The Real Welfare Problem: Government Giveaways to the Corporate 1% | Common Dreams

The Real Welfare Problem: Government Giveaways to the Corporate 1% | Common Dreams
"it’s not about welfare queens vs hard working whites; its not about race or ethnic divisions; it’s not about any of the standard Republican bait and switch, divide and conquer BS.

It’s about handouts to the uber-rich and the corporations.

Bottom line: if you’re a Fortune 500 company or a member of the wealthiest 1%, you’re getting welfare, and a hell of a lot of it."

Republicans promise to roll back everything Labor Day honors

Republicans promise to roll back everything Labor Day honors
"What the Republicans are planning, what their platform promises, is to bring to the federal level the assault on workers that Scott Walker, John Kasich and Mitch Daniels have been carrying out in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. They announced that plan the week before Labor Day. They have nine more weeks to win the power to implement it. And we have nine weeks to stop them."

Four Reasons Everyone Should Thank Unions On Labor Day

Four Reasons Everyone Should Thank Unions On Labor Day: Labor day is a welcome, and well-deserved, day off for millions of Americans. But it’s worth remembering that Labor day is more than just a three-day weekend. Labor Day “is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.” Here are four important accomplishments of the [...]/p

Mitt Romney's Tax Avoidance Weakens Bonds of American Society | Common Dreams

Mitt Romney's Tax Avoidance Weakens Bonds of American Society | Common Dreams
"A major theme of the underlying political debate in the United States is the role of the state and the need for collective action. The private sector, while central in a modern economy, cannot ensure its success alone. For example, the financial crisis that began in 2008 demonstrated the need for adequate regulation.

Moreover, beyond effective regulation (including ensuring a level playing field for competition), modern economies are founded on technological innovation, which in turn presupposes basic research funded by government. This is an example of a public good – things from which we all benefit, but that would be under-supplied (or not supplied at all) were we to rely on the private sector.

Conservative politicians in the US underestimate the importance of publicly provided education, technology, and infrastructure. Economies in which government provides these public goods perform far better than those in which it does not."

Labor Day Without Jobs: Exposing the "Job Creator" Fraud | Common Dreams

Labor Day Without Jobs: Exposing the "Job Creator" Fraud | Common Dreams
"With cunning and contempt and catechismal fervor the super-rich have argued that all money should move to the top, where it will be used to stimulate the economy and create jobs. But they ignore the facts that prove them wrong. And it doesn't take much to prove them wrong."

The US Chamber of Commerce's Multimillion-Dollar Attack Plan | The Nation

The US Chamber of Commerce's Multimillion-Dollar Attack Plan | The Nation
"If you live in a state where a competitive race could help tip the balance in the Senate this fall, you’ve almost certainly seen ads like these, laden with menacing theme music, light on the facts and funded by the US Chamber of Commerce. The nation’s largest business lobby is showcasing bold ambitions this year in an effort to build on gains made in the 2010 midterms, when at least $33 million of Chamber advertising helped push the nation dramatically rightward. The group began placing ads in swing districts as early as November 2011. Since then, it has rolled out a campaign aimed at influencing at least fifty House and eight Senate races, and according toPolitico it has set a goal of $100 million in spending for this electoral cycle."

Minimum Wage Raise Is the Least We Can Do to Civilize America

Minimum Wage Raise Is the Least We Can Do to Civilize America
"The federal minimum wage is just $7.25 an hour and hasn’t been raised in three years.  But a raise is much more overdue than that.  If we look at the minimum wage 44 years ago, and simply adjust it for inflation, it would be more than $10 today."

