Billionaire Bros. Spend to Stop Progressive Reform

clipped from pr.thinkprogress.org Billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch are the wealthiest, and perhaps most effective, opponents of President Obama's progressive agenda. They have been looming in the background of every major domestic policy dispute this year. Ranked as the 9th richest men in America, the Koch brothers sit at the helm of Koch Industries, a massive privately owned conglomerate of manufacturing, oil, gas, and timber interests Over the years, millions of dollars in Koch money has flowed to various right-wing think tanks, front groups, and publications. At the dawn of the Obama presidency, Koch groups quickly maneuvered to try to stop his first piece of signature legislation: the stimulus. The Koch-funded group "No Stimulus" launched television and radio ads deriding the recovery package as simply "pork" spending Much of the fierce opposition to health reform can be credited to Koch organizations. As the health care debate began, AFP created a front group, known as "Patients Unite

Do Gen-Xers Expect to Retire?

clipped from moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com Who needs retirement anyway? For many people, especially Gen-Xers, the notion of working after “retirement” may almost seem a given, especially for those who are struggling to save enough in the current recession. 2009 study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) found that 72 percent of workers planned to work after “retirement” — up from 66 percent in 2007. But in fact, only 34 percent of retirees said they’d actually gone to work at some point during retirement a similar gap — if not quite as dramatic — between the age at which people expect they’ll retire and the age when they actually do the vast majority (89 percent) say that they have postponed retirement with the intention of increasing their financial security. Nevertheless, the median (mid-point) worker expects to retire at age 65, with 21 percent planning to push on into their 70s. The median retiree actually retired at age 62, and 47 percent of retirees say they retired sooner than planned.

This one does! As soon as possible. What about you? Early? Late? Never ever? Is work all that keeps you from being bored?

As Gov., Palin Endorsed End of Counseling

clipped from thinkprogress.org April 16th 2008, then Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed some of the same end of life counseling she now decries as a form of euthanasia. In a proclamation announcing “Healthcare Decisions Day,” Palin urged public facilities to provide better information about advance directives, and made it clear that it is critical for seniors to be informed of such options: WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions. [...] this proclamation is now deleted from the Alaska governor’s website Merely months ago, Gingrich too endorsed end of life counseling. At a conference in April of this year, Gingrich said advance directives can “save money” while also helping to “decrease the stress felt by caregivers.”

Leaked Memo Lobbyists Directing Town Hall Mob Violence

clipped from thinkprogress.org Politico reported that Democratic members of Congress are increasingly being harassed by “angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior” at local town halls. The lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, which orchestrated the anti-Obama tea parties earlier this year, are now pursuing an aggressive strategy to create an image of mass public opposition to health care and clean energy reform. A leaked memo from Bob MacGuffie, a volunteer with the FreedomWorks website Tea Party Patriots, details how members should be infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic members of Congress: Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: “Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early Rattle Him,” Not Have An Intelligent Debate opportunities to ambush lawmakers and fool them into believing there is wide opposition to reform By delaying a vote until after the August recess

The world is poor because we thought markets rational

I also really want to read these 80s & 90s books by "radical economist" Samuel Bowles: Beyond the Wasteland and After the Wasteland.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Do we really need yet another book about the financial crisis? Yes, we do — because this one is different. Instead of focusing on the errors and abuses of the bankers, Fox, the business and economics columnist for Time magazine, tells the story of the professors who enabled those abuses under the banner of the financial theory known as the efficient-market hypothesis. Justin Fox’s “Myth of the Rational Market” brilliantly tells the story of how that edifice was built — and why so few were willing to acknowledge that it was a house built on sand. Fox’s book is not an idle exercise in intellectual history, which makes it a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the mess we’re in. Wall Street bought the ideas of the efficient-market theorists, in many cases literally: professors were lavishly paid to design complex financial strategies. And these strategies played a crucial role in the catastrophe that has now overtaken the world economy

star-trek-vs-star-wars

clipped from www.wired.com

Star Wars is grounded in mythology: the struggle between good and evil drawn in such broad strokes that few characters have any shades of gray

Star Trek begins with a premise so ridiculous it could only have originated in the Sixties: a united Earth, only about 250 years from now. At least Star Wars started off by telling you it was happening “in a galaxy far, far away” so any assumptions based on what we know about Earth and humanity didn’t necessarily apply. But Trek is science fiction, not fantasy, and so different rules need to apply, and they break them all the time. First they go and invent things like warp drive and transporters, which are implausible but not outside the realm of normal suspension of disbelief. Then, having created rules around how these marvelous devices work, they regularly break those rules.

consider the serious failures that are a part of both

the Ewoks

Star Trek V

Generations

Insurrection

Nemesis

give the nod to Star Trek

Right Resurges As Obama Loses Support

Those of us concerned with issues of social and economic justice may do well to consider the power of effective organizing to enable elected officials to do the right thing.

It's all about the lobbying - corporate elite or grassroots - it's all up in the air.

clipped from www.commondreams.org As Obama's Support Erodes, the Right is Resurgent Will Progressives Respond To The Attempt to Overthrow The President? The tide of public opinion may be turning against the President. Pollsters report growing skepticism about health care reform, and more active hostility on racial matters, thanks to that "uncalibrated" expression of opinion on the arrest of Professor Gates in his own home. That remark turned him, in the eyes of some, from a small b black President into a militant Black Panther, or at least someone who can bashed as such. There is no smear that is beneath them, no inference or insult out of bounds Are you aware that outside of the government, a not for profit called NACA (The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America) is touring the country mobilizing homeowners to demand financial relief. Can progressives fight Will they ever realize that they have to get into the economic trenches and fight the power of the banks with groups like A New Way Forward?