Why I'm proud to be an American

Notes 74

This should be reason for free marketers to be ashamed

World's Billionaires 2011
by Luisa Kroll and Kerry A. Dolan
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
BRIC countries surge; Carlos Slim widens lead atop list.
This 25th year of tracking global wealth was one to remember. The 2011 Billionaires List breaks two records: total number of listees (1,210) and combined wealth ($4.5 trillion). This horde surpasses the gross domestic product of Germany, one of only six nations to have fewer billionaires this year. BRICs led the way: Brazil, Russia, India and China produced 108 of the 214 new names. These four nations are home to one in four members, up from one in 10 five years ago. Before this year only the U.S. had ever produced more than 100 billionaires. China now has 115 and Russia 101.

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Learning how a dictatorship exercises power.

Wis. GOP bypasses Dems, cuts collective bargaining
By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press Scott Bauer, Associated Press – 5 mins ago
MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, approving an explosive proposal that had rocked the state and unions nationwide after Republicans discovered a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats.
"In 30 minutes, 18 state Senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. "Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people."
Miller said in an interview with The Associated Press there is nothing Democrats can do now to stop the bill: "It's a done deal."
"The gig is now up," Barca said. "The fraud on the people of Wisconsin is now clear."


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Does anybody besides the media really care about Charlie?

William Rivers Pitt | Sorry, Charlie
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "The 'mainstream' news media is so mouth-frothingly desperate to gin up a distraction - any distraction - to avoid reporting real news that the entire industry has latched on to the downward spiral of a half-assed actor like it is the end of the world. Charlie Sheen is gutting his life for all to see, the ultimate bread and circus, and the 'news' is all too happy to follow the plunging arc of his career for the same reason they show car chases and house fires. Meanwhile, Governor Walker of Wisconsin is preparing to fire state workers out of spite, because he has thus far been thwarted in his attempt to gut collective bargaining rights in his state."

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Two years after the BIG banks were given free access to the treasury and they promised to assist homeowners, Geithner’s Treasury is finally getting around to helping the people. If he’d started with lending homeowners’ the money, the banks still would have gotten theirs and millions of people would not be out of their homes. That’s the difference between top down and bottom up.

GOP challenges proposed gov't deal on foreclosures

By Alan Fram, Associated Press – Wed Mar 9, 6:59 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators and attorneys general of the 50 states offered the terms to the large banks last week, following extended talks over revelations that the lenders had cut corners and used flawed documents to foreclose on many home borrowers.
Leading House Republicans challenged the deal Wednesday.
The lawmakers wrote Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that the proposal raised "significant concerns about its effect on the financial system, as well as concerns that the administration and state agencies are attempting to legislate through litigation."
They posed more than dozen questions to Geithner about the proposal, including what the legal justification is for the federal and state governments to try imposing such sweeping changes.

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More deceit from those attacking the people’s hard-earned benefits. Since President Johnson consolidated government budgets, Social Security payments have been floating government excesses, not adding to government deficits.

A fresh focus on Social Security in budget debate
By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press – Wed Mar 9
WASHINGTON – In the midst of the budget crisis, an old debate has broken out with new force: Should Social Security be seen as part of the deficit that Washington needs to rein in?
The White House is balking at calls to tackle Social Security's financial problems now, before baby boomers swamp the system. But the massive retirement program, like the rest of the government, is running a deficit and has become part of the argument on Capitol Hill.

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The problem these days is the schizophrenia of public figures. What they say is totally inconsistent with what they believe

Jim Hightower | The Corporate/GOP Attack on America's Middle Class
Jim Hightower, Truthout: "The most revealing comments by politicians are rarely revealed. This is because they're made in unrecorded conversations, when politicos let their guard down. However, in a recent sting, blogger Ian Murphy recorded a revealing phone call he made to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Murphy pretended to be David Koch, the far-right-wing billionaire who pumped more than a million dollars into Walker's election last year. The governor is very busy, but he spent 20 minutes regaling the fake David Koch with details of his effort to kill the collective bargaining rights of state workers."

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If you missed Senator McCarthy, you’re going to get a second chance. This is where everybody with an axe to grind and anxious for their 15 minutes of fame is taking us back to.

'Islamic radicalization' hearing stirs hornets' nest
Inquiry by congressional committee looks like inquisition to many Muslims

By Kari Huus Reporter
msnbc.com msnbc.com updated 3/9/2011
The goal of the hearings, the first of which is being held Thursday, is "to establish and show the American people that there is a real threat of al-Qaida recruiting and of homegrown terrorists being self-radicalized within the Muslim community," according to Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.
He also charges that Muslim Americans are not doing enough to discourage extremists in their midst.
Opponents say King is stoking anti-Islam hysteria at a time when the Muslim American community is already besieged by attacks on mosques, hate crimes and overzealous surveillance by law enforcement.
Many have compared these proceedings to the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, which fed on fears of Communist subversion.
New York Rep. Peter King says his past support for the Irish Republican Army (IRA)--long listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department--doesn't pose a double-standard for the hearings he will gavel to order in the House tomorrow on the threat of Islamic radicalism.