Matt Taibbi | RollingStone.com
26 Sept 2013
[Excerpt] This is the third act in an improbable triple-fucking of
ordinary people that Wall Street is seeking to pull off as a shocker
epilogue to the crisis era. Five years ago this fall, an epidemic of
fraud and thievery in the financial-services industry triggered the
collapse of our economy. The resultant loss of tax revenue plunged
states everywhere into spiraling fiscal crises, and local governments
suffered huge losses in their retirement portfolios – remember, these
public pension funds were some of the most frequently targeted suckers
upon whom Wall Street dumped its fraud-riddled mortgage-backed
securities in the pre-crash years.
Today, the same Wall Street crowd that caused the crash is not merely
rolling in money again but aggressively counterattacking on the
public-relations front. The battle increasingly centers around public
funds like state and municipal pensions. This war isn't just about
money. Crucially, in ways invisible to most Americans, it's also about
blame. In state after state, politicians are following the Rhode Island
playbook, using scare tactics and lavishly funded PR campaigns to cast
teachers, firefighters and cops – not bankers – as the budget-devouring
boogeymen responsible for the mounting fiscal problems of America's
states and cities.
READ IT ALL:
Friday, September 27, 2013
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Obamacare government shutdown | The Colbert Report
19 Sept 2013
Republicans threaten to shut down the federal government if Democrats don't vote to defund Obamacare.
Republicans threaten to shut down the federal government if Democrats don't vote to defund Obamacare.
Robert Reich on 'Inequality For All' | Bill Moyers
20 Sept 2013 | BillMoyers.com
This
week marks both the fifth anniversary of the fiscal meltdown that
almost tanked the world economy and the second anniversary of Occupy
Wall Street, the movement that sparked heightened public awareness of
income inequality. Yet the crisis is worse than ever – in the first
three years of the recovery, 95 percent of the economic gains have gone
only to the top one percent of Americans. And the share of working
people in the U.S. who define themselves as lower class is at its
highest level in four decades.More and more are fighting back. According to Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor: “The core principle is that we want an economy that works for everyone, not just for a small elite. We want equal opportunity, not equality of outcome. We want to make sure that there’s upward mobility again, in our society and in our economy.”
This week, Reich joins Moyers & Company to discuss a new documentary film, Inequality for All, opening next week in theaters across the country. Directed by Jacob Kornbluth, the film aims to be a game-changer in our national discussion of income inequality. Reich, who Time magazine called one of the best cabinet secretaries of the 20th century, stars in this dynamic, witty and entertaining documentary.
SOURCE:
Ex-U.S. House leader Tom DeLay's conviction overturned
19 Sept 2013 | Associated Press
AUSTIN, TX -- A Texas appeals court tossed the criminal conviction of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Thursday, saying there was insufficient evidence for a jury in 2010 to have found him guilty of illegally funneling money to Republican candidates.
snip
The Travis County District Attorney's office issued the following statement: "Today, two judges sitting on the Third Court of Appeals reversed and acquitted former United States House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who was convicted of felony offenses by a jury in November of 2010.
We strongly disagree with the opinion of Judges Goodwin and Gaultney that the evidence was insufficient. We are concerned and disappointed that two judges substituted their assessment of the facts for that of 12 jurors who personally heard the testimony of over 40 witnesses over the course of several weeks and found that the evidence was sufficient and proved DeLay's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
We are preparing a response to this opinion and will ask the full Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to review the ruling."
READ IT ALL:
AUSTIN, TX -- A Texas appeals court tossed the criminal conviction of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Thursday, saying there was insufficient evidence for a jury in 2010 to have found him guilty of illegally funneling money to Republican candidates.
snip
The Travis County District Attorney's office issued the following statement: "Today, two judges sitting on the Third Court of Appeals reversed and acquitted former United States House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who was convicted of felony offenses by a jury in November of 2010.
We strongly disagree with the opinion of Judges Goodwin and Gaultney that the evidence was insufficient. We are concerned and disappointed that two judges substituted their assessment of the facts for that of 12 jurors who personally heard the testimony of over 40 witnesses over the course of several weeks and found that the evidence was sufficient and proved DeLay's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
We are preparing a response to this opinion and will ask the full Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to review the ruling."
READ IT ALL:
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich calls for a new era of citizen activism | Part 2
16 Sept 2013 - In this exclusive, unedited interview, economist Robert Reich discusses getting big money out of politics, interning for Robert Kennedy, and media mud wrestling. Scroll down for Part 1.
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich calls for a new era of citizen activism | Part 1
16 Sept 2013 - In this exclusive, unedited interview, Robert Reich looks to the past for future economic solutions.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Labor redefines itself in Los Angeles
Michael Winship, Moyers & Company
11 Sept 2013
“It’s time to turn America right side up!” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka exhorted those in attendance at the labor alliance’s quadrennial convention in Los Angeles on Monday. Time, he said in his keynote address, to change the ratio of power, to put the 99 percent in charge rather than let the richest one percent dominate government, politics and society.
“Since 2009, the pay of America’s corporate CEOs has gone up nearly 40 percent,” Trumka noted. “Imagine for a second what kind of country we would live in if ordinary people’s incomes had increased like CEO’s. Almost no one would live in poverty.”
READ IT ALL:
11 Sept 2013
“It’s time to turn America right side up!” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka exhorted those in attendance at the labor alliance’s quadrennial convention in Los Angeles on Monday. Time, he said in his keynote address, to change the ratio of power, to put the 99 percent in charge rather than let the richest one percent dominate government, politics and society.
“Since 2009, the pay of America’s corporate CEOs has gone up nearly 40 percent,” Trumka noted. “Imagine for a second what kind of country we would live in if ordinary people’s incomes had increased like CEO’s. Almost no one would live in poverty.”
READ IT ALL:
Monday, September 09, 2013
LEAKED mockumentary: The Internet Must Go
In John Wooley's hilarious 30-minute mockumentary The Internet Must Go,
he plays a marketing shill hired by the big cable operators and phone
companies to convince Americans to accept corrupt, non-neutral Internet
connections where your ability to reach sites and services online is
based on whether your ISP has a deal with the company offering it
Wooley's playing a Colbert-esque useful idiot, and he never breaks character as he interviews Susan Crawford, Al Franken, John Hodgman, Tim Wu, Larry Lessig, and many others, giving them the chance to play out the arguments for a neutral, fair Internet. The climax is a visit to North Carolina, where the big telcos have successfully gotten legislation passed banning municipalities from offering high-speed Internet, even in towns where the cable and phone companies have no plans to offer high-speed connections.
Learn more and take action: www.theinternetmustgo.com
Wooley's playing a Colbert-esque useful idiot, and he never breaks character as he interviews Susan Crawford, Al Franken, John Hodgman, Tim Wu, Larry Lessig, and many others, giving them the chance to play out the arguments for a neutral, fair Internet. The climax is a visit to North Carolina, where the big telcos have successfully gotten legislation passed banning municipalities from offering high-speed Internet, even in towns where the cable and phone companies have no plans to offer high-speed connections.
Learn more and take action: www.theinternetmustgo.com
Saturday, September 07, 2013
Friday, August 30, 2013
Happy Birthday, Molly Ivins (you were right)
"Watch the House pass a bad bill. Watch the Senate make it worse. Watch the banking industry dig its own grave. Watch supposedly smart people set up a financial disaster. Can we see President Clinton veto this mess? Veto, Clinton, veto.
"Not since Congress passed the Garn-St. Germain bill in 1981 – the one that deregulated the S&Ls and unleashed a half-a-trillion-dollar disaster, which the taxpayers of this country wound up paying for – has there been a move to match this for pure folly.
"In May, the House passed (by one vote) a bill to eliminate barriers between banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies. This sets up financial holding companies that can offer all three types of services simultaneously. The most obvious risk is that a blunder in the insurance or brokerage end of the business could bring down a bank, putting insured deposits at risk. The taxpayers, of course, then wind up with the tab, as we did with the savings-and-loan mess."
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Mark Leibovich on America's Gilded Capital | Bill Moyers
This
Town by Mark Leibovich is the story of how Washington became an
occupied city, its hold on reality distorted by greed and ambition.
Leibovich pulls no punches, naming names and revealing the city’s
bipartisan lust for power, cash and notoriety.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Johnny Winter And - It's My Own Fault
'Live Johnny Winter And' is a 1971 album recorded live at various locations during the fall of 1970.
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