Group items tagged

Join Senator Franken: Stand with me to save Net Neutrality and stop the Corporate Takeover of our Media

A large majority of the American people consistently support the following agenda: Tax the rich and corporations End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages Get money out of politics

WASHINGTON, Jun 2, 2010 (IPS) - The resources society derives from nature have been horribly mismanaged and this will lead to the children of the world's poorest people remaining in poverty, according to Paul Collier. The easiest of these resources to regulate is fish, but we have not even managed to get that right, he said.

The clearest explanation yet of the forces that converged over the past three decades or so to undermine the economic well-being of ordinary Americans is contained in the new book, "Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer - and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class." The authors, political scientists Jacob Hacker of Yale and Paul Pierson of the University of California, Berkeley, argue persuasively that the economic struggles of the middle and working classes in the U.S. since the late-1970s were not primarily the result of globalization and technological changes but rather a long series of policy changes in government that overwhelmingly favored the very rich. Those changes were the result of increasingly sophisticated, well-financed and well-organized efforts by the corporate and financial sectors to tilt government policies in their favor, and thus in favor of the very wealthy. From tax laws to deregulation to corporate governance to safety net issues, government action was deliberately shaped to allow those who were already very wealthy to amass an ever increasing share of the nation's economic benefits. "Over the last generation," the authors write, "more and more of the rewards of growth have gone to the rich and superrich. The rest of America, from the poor through the upper middle class, has fallen further and further behind."

In December, President Obama signed legislation to extend hundreds of billions of dollars in Bush tax cuts, benefiting the wealthiest Americans. Last week, Obama agreed to billions of dollars in cuts that will impose the greatest burden on the poorest Americans. And now, virtually everyone in Washington believes, the President is about to embark on a path that will ultimately lead to some type of reductions in Social Security, Medicare and/or Medicaid benefits under the banner of "reform." Tax cuts for the rich -- budget cuts for the poor -- "reform" of the Democratic Party's signature safety net programs -- a continuation of Bush/Cheney Terrorism policies and a new Middle East war launched without Congressional approval. That's quite a legacy combination for a Democratic President. All of that has led to a spate of negotiation advice from the liberal punditocracy advising the President how he can better defend progressive policy aims -- as though the Obama White House deeply wishes for different results but just can't figure out how to achieve them. Jon Chait, Josh Marshall, and Matt Yglesias all insist that the President is "losing" on these battles because of bad negotiating strategy, and will continue to lose unless it improves. Ezra Klein says "it makes absolutely no sense" that Democrats didn't just raise the debt ceiling in December, when they had the majority and could have done it with no budget cuts. Once it became clear that the White House was not following their recommended action of demanding a "clean" vote on raising the debt ceiling -- thus ensuring there will be another, probably larger round of budget cuts -- Yglesias lamented that the White House had "flunked bargaining 101." Their assumption is that Obama loathes these outcomes but is the victim of his own weak negotiating strategy. I don't understand that assumption at all. Does anyone believe that Obama and his army of veteran Washington advisers are incapable of discovering these tactics on th

Sudbury personal injury lawyers are adept at evaluating personal injury claims and determining what, if any, merit a lawsuit might have. He/she will discuss the specific facts of your injury and help you determine who the correct parties are that you may file your personal injury lawsuit against.

If you have been involved in an accident in Timmins, you may want to consider hiring a Timmins personal injury lawyer. And, if you or someone else involved in that accident has sustained injury, you'll most definitely want to hire a Timmins personal injury lawyer.

The Greensboro Law Firm of Schlosser & Pritchett with highly experienced team of personal injury lawyers, criminal defense attorneys and skilled support staff share a common goal of delivering quality legal services to clients in personal injury, auto accident and criminal defense cases in Greensboro, Winston Salem, High Point Burlington and Guilford County areas.

Check the factor to consider for a lemon law lawyer in to assist you for your repeated vehicle repairs in US. Call (855) 598-3909 or visit us @ http://lemonlawexperts.com

Check the factor to consider for a lemon law lawyer in to assist you for your repeated vehicle repairs in US. Call (855) 598-3909 or visit us @ http://lemonlawexperts.com

Check here the lemon lawyer Brett Shainfeld's profile on Slideshare. Get to know about the lemon law tips, advices and more...

Check here the lemon lawyer Brett Shainfeld's profile on Slideshare. Get to know about the lemon law tips, advices and more...

The philosopher discusses the momentous changes taking place in the global financial and political system.