I'd say 40 years of right wing ideology lacking in empathy and compassion, where self-centered greed is the highest value and people who are not rich, beautiful and charming are losers who brought it on themselves

Under Reagan people started mocking the poor. That virus has spread throughout our country

from : http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_11707...

SACRAMENTO — A sweeping plan to pull California government back from the brink of insolvency was falling a single vote short of approval early this morning.

...

In one telling sign of the competing pressures, just before Steinberg approached him Maldonaldo was seen looking at the web page of conservative talk radio personalities who vowed to put the "head on a stick" of any Republican who voted to raise taxes.

on edit, some more gems from these neaderthals (from http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_11... ):

"This is war! War!" shouted influential conservative talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou over Los Angeles radio station KFI, which can be heard in most of California, when a few Republican legislators mentioned the possibility of a compromise including some sort of tax increase. "We're going to get these heads on a stick. Heads on a stick!"

Their Web site featured the same "heads on a stick" exhortation with names and pictures of four Republican lawmakers.

Do these words have power beyond mere rhetoric? Maybe. The strong signal of their station gives John and Ken a large audience that at times has swamped local governments with mail and other forms of protest.

Their call for "heads on a stick" tactics against Republicans who deviate from the party line evoked images of the medieval Transylvanian warlord known as Vlad the Impaler, who once lined a Balkan highway with the heads of hundreds of Turkish soldiers displayed on lances. This proud descendant of Attila the Hun and model for the literary Dracula was known for eating some of his opponents and drinking their blood.

The State budget is failing to pass becuase a third Republican cannot be found to vote for it in the state senate, despite "sweetners" like massive corporate tax cuts.

Republicans are more afraid of the right wing talking heads than they are of bankrupting the world's seventh largest economy

they were forced out of the party during the '90s

You need to keep in mind that the modern republican party is not an honorable representative parliamentary party, intent on bargaining for the interests of a constituency.

The republican party is an ideologically coherent totalitarian vanguard party built on a Leninist/Fascist model.

It does not represent constituent interests in a representative democracy that requires compromise and bargaining.

It's sole goal is to seize power, obliterate any opposition, and rule unopposed

Remember the statement of Phil Gramm, that he looked forward to the day when Democrats in Texas would be hunted with dogs?

Well, there are (and have been) countries where members of the opposition party WERE hunted with dogs.

Other countries provide subsidized health care.
Medical bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy in the US. We finance our health care with credit.

Other countries subsidize higher education.
We have student loans, so young adults start their working life already in the hole

Other countries have subsidized public transit.
We have automobile loans.

Other countries have effective retirement systems, and public programs to cover periods of unemployment effectively.
We borrow to cover grocery expenses when we lose our jobs, and buy homes via mortgages to ensure our financial well-being in old age.

What Ayers may or may not have said 40 years ago isn't the issue

The politics supposedly espoused in that alleged conversation have nothing to do with the current campaign or with any element of the Democratic Party

The politics of Pinochet are very relevant. They are part of the very make-up of the republican party.

Pinochet is considered to be a hero by many on the right. He was installed by Nixon, with the assistance of Kissinger. Milton Friedman was a close economic adviser to the regime. Margaret Thatcher thought he was a wonderful gentleman to have tea with. Jesse Helms admired him (and Roberto D'Aubuisson "Blowtorch Bob" of El Salvador as well).

The beginnings of the conservative movement were born in the pages of National Review, a magazine that saw Francisco Franco as a patriotic, christian gentleman maligned by leftists. National Review was also part of Pinochet's choir, and was an unrelenting apologist for the thug Joseph McCarthy.

The right wing in this country basically espouses anti-American values. They believe in a dictatorship supporting the wealthy. They admire a dictator who disposed of his opponents by throwing them out of a helicopter into the Pacific Ocean. They believe in mass murder.

That is what our adventure in bottom feeding shows. It shows the right wing dream of America as a banana republic, run by a military dictator like "Blowtorch Bob"

http://www.downtownnews.com/articles/2008/...

... After seven months of negotiations that culminated in a marathon 24-hour meeting, union officials representing thousands of private security guards in Los Angeles announced a tentative contract with several property management companies that provide security to most of the buildings in the city, including numerous Downtown high-rises.

The deal results in a 40% increase in salary and healthcare benefits over the next five years, said Faith Culbreath, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 2006 during the event at the corner of Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards. The agreement was expected to be approved by SEIU members Saturday, Jan. 26 (Los Angeles Downtown News went to press before the vote by members).

The agreement, between the SEIU and security companies that service more than 80% of the commercial real estate in the county, covers 4,000 security officers in office buildings 75,000 square feet or larger.

Good news - these guys certainly deserve to be better paid

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ga... - registration required

A GLBT group buys a block of tickets to a game, and the "Christian" food service workers refuse to show up for work? And they get to keep their jobs?

And allowing this block ticket purchase is threatening religious freedom? Are they next going to claim their "right" to drown witches?

SAN DIEGO — A national law firm involved with religious issues joined a local Christian minister Friday in decrying what they termed support by the San Diego Padres' management for the "homosexual lifestyle."

The Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center said the baseball team is encouraging homosexuality by allowing a gay group to attend the Sunday game at Petco Park featuring the Padres against the Atlanta Braves. At the game, the Padres plan to distribute free floppy hats to children 14 or younger.
...

The game controversy began when an El Cajon-based ministry said its followers would refuse to work the food concession stands during the game as a way to show disapproval of homosexuality. Set-Free Ministries has a contract with the team to staff such stands. The Padres plan to have other workers at the game to prevent any interruption of services.

Based in Ann Arbor, Mich., the Thomas More Law Center is active in issues in which it believes "the religious freedom of Christians is threatened."

Also covered previously in : http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu... from the Christian Newswire release, but the LA Times article seems to cover a bit more

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/490379...

quotes:

But Dubai has another face. On the outskirts of the city, where the desert begins, are the concrete barracks where the workers live, thousand upon thousand of them.

Dubai is being built virtually from scratch - 20 years ago few of these gleaming towers existed - and the men building it are migrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

They work for about $5 a day, sleep four or five to a room, and see their families once every two or three years because it's hard to raise the money to pay for a trip home.

...

There's little that workers in the United Arab Emirates can do to improve their lot. Strikes are illegal, although there have been several recently. And because there is no right of association, there are no trade unions.

Ever wonder how a Dubai-based company got to be in a position to manage unionized American ports?

These are two different things.

To the many slaves in ante-bellum south, a sucessful defeat of their military brought their emancipation. The independent sovereignty of their governments directly contradicted their own freedom.

Freedom is protected by citizens who value freedom. No military might can grant freedom to people who are willfully ignorant. The forces that wish to take our freedom away are internal corruption and unchecked power - not an outside militry force

actually end up being replacements for the social safety net that Reagan eliminated in the 1980s.

Unemployed? Who needs unemployment insurance? Break into your retirement account.

Uncovered medical expense? Who needs government health coverage? Just break into your retirement account?

Pay for kid's college tuition? Who needs public universities? Open up that retirement account.

Of course, when you are really retired, you may find yourself in big trouble.

it is supposed to be for retirement, but the fact is they get broken into because of serious illness or extended unemployment.

It's not just the retirement system that's broken, it is our entire social welfare system

oppose the exploitation of illegal immigrants and protect the standard of living of all workers