As for the Islamist, terrorist, al-Qaeda connection/association, that is simply a matter of public record and has been extensively covered even in the MSM; and so has been the horrific record of the "rebels"' murderous racism and nearly systemic discrimination/hate crimes against the Black Africans (who have been overwhelmingly on Gaddafi's side; and um, no, not because they were Gaddafi's "mercenaries"). Not that any of this should come as a shock to anyone who's done any research on the US...

Militarism, jingoism and contempt for human life (especially when compounded with racism) are THE most virulent, destructive and dangerous characteristics of the American society. "Troops are brave heroes who are fighting for our freedom" is nothing but propaganda; how the American people (on the whole) put up with some truly evil stuff done by our ruling class, in our name, is absolutely beyond me. Have you seen this thread? (Link) I found it disturbing as hell, not because I'm not fully ...

- their income in 2009. *As If* Income/Wealth Inequality wasn't atrocious enough already. (I know, it's hard to believe. ***Fucking Quintupled*** in 2009. See this, for example: (Link)/ ) - All that while the working class took one hit after another. I mean, there is "service to plutocracy", and then there is service to plutocracy. I could go on and was actually going to cite a couple of more absolutely egregious examples, but.... this is so sick that I'm going to stop, now.

It's incredible that that ultra-reactionary anti-working class garbage has become the reality of the debate. Sick, dangerous fucks like Simpson and Peterson should be shunned, not brought into the mainstream and given positions of prominence. But I guess, someone had to do it; Wall street greed has no limit and Nixon went to China, after all. What's amazing, though, is how the very essence of the public debate has been subverted, and how the goal posts shifted (dramatically to the right), whi...

For all practical purposes, there is no "left", let alone "the extreme left", in America. There is only the extreme right, and "the not so extreme" right, at least as far as political representation is concerned. (On the "extreme left", we have the most modest of social democratic views which would be centrist thinking in any other advanced country.) "The extreme left never has had as much power as they believe they have. " - Uh, *what* extreme left? What "power"?? Are you perhaps dreamin...

And actually it is you who "can whine all you want" and have your absurd and ridiculous faux outrage about using the proper term "cuts" with regard to slashing at least $12 billion from the food stamps budget. I do hope that you're simply misinformed on this issue. All the information is publicly available, you can always learn the facts. The stimulus boost was meant to be gradually phased out (i.e., the benefit was to stay at the constant flat level until inflation caught up). The fo...

It's much worse than a "tax", it's a corporate levy that by design targets the workers and spares the rich. The rich are not affected at all (as they will continue to pay a miniscule, negligible fraction of their income for their superb insurance), while working people will be faced with a huge, massive burden (the struggling "middle class" will be particularly, disproportionately affected as they will be forced to pay 30%+ of their income for health insurance). It would be GREAT *if* it wer...

However, it's wrong to assume that businesses will *continue* to provide the current levels of coverage, in fact ALL evidence and data indicate that they won't. Employer-based health care has been in decline for a while, and the trend is accelerating. The current system is and is beginning to unravel. Of course, *some* businesses will retain their currently high levels of coverage, in order to, as you pointed out, "be competitive in the market for the best labor". However, such cases will be ...

This issue gets little coverage, but it's critically important. One of the biggest and often overlooked problems with the Senate Bill (which is likely to be the basis of any future legislation) is that, while strengthening and enshrining the parasitic for-profit insurance industry, it will also result in *** weakening/eroding employer-sponsored coverage and shifting financial burden to individuals/families *** . Some points to consider: 1) All analyses indicate that employer-based healt...

I hate to tell you this, but you appear to be completely confused and misinformed on this. FYI, your graph and links had absolutely no connection to your absurd claim that premiums were capped at 8% - in fact, they demonstrated that you were completely wrong. Just so you know, premiums are capped as a % of income only for those under 400% of FPL (which equaled $43,320 for a single individual in 2009). Under the Senate plan, an individual at 300-400% FPL will have the premiums capped at 9.8% ...

This is a MUST READ in its entirety. Be sure to go to the source for tons of links and supporting info: (Link) Here's just some excerpts. The U.S. already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis -- and it's gotten even worse. ... Paul Buchheit, from DePaul University, revealed, "From 1980 to 2006 the richest 1% of America tripled their after-tax percentage of our nation's total income, while the bottom 90% have seen their share drop ov...

America Increasingly Looks Like A Developing Nation As 30% Of Americans Rapidly Approach Poverty, Or Are Already There (Link) A shocking report from Brookings exposes just how massive America's poverty problem is. While substantial reductions in poverty were made during the 1990's, America's poor have been rocked by the dual economic downturns since 2000. The result is that poverty grew at twice the rate of U.S. population growth from 2000 - 2008, and now encompasses 39.1 million American...

Our total GDP for the nation is about $14 trillion. 2009 bonuses are around $140 billion. So, 1% of our total economic output for 2009 is going to the banking mafia's pockets. Not even the banks themselves - JUST THE BANKERS. Just amazing. Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $140 billion this year -- a record high that shows compensation is rebounding despite regulatory scrutiny of Wall Street's pay culture. (Link) It has been reported that Wal...

(Link) Obama Cuts Deal that Will Reduce Social Security, Medicare and all Entitlements by James Ridgeway Deal with "Democrat leaders" represents a capitulation to conservatives in both parties, and would leave Democratic liberals accepting unconditional surrender not only on health care, but on the most basic of all New Deal programs. The Obama administration literally collapsed yesterday. Any pretense of liberal change was washed away in a closed door deal to cut entitlements. While the M...

...Rampant and Accelerating Income and Wealth Inequality From the 2008 OECD Report (I'd love to look at their 2009 data, but it's not available yet): (Link) (Link) The United States is the country with the highest inequality level and poverty rate across the OECD, Mexico and Turkey excepted. Since 2000, income inequality has increased rapidly, continuing a long-term trend that goes back to the 1970s. (Figure: Income inequality and poverty continue to increase, especially since 2000)  ...

From what I've seen so far, the current Senate bill actually provides some relief for people with income under 300% of FPL (Federal Poverty Level). Here's an example for a family of 4: (Image) Oops, I just plugged in your parameters in this calculator (very handy tool, btw) - (Link) - and it turns out that: *** as a single 38yr old making $35,500 you are actually at 328% of FDL and don't qualify for any premium subsidies. In your case (assuming that you live in a medium-cost area): *...

I am just... speechless right now, all I can say... You have no idea how important you are and what you mean for the progressive "movement" (for lack of better terms - I know, it's not really a "movement" at this point, but maybe it will become one at some point...) Thank god for you and people like you, you truly are "the Last Best Hope for democracy in America", and I mean it 100%. :) You have a HUGE following on DU btw (and in other places, of course! :) ), and I happen to be a huge fan.....

This is based on several recent posts by Marcy Wheeler (blogger Emptywheel). First, some numbers, based on the current Senate bill: consider these two working lower middle-class families. (See (Link)/ and (Link)/ for links and further info.) Family 1: 301% of Poverty Level: $66,370 Total Income (for family of 4) Federal Taxes (estimate from this page, includes FICA): $8,628 (13% of income) State Taxes (using MI rates on $30,000 of income): $1,305 (2% of income) Food (using “low-cost...

... I feel so strongly about this issue that I just created a sig (first ever for me), on the basis of this thread...

PETITION TO SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE Please join the Campaign for America's Future and the Frances Perkins Center in our effort to save Social Security and Medicare, and prevent the undemocratic debt commission proposed by Sens. Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg from being passed by Congress. Sign this petition by entering your name, email and zipcode in the fields below. (Link) Dear President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Reid: We, the undersigned, urge you to prese...

For-profit health "care" is immoral and should be phased out. It's long past time to join the rest of the civilized world on this. The rest of the industrialized world gets universal health care for their taxes, and what *we* get for our taxes is being raped by the corporations, banksters and military-industrial complex. :banghead:

all i know is that: 1) i'd rather have a lobotomy than voting republican (i.e., that's not even an option) 2) for democrats, sitting (yet) another election out effectively means a victory for republicans and, 3) the two-party model has failed the American people. on edit: i.e., i'm voting green, or socialist, or whatever leftish parties are out there in my area at this point in time.

What I find very frustrating though is the fact that Obama could be practicing some progressive policies (instead of the republican-lite policies), with exactly the same end result - "conservatives"/freepers hating his guts off. Dude, you just don't "compromise" with people like that, it's nothing but destructive.

given/allocated to the banksters (which ranges from $4 Trillion (that is, TRILLION!!!) to 11 to 23 Trillion, according to different sources). Even worse yet, it's the Obama/Geithner team that seems to be doing even more damage than the Bush/Paulson team. At this point, I'm almost convinced that people would be up in arms and out in the streets IF it were a McCain/Palin administration behind the same policies that are taking place right now.

As far as I am concerned, this insurance Deform will only delay, possibly by decades, a true HCR (i.e., Universal Health Care for all citizens - something that is taken for granted in ALL other industrialized countries). Come on people, it's time to join the rest of the civilized world. This bill is a sham and distraction; it amounts to a huge and unprecedented, massively regressive back door tax on the struggling middle/working class, and enshrines the position of parasitic, profiteering insu...

(Other than in a "pissing on us" sort of sense.) The whole tax cutting business is directed at further incresing income inequality (which is already by far the highest in the industrialized world). See this for some gruesome details: (Link)

One of the few things to like about this bill (and something that Obama promised during the campaign). Let's just hope that the millionaires' surtax won't get killed in the Senate (although I won't be surprised if it will). The new tax on America’s rich that House lawmakers have now adopted, to offset the cost of health care reform, sets an unexpected — and healthy — tax precedent. The House bill adds a 5.4 percent surtax on income, for couples, over $1 million. The wealthy...

I just got this e-mail from Dennis Kucinich: (Image) Time To Act Today To Protect Single Payer Initiatives! Restore The Kucinich Amendment To The Health Care Bill. Dear Friends, Today is the last day to impact the health care bill which will be taken up by Congress. As you know by now, the Kucinich Amendment, which protects the right of states to pursue single payer health care initiatives, was stripped from the legislation. The only way to reinstate it is for it to be included in a Manag...

If the Russians Did This to Us, We'd Kill 'Em Author: David Michael Green (Link) If the Russians had come here and done this -- if they had come and stolen our resources, if they come and enslaved our children into inescapable soul-numbing jobs, if they had left us with environmental degradation and a wrecked economy and destroyed education system and a crumbling infrastructure and a sieve-like healthcare regime -- if the Russians had come and done any or all of this, we would've risen up in ...

:applause: You touched upon a very interesting topic, which is covered in great detail in the book by Andre Lobaczewski called "Political Ponerology, A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes". It's a really fascinating book, and the take-home message is something like this: This world is sick because about 6% of the population -- across all groups -- is conscienceless and psychopathological. Unfortunately, psychopathy (i.e., LACK of CONSCIENCE and compassion) is an a...