot more than if you are living together under Obamacare? A lot more,” Santorum told 500...
Syrian rebels are losing faith in the West →
brosephstalin:
verbalresistance:
In a series of dispatches from Idleb, the CBS journalist Clarissa Ward has broken an important story about the emergence of a new rebel force known as the Syrian Liberation Army (SLA). What distinguishes this group from the better known Free Syrian Army (FSA) is that it is composed almost exclusively of armed civilians, “farmers and workers”, who joined the...
The Occupy that won the union: 75th anniversary of... →
fuckyeahmarxismleninism:
By Martha Grevatt, United Auto Workers member
Feb. 11 is the 75th anniversary of the victory of the 1937 Flint Sit-down strike, one of the most significant events in U.S. labor history. After occupying General Motors plants for 44 days, workers won recognition of the United Auto Workers and the first industry contract. This victory set off a chain reaction. Not only...
Non-unionised Seattle truckers organise against... →
sarahlee310:
Over the last two weeks, non-unionised truck drivers at the ports in Seattle have refused to work until they are treated better.
Historically the drivers have worked in horrendous conditions, received low pay, harassment by law enforcement, and trucking companies, and disgraceful fees charged by companies that means that sometimes the drivers do not get paid, and actually owe...
Cognitive Dissonance: On conscience clauses and... →
cognitivedissonance:
I’ve decided I want to own a business just in case the GOP manages to pass their overbroad conscience bill. I have a moral objection to providing any kind of healthcare to a person who would strip it from others based on what a sky-god supposedly meant.
Yeah, I have that moral objection. But I…
House Transportation Bill 'Technical Correction'... →
solitaryforager:
A little-noted provision in the House Republicans’ controversial energy and transportation bill would strip several thousand workers within the rail-industry of their federal minimum-wage and overtime protections, potentially making low-wage jobs pay even less.
Listed in the bill under the heading “Technical Correction,” provision 6602 would exempt several companies who...
January 2012
48 posts
“We must always be a nation of haves and soon to haves.”
– Translation: We must always be a nation of the rich and those we have fooled into thinking they can be rich one day too. (via kileyrae)
“We don’t begrudge financial success in this country: we admire it. When...”
– President BARACK OBAMA (via inothernews)
“We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’: we...”
– Republican governor MITCH “I really said that” DANIELS, in delivering the GOP response to the State of the Union Tuesday night.
Continuing the Republican theme of “I deny that this nation has poor people, impoverished people, and what other civilized societies might otherwise term ‘the...
“In Britain, the government owns every hospital, employs every doctor — (it) runs...”
– The Daily Beast columnist ANDREW SULLIVAN, upending the right’s arguments against healthcare reform, on The Colbert Report (via inothernews)
Two lessons from the #Megaupload seizure →
anonymissexpress:
Two events this week produced some serious cognitive dissonance. First, Congressional leaders sheepishly announced that they were withdrawing (at least for the time being) two bills heavily backed by the entertainment industry — the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House – in the wake of vocal online citizen protests (and, more...
Chris Hedges: Thank You for Standing Up - Chris... →
Our electoral system, already hostage to corporate money and corporate lobbyists, gasped its last two years ago. It died on Jan. 21, 2010, when the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission granted to corporations the right to spend unlimited amounts on independent political campaigns. The ruling turned politicians into corporate employees
“‘America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and...”
– Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Truth.
(via somepolitics)
“‘America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and...”
– Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Truth.
(via somepolitics)
We must stop this corporate takeover of American... →
cultureofresistance:
mgolladwyne:
by Bernie Sanders
The corporate barbarians are through the gate of American democracy. Not satisfied with their all-pervasive influence on our culture, economy and legislative processes, they want more. They want it all.
Two years ago, the United States supreme court betrayed our Constitution and those who fought to ensure that its protections are...
Two lessons from the Megaupload seizure →
kateoplis:
Glenn Greenwald for Salon:
[M]any SOPA opponents were confused and even shocked when they learned that the very power they feared the most in that bill — the power of the U.S. Government to seize and shut down websites based solely on accusations, with no trial — is a power the U.S. Government already possesses and, obviously, is willing and able to exercise even against the world’s...
“You’ll be happy to hear that I do wash my hands regularly so that as I shake...”
– Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP nominee, answering a question about shaking hands on the campaign trail in South Carolina.