PERRspectives: Which Party is Best for the Economy? It's Not Even Close

PERRspectives: Which Party is Best for the Economy? It's Not Even Close
"As the historical record shows, from economic growth and job creation to stock market performance and just about every other indicator of the health of American capitalism, the modern U.S. economy has almost always done better under Democratic presidents. Despite GOP mythology to the contrary, America generally gained more jobs and grew faster when taxes were higher (even much higher) and income inequality lower. While the U.S. recovery from the crippling Bush recession has been painfully slow, most economists - including the nonpartisan CBO and some of John McCain's own 2008 advisers - believe President Obama saved the American free-enterprise system from the abyss. And many economists are increasingly worried that businessman-turned-President Romney would lead the United States back into recession."

Ten Big Lies Paul Ryan Keeps Repeating That the Corporate Media Refuses to Push Back On | Alternet

Ten Big Lies Paul Ryan Keeps Repeating That the Corporate Media Refuses to Push Back On | Alternet
"This year’s Republican campaign may be the most dishonest in history. "

Life Is Sacred | Common Dreams

Life Is Sacred | Common Dreams
"Our political leaders, Democrat and Republican, are complicit in our demise. Our political system, like that in the declining days of ancient Rome, is one of legalized bribery. Politicians, including Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, serve the demented ends of corporations that will, until the final flicker of life, attempt to profit from our death spiral. Civil disobedience, including the recent decision by Greenpeace activists to chain themselves to a Gazprom supply vessel and obstruct a Russian oil rig, is the only meaningful form of resistance. Voting is useless. But while I support these heroic acts of resistance I increasingly fear they may have little effect. This does not mean we should not resist. Resistance is a moral imperative. We cannot use the word “hope” if we do not fight back. But the corporations will employ deadly force to protect their drive to extract the last bit of profit from life. We can expect only mounting hostility from the corporate state. Its internal and external security apparatus, as the heedless exploitation and its fatal consequences become more apparent, will seek to silence and crush all dissidents. Corporations care nothing for democracy, the rule of law, human rights or the sanctity of life. They are determined to be the last predator standing. And then they too will be snuffed out. Unrestrained hubris always leads to self-immolation."

Chris Wallace Falsely Claims Obama Had Filibuster-Proof Majority for 2 Years

Chris Wallace Falsely Claims Obama Had Filibuster-Proof Majority for 2 Years
"As Talking Points Memo observed, Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) temporary replacement wasn't sworn in until Sept. 24 of 2009, giving Democrats a filibuster-proof majority for four months and one week until Republican Scott Brown filled Kennedy's seat after a special election.

"The claim that Obama ruled like a monarch over Congress for two years — endlessly intoned as a talking point by Republicans — is more than just a misremembering of recent history or excited overstatement," theChicago Tribune's Eric Zorn wrote. "It's a lie"."

Fox News Pundit Claims: ‘Worst Of The Recession Was Over By The Time Barack Obama Took Office’

Fox News Pundit Claims: ‘Worst Of The Recession Was Over By The Time Barack Obama Took Office’: On Sunday, Fox News pundit Brit Hume suggested that the economic recovery from the Great Recession had already begun by the time that President Obama was elected president, when in fact the country was in the deepest part of the recession just as Obama took the reins. “There’s a lot of things wrong with the [...]/p

Taibbi: Mitt Romney Was The Guy Who Fired You From Your Job

Taibbi: Mitt Romney Was The Guy Who Fired You From Your Job
"Are you kidding? Mitt Romney was the guy that fired you from that $22.50 an hour job, and helped you replace it with two $9 an hour jobs! He was a pioneer in the area of eliminating the well-paying job with benefits and replacing it with the McJob that offered no benefits at all. One of the things that killed him in the Senate race against Ted Kennedy were Kennedy ads that reminded voters that Mitt’s takeovers resulted in slashed wages and lost benefits. He was exactly the guy that eliminated that classic $22.50 manufacturing job, like in the case of GST Steel, where Bain took over with an initial investment of $8 million, paid itself a $36 million dividend, ended up walking away with $50 million, and left GST saddled with over $500 million in debt. 750 of those well-paying jobs were lost.

