Saturday, March 19, 2011

******************************************************************

Now conservatives have descended into pure lunacy: after insisting on increasing 
the deficit by $80 billion in order to extend tax cuts to the wealthy for the next 
two years, House Republicans are proposing cutting agencies from the FBI to  
food and drug inspections by as  much as 40 percent. It's extreme e-coli 
conservatism, a sickening threat to our well-being. Learn what these cuts will 
mean and how to argue against them.

******************************************************************

Oh, stop being such Nervous Nellies. What could possibly go wrong?

Is it okay that my lunch meat is green? It smells okay. Looks like my lunch meat is celebrating St. Paddy's Day a little late.

Cutting Government Creates Jobs Like Cutting Taxes Increases Revenue

By Dave Johnson

March 17, 2011--A "report" from Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee says that the path to job creation is cutting ... the very things that create jobs. This is like saying that cutting taxes increases revenue. We know how that worked out, and the job-consequences of budget cuts are going to be just as disastrous.

Sometimes you can cut through ideology by looking at what actually happens in the real world. Reagan cut taxes: huge deficits resulted. Clinton raised taxes, the deficits went away.

Bush cut taxes, we went back to huge deficits. And you can see the same thing when you look at government spending and jobs. England and Greece are trying austerity, and their economies are sinking as a result.

In 1937 the United States learned this lesson, succumbing to deficit cutting which choked off the recovery from the depression. On the other hand, the "stimulus" boosted the economy, held off a depression and created millions of jobs -- but not enough jobs to overcome the Bush years.

******
About the Institute for America’s Future

The Institute for America's Future is a center of non-partisan research and education. Drawing on a network of scholars, activists and leaders across the country, IAF develops policy ideas, educational materials and outreach programs. The Institute’s efforts help shape a compelling progressive agenda primarily focusing on such kitchen-table concerns as affordable health care, accessible higher education, retirement security, living wages, healthy workplaces, strong infrastructures, safe food, fair trade and clean energy.
Mission

The Institute for America’s Future equips Americans with the tools and information needed to drive issues into the national debate, challenge failed conservative policies and build support for the progressive vision of a government that is on the side of working people.

To achieve our mission, IAF spearheads the development of a compelling progressive economic agenda and message -- which makes clear what progressives stand for, articulates the philosophy and values underlying these policies, and frames and argues for them in new ways that will resonate with the majority of average Americans. 

IAF also regularly convenes and educates progressive leaders, organizations, candidates, opinion makers, and activists to encourage and facilitate their adoption and use of a common economic agenda and message so that our collective voices echo powerfully.

Finally, IAF acts as an incubator of national campaigns in which progressives join together to form policies that advance economic prosperity and opportunity for lower- and middle-income Americans.

We Are All Wisconsinites Now

It was, paradoxically, at once a significant loss for the protest movement in Wisconsin and a measure of its extraordinary success that Governor Scott Walker and his Republican allies had to resort to legislative legerdemain to pass their unpopular union-busting measure on March 10.

By separating the attack on collective bargaining from the budget bill, they ensured its passage, but they also stripped the veneer off their own agenda: this was never about budgets, and always about class war.

As Michael Moore put it in his rousing speech to the crowd of tens of thousands who had assembled a few days before in Madison, “America is not broke…. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It’s just that it’s not in your hands.

It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and portfolios of the über-rich.”

Take part in a nationwide teach-in on corporate greed. And join the growing people's movement to reclaim our community and our economy.

The Editors
The Nation

******

March 17, 2011--To be frank, this is a war working people have been losing for decades without much of a fight. But the pro-worker movement seems at last to have something resembling a battle plan. Next up for Wisconsin activists is a crucial state Supreme Court election on April 5, in which Walker’s favored anti-worker candidate, David Prosser, faces a strong challenge from the Democratic assistant attorney general, JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Then there’s the recall effort against eight Republican senators who voted for the bill, with Joint Committee on Finance co-chair Alberta Darling, Walker’s point person on budget issues, as the choicest target.

These drives may prepare the way to recall Walker himself early next year. Meanwhile, a shrewd Move Your Money union campaign is targeting one of Walker’s big bank backers, Wisconsin’s M&I Bank.

Progressives everywhere will be watching these developments keenly, offering solidarity and support. But the question on everyone’s mind is, How can the pro-worker movement born in Wisconsin be nurtured into a national force?

This won’t come easy—the state, with its storied progressive past, is in a class by itself—but the action there has offered an inspiring spectacle and a practical model.

With that in mind, Communications Workers of America, together with Jobs With Justice and other progressive groups, is spearheading a week of action focused around April 4—the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.—with rallies and teach-ins in hundreds of cities.

JWJ has been active for months in many states, including Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Florida, Maine and Indiana, confronting the array of legislative threats facing not only unions but women, gays, immigrants and all working people.

By making these links—and focusing protesters’ ire on specific political and corporate targets—the organizers aim to build the diverse movement needed to fend off the multipronged right-wing assault.

On April 5 dozens of college campuses—perhaps hundreds—will hold teach-ins on “Debt, Austerity and How People Are Fighting Back,” with a national teach-in led by Frances Fox Piven and Cornel West live-streamed from Judson Memorial Church in New York City (go here for an organizing guide).

The mobilization will unfold nationally but take different shapes, depending on local dynamics. Elsewhere, the partisan lines on these issues aren’t drawn as sharply as in Wisconsin, where Democrats were emboldened by popular protest and pressure.

It’s heartening that these events have boosted progressive enthusiasm for the 2012 election, but this movement is not just about electing Democrats—it’s about making them deliver for the people they claim to represent.

The Editors
The Nation

Sometimes the behavior of some in this great country drives me to madness and I'm provoked to dash off a letter to my pen pal (some poor clerk stuck with reading irate messages from people like me).

                            21 March 2011


President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Subject: Pfc Bradley Manning

Dear Mr. President:

As an American I have always been proud of our judicial system and its workings. It is this extreme pride that leaves me mystified at the United States’ behavior regarding Bradley Manning’s treatment since being charged with...with...what?

Manning is a kid perpetrating kid’s pranks. When all is said and done he hurt no one except for the pride of the U.S. Army. Which, by the way, leaves one wondering why he is being held in a Marine brig.

Please give this matter your personal attention so that you have all the facts on which to base a reasonable decision. Were Bradley to be your son or my grandson we would consider it a tragedy. Before irreparable damage is done to this young American and his family, please see that appropriate action is taken.

                        Sincerely,