Stephen King: Tax Me, for F@%&’s Sake! – The Daily Beast
If only more people could cut through the right-wing “protect the rich” talking points like Stephen King, we might actually have a strong middle class again.
Not Above the Law
This case needs a day in court–
Michael Appleton for The New York Times
A judge has rejected Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s claim of diplomatic immunity in his effort to dismiss a civil suit filed by a hotel housekeeper who claimed that the French leader had sexually assaulted her.Justice Douglas E. McKeon of State Supreme Court in the Bronx characterized Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s attempt to claim diplomatic immunity as “his own version of a Hail Mary pass,” noting that he had resigned from his position as the head of the International Monetary Fund when the suit was filed.
Justice McKeon cited Nafissatou Diallo’s right to clear her name, and certainly the media trial was a poor substitute for justice.
Read the rest at The New York Times.
American Education: Brought to You by Corporate Giant Pearson
Here’s a telling quote from an article by Gail Collins:
An American child could go to a public school run by Pearson, studying from books produced by Pearson, while his or her progress is evaluated by Pearson standardized tests. The only public participant in the show would be the taxpayer.
via A Very Pricey Pineapple – NYTimes.com.
You have to wonder about the dangers of the growing control of corporations when you read stuff like this.
Question for Mitt Romney
Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly reports that the Romney campaign has a new slogan, “Obama Isn’t Working”.
Job loss and a weak economy are affecting almost all of us. We who feel fairly secure in our jobs have children, friends, relatives who are out of work.
I am one of those who wanted President Obama to start a new WPA, to make the banks accountable, to break up monopolies so that in future we will not be held hostage by private corporations that have grown ‘too big to fail’.
NYT columnist Gail Collins said that Barack Obama promised to bring us together, but he didn’t promise to bring us together in left field. Clearly we elected a moderate.
Given that, I have never in my lifetime seen such hostility to a president. That includes Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush. Barack Obama had to show his birth certificate. He is constantly accused of being socialist and faces a divided Congress. The economic recession is worldwide– as you will notice if you watch the stock market freak every time something happens in Greece or China. Even if Barack Obama had inherited a surplus and a peace dividend, we would be facing some rocky times.
Of course, that was not the case.
President Obama inherited an economic crisis, two foreign wars, and a Congress with a slim Democratic majority formed by coalitions of widely differing constituencies.
We do not have the job growth we need, but the graph shows what we were up against after 8 years of President Bush.
My question for Mitt Romney– ‘Republicans held the White House for 8 years. Clearly their economic policies weren’t working. What would a President Romney do differently from President George W. Bush?’
That is the question to ask.
Soul Food Junkies
Hate to feel like I’m just a cut-and-paste blogger, so I want to mention that I enjoyed a local screening of ‘Soul Food Junkies’. Byron Hurt, the documentary maker, came to Rhode Island and showed his film at Miriam Hospital to health care workers, and later at an event open to the public at the Cathedral of Life Christian Assembly in Olneyville.
The film is an impressive balancing act– recognizing the centrality of food as culture, family and comfort– and the pleasure it brings. Also presenting the evidence that an un-balanced diet will take years off your life.
‘Soul Food Junkies’ was selected to show on PBS, date to be announced.
This short post is a taste, a larger portion will follow.
BREAKING: Bush Opposes Taxing the Rich
What a surprise. George Bush wants all the tax breaks to stay in place for the 1%. ”Leave capital in the treasuries of the job creators,” he says in the article linked below. Here’s a concept: what about letting the middle class be job creators? What about helping small businesspeople feel economically strong enough to expand and carry out a plan that would involve employing other people? That would mean the wealthy paying a little more in taxes so that the middle class could see some relief. The Buffet Rule legislation could move us in that direction. But first, a word from our primary sponsor of the Great Recession: Bush wishes his name wasn’t attached to tax cuts – Apr. 10, 2012.
Why is Youth Sports on the Decline?
Talking with a Cranston dad after church, he mentioned that our local Little Leagues are taking a hit in terms of enrollment, and have a smaller batch of teams this year. I wondered if the trends went further than just Cranston and found this article: Participation in youth sports on the decline | SouthCoastToday.com. As you can see from the stats cited, nationally baseball little leagues are down by 24% since 2000. Basketball has also seen a reduction in numbers by about 9%. Soccer is on the rise, and hockey looks like it is exploding. But still, the overall numbers are down, since hockey is a relatively smaller sport than baseball or basketball.
So what gives? Are we just a couch potato society where kids would prefer to stay home and play Nintendo and Wii? Is it the competition from other activities like karate and drama clubs? Or is this a result of families in the middle class simply not having the resources, especially since the economic collapse of 2008, to put toward their children’s athletic development?
American Suburbs: Quiet, Safe, and Poor
You will notice a lot of “For Sale” signs on houses in our neighborhood and pretty much any neighborhood in Cranston. A quick look at the Zillow map for Cranston says there are 538 homes for sale or rent in the city. Let’s hope we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and become the healthy home ownership society many of us were raised to believe in. This article from the New York Times helps to give more substance to the reality of America’s newest poor folk. The New Suburban Poverty – NYTimes.com.
Inequality Marches On — The Death March of American Inequality
I know some of our readers believe that no matter how unfair and extreme income inequality becomes, there is nothing the government can do — we must let the free markets set the course. But what if those free markets are setting us on a course for destruction? Do we accept our ultimate demise as a necessary consequence of maintaining our free market belief system? From Steve Rattner: The Rich Get Even Richer – NYTimes.com.
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