What kinds of jobs were left for those fired workers to look for? Well, in the best-case scenario, you might have found one at Ampad, another Bain takeover target, where workers had their pay slashed from $10.22 to $7.88 an hour, tripled co-pays, and eliminated the retirement plan."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Bush and Blair Should Be Sent to The Hague | Common Dreams

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Bush and Blair Should Be Sent to The Hague | Common Dreams
"Calling out the international community to stand up and recognize the glaring hypocrisy of sending various African and Asian leaders of relatively weak nations to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face trial for their crimes, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has called for the former leaders of Great Britain and the United States, Tony Blair and George W. Bush, to be brought before The Hague to stand trial for the illegal invasion of Iraq."

Mitt Romney's Federal Bailout; Bain Investigated for Tax Evasion

Mitt Romney's Federal Bailout; Bain Investigated for Tax Evasion
"Mitt Romney may not "apologize" for his success in business, but more importantly, you'll also likely never hear him say "thanks" to the American people for the Federal bailout of Bain Capital."

Bush Chief Political Strategist: Paul Ryan’s Speech Was Full Of Lies

Bush Chief Political Strategist: Paul Ryan’s Speech Was Full Of Lies: Paul Ryan’s speech before the Republican National Convention was riddled with lies, including a tall-tale blaming President Obama for the closure of a GM plant that announced its shutdown in June 2008. On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Matthew Dowd, chief political strategist for former President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, criticized Ryan’s for its many [...]/p

Bill Moyers: Christian Right Hypocrite Ralph Reed Has Resurrected Himself in the GOP -- He Must Be Praying We'll Forget His Past | Alternet

Bill Moyers: Christian Right Hypocrite Ralph Reed Has Resurrected Himself in the GOP -- He Must Be Praying We'll Forget His Past | Alternet
"Scandal-stained Republican activist Ralph Reed is back in the GOP’s good graces with a new “grassroots” operation organizing right-wing Christians. Also back on the Republican agenda is protection for an old Reed cause, maintaining sweatshops in the Marianas."

Better Know An Anti-LGBT Senate Candidate: Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA)

Better Know An Anti-LGBT Senate Candidate: Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA): Fifth in a series examining how anti-LGBT Senate candidates have worked to hurt the cause of equality. After winning a special election in 2010 to fill the remainder of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s (D-MA) Senate term, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is seeking a full term this November. Unlike his challenger, pro-LGBT Democrat Elizabeth Warren, [...]/p

PERRspectives: How We Built Bain Capital

PERRspectives: How We Built Bain Capital
"As it turns out, the silence about Mitt Romney's old company and the Republican sham that "you didn't build it" are related. Because when it comes to Bain Capital, in a very real sense you did build it. After all,your United States tax code doesn't merely allow the "carried interest exemption" that enables the likes of Mitt Romney to pay a lower rate than many middle class families. Without the public subsidy that is thecorporate debt interest deduction, there might not be a Bain Capital--or a private equity industry as we know it--at all."

Romney’s Former Company Under Investigation For Tax Evasion

Romney’s Former Company Under Investigation For Tax Evasion: Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by presidential candidate Mitt Romney, is under investigation for questionable tax practices, according to the New York Times. Since July, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been issuing subpoenas to private equity firms including Bain, which he believes intentionally changed management fees into capital gains as a [...]/p

The Romney-Koch Handshake That Network TV Missed | Alternet

The Romney-Koch Handshake That Network TV Missed | Alternet
"When Mitt Romney walked down the aisle toward the stage Thursday night, among the people whose hands he shook was the conservative billionaire and major political donor David Koch. But it was a moment missed by the tens of millions of viewers at home."

PERRspectives: Romney Goes AWOL on Afghanistan

PERRspectives: Romney Goes AWOL on Afghanistan
"The absence seems all the more glaring, given that four years ago Mitt Romney made fighting "this century's nightmare, jihadism - violent, radical Islamic fundamentalism" a centerpiece of his campaign. On the other hand, this time around Team Romney concluded that on the subject of Afghanistan, the less said the better. And with good reason.