Of course he washes his hands frequently. He wouldn’t want to catch the poor from anyone, now would he? </sarcasm>
You guys, I just had a capitalist marketing idea…...
Study: Tensions Between Rich, Poor Over Income... →
“Young adults, Democrats and blacks remain the most likely as in previous years to cite strong conflict between rich and poor. But in the last two years, three swing groups—whites, middle-income Americans and political independents—registered some of the biggest increases in those holding this view.
Clearly, something is going on. But the focus on class may miss an important point: tensions...
Shit! You Are What You Eat! →
Iranian film wins at the Golden Globes. ...
Bain Capital Owns Clear Channel (Rush Limbaugh,... →
Wouldn’t it be great if a Republican presidential candidate could just buy the support of just about every major conservative talk show host in America? Well, it may not be as far-fetched as you may think. Clear Channel owns more radio stations (850) than anyone else in the United States. They also own Premiere Radio Networks, the company that syndicates the radio shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean...
GOP Rep Berates Student Who Is Concerned About... →
thepoliticalfreakshow:
To avoid a government shutdown at the end of 2011, Republicans succeeded in their campaign to cut the federal Pell Grant program by effectively kicking up to 100,000 low-income students off the rolls.
Last week, Arkansas constituent Kelly Eubanks, a college student who has two jobs and two children, confronted her Congressman, Rep. Steve Womack (R), at a town hall...
Ronald Reagan Was a Horrible President: Re: you... →
abaldwin360:
This position assumes that everyone plays by the rules.
I busted my ass at my old job, like, SERIOUSLY. I once went three months working 12 hour days without a day off, I would come in when they called me at 3am to fix a server no one else wanted to touch. I took every…
America Isn't A Company →
“The thing is — and this is kind of important — governments are not corporations. I cannot stress this enough. There’s the obvious point that in democracies, legislatures tend to impose a more powerful constraint than shareholders, making it that much harder for leaders to execute the policies…
Have the Super-Rich Seceded From the United... →
cultureofresistance:
I do not mean secession in terms of physical withdrawal from the territory of the state, although that happens occasionally. It means a withdrawal into enclaves, a sort of internal immigration, whereby the rich disconnect themselves from the civic life of the nation and from any concern about its well-being except as a place to extract loot. Our plutocracy now lives like the...
...hunting the fnords...: "The No True... →
amodernmanifesto:
ntkss:
Libertarians fail to realize that there has never been—and never will be—a government that functions according to their principles because it runs entirely contrary to human nature. As any libertarian understands when it comes to statist authoritarians,
Oye! Times | Warren Buffett wants all to share... →
Calling for a Constitutional Convention →
theartofslack:
To keep money from corrupting our democratic politics, we need constitutional change. No doubt lots can be done by statute alone—meaningful transparency rules, such as the Disclose Act, and small-dollar public funding, such as the Fair Elections Now Act. The Supreme Court, however, has all but guaranteed that these won’t be enough. Transparency by itself won’t build trust; public...
The Art of Slack: Abusive Police State Tactics in... →
theartofslack:
Many Californians worry that recent police-force cutbacks in their towns will make them more vulnerable to crime, but residents in this sleepy logging town say they already feel under siege—by too many police officers.
Officer Dana Eliason of the CHP stops a vehicle Thursday…
“It is time to acknowledge this failure and adopt a more effective course for the...”
– A policy assessment written by Lisa Guisbond, Monty Neill and Bob Schaeffer • Suggesting that No Child Left Behind, the Bush-era education law passed under bipartisan circumstances, should go the way of the dodo. The policy, now seen as an example of ineffective government overreach by many,...
The answer to "What do the Occupy Wall Street... →
government-hookers:
One editorial after another asks the same question: “What do the Occupy Wall Street protesters want?” Pundits present the Occupy movement as chaotic, unfocused, insidious, shiftless, and at best, quaint.
The answer is simple. But, to understand the answer, you must consider certain questions yourself:
* Do you believe that corporations should have the constitutional...
There are 5,000 janitors in the U.S. with PhD's →
socialismartnature:
The internal economic anatomy of a decaying Empire …
===
There are 18,000 parking lot attendants in the U.S. with college degrees. There are 5,000 janitors in the U.S. with PhDs. In all, some 17 million college-educated Americans have jobs that don’t require their level of education. Why? The data comes from a the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and can be seen here in...