For starters, Romney despite his subsequent denials opposed the kind of unilateral U.S. raids that would eventually kill Osama Bin Laden. On August 1, 2007, then Senator Barack Obama delivered a major speech on foreign policy. In addition to pledging to unilaterally launch strikes against Bin Laden and other high-value targets in Pakistan, Obama promised he would ramp up the U.S. effort in the under-resourced effort across the border in Afghanistan. In July 2008, Obama explained that "we must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights." But the first version of presidential candidate Mitt Romney said no"

Fight Rove's big money bid for a 2012 Senate takeover

Fight Rove's big money bid for a 2012 Senate takeover
"Rove motivated the attendees to cough up millions more by telling them of the millions he's raised to use against "the bad guys" not to elect Mitt Romney, but to get Barack Obama out of the White House. It's not just the White House, though, he's got his sights on the trifecta: White House, House, and critically, the Senate."

GOP Platform Declares Medicaid Unconstitutional

GOP Platform Declares Medicaid Unconstitutional: Almost immediately after President Obama took office, many Republican politicians seized upon a distorted vision of the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment that would leave America nearly incapable of governing itself. Indeed, top Republicans — including U.S. Senators, governors and members of Congress — have claimed that everything from Social Security to Medicare to federal disaster relief [...]/p

Thank Goodness Labor is its Own Reward! | Common Dreams

Thank Goodness Labor is its Own Reward! | Common Dreams
"A living wage should be the minimum wage, and it should be constantly adjusted to meet the amount of money necessary to support oneself and a family at a decent level. A decent level simply means the wherewithal to pay a modest rent, buy healthy food and appropriate clothing, and have access to transportation to a job. A living wage does not include access to competitive and self-indulgent consumption, but it does mean a wage enabling the dignity to care for oneself and those one loves, to exist above poverty and constant financial anguish, and to have enough free time to practice good citizenship in one’s community, enjoy recreation, nature, and the arts. Who would begrudge a person that?

Who could not see that to offer hard working people a wage that condemns them to poverty in spite of their labor, is to condemn them to wage slavery and cripple the idea of democratic community?"

Time for a little nation-building at home, Obama declares in weekly address

Time for a little nation-building at home, Obama declares in weekly address
"President Obama, riffing off his remarks at Fort Bliss, Texas, yesterday, discussed in this morning's weekly address the importance of treating our veterans right as they return home—and he also used the topic to call for an investment reminiscent of New Deal and post-World War II fiscal strategies"

Scott Brown Loses Endorsement From ‘The Fighter’ Micky Ward Over Anti-LGBT and Anti-Labor Views

Scott Brown Loses Endorsement From ‘The Fighter’ Micky Ward Over Anti-LGBT and Anti-Labor Views: A day after taunting his opponent with the endorsement he was scheduled to receive from a Massachusetts boxing legend, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) had to KO the event. Micky Ward, the subject of the 2010 biopic The Fighter, was all set to endorse Brown until he learned that that the freshman Republican opposes LGBT rights [...]/p

Is Ralph Reed Still Exploiting Evangelicals for His Clients?

Is Ralph Reed Still Exploiting Evangelicals for His Clients?
"Ralph Reed, my very favorite faux-Christian unindicted co-conspirator, con man par excellence, obviously still has real pull in the upper levels of the Republican Party, allegedly because of his super duper database of evangelical voters - and his superPAC. I have to wonder if he has something to do with the GOP plank calling for no minimum wage in the Marianas Islands in the Republican platform?"

Doctors, Patients Rally In Support Of Obamacare In Tampa On The Last Day Of The RNC

Doctors, Patients Rally In Support Of Obamacare In Tampa On The Last Day Of The RNC: Tampa, Florida — As Republicans gathered for the final day of their national convention here in Tampa, a small but vocal group of doctors, medical students and patients marched in the heat to deliver thousands of petitions in support of the Affordable Care Act. One of the marchers, Kenya Wheeler, was a grad student last [...]/p

How the GOP Can Accomplish 98% of their Corporatist Agenda

Let's assume right now that all the Republican lies work. And let's assume that the billions of dollars spent by the likes of the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and Karl Rove work. And let's assume that the statewide voter ID suppression laws, and restrictions on early voting, and hurdles to voter registration all work. Assuming all those things work - then come January 2013, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will be in the White House. And Speaker of the House John Boehner will be presiding over a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. And Mitch McConnell will be leading a Republican majority in the Senate. We'll have one-party Republican rule in America again. And unlike when Democrats held majorities in Congress and the White House for the first two years of President Obama's presidency - Republicans will see to it that their agenda under Mitt Romney is not derailed by the Democratic minority - like President Obama's was by the Republican minority's filibuster. Republicans are already planning how they can silence the voice of the minority should they sweep the elections in November - and this plan was laid out this week in the pages of the Financial Times. And guess who's spilling the beans - none other than one of the most powerful voices in the Republican Party - multi-millionaire K street lobbyist - Grover Norquist.

Republicans strive to make their platform worse on workers' issues in 2012 than it was in 2008

Republicans strive to make their platform worse on workers' issues in 2012 than it was in 2008
"The horrors of the 2012 Republican platform are legion, from abortion to marriage equality to to financial reform. To that list, you can of course add labor issues, where the Republican Party's quest to have its 2012 platform be not just bad but decisively worse than previous ones continues. Josh Eidelson compares 2012 to 2008"

How the Main Stream Media Helps the GOP Big Lie

Dishonesty on display throughout GOP convention

Three days' worth of lies, distortions and manipulations from dozens of speakers at this year's Republican National Convention.

Investors Seek To Profit From Privatizing Public Schools

Colbert Slams Media For Giving Ryan's Lying Convention Speech a Pass

Colbert Slams Media For Giving Ryan's Lying Convention Speech a Pass
"Leave it to Stephen Colbert to take some of the talking heads on cable news to task in a way that only he can. After pointing out that even Fox's web site featured an article which called Paul Ryan's speech "an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech" and the Romney campaign stating that "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers," Colbert made a mockery of some of CNN's coverage which we featured here at C&L."

Debunking the GOP's 'Vouchercare' plan

The true details in Paul Ryan's original plan on Medicare and how they compare to his campaign pitch.

Poverty: The New Growth Industry in America | Alternet

Poverty: The New Growth Industry in America | Alternet
"Recent trends in poverty rates should have the country furious at its leaders. When we get the data for 2011 next month, we are likely to see yet another uptick in poverty rates, reversing almost 50 years of economic progress. The percentage of people in extreme poverty, with incomes less than half of the poverty level, is likely to again hit an all-time high since the data has been collected.

The situation is made even worse by the fact that so many of those in poverty are children. In 2010, 27 percent of all children in the country were reported as living below the poverty level. For African-American children, the share in poverty is approaching 40 percent. Many will blame the welfare reform law in 1996 that passed with bipartisan support. That is appropriate. This bill involved a great deal of political grandstanding and removed guarantees that could have protected millions of families in a severe downturn like what we are now seeing."

The Secret of Why Wealthy Americans Aren't Always the Most Charitable | Alternet

The Secret of Why Wealthy Americans Aren't Always the Most Charitable | Alternet
"If you encounter financial suffering on a regular basis, you may be more likely to donate money to charitable organizations. According to a new study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy , people with higher incomes who live in economically diverse areas are more likely to give to charity than those with higher incomes who live in more homogeneous areas. The study found that people who made more than $200,000 contributed an average of 4.2 percent of their discretionary income. But in areas in which more than 40 percent of residents made $200,000 or more, these wealthy residents donated only about 2.8 percent.

“The study suggests that wealth has this basic insulating effect. It makes people more and more insulated from others, more prioritizing of their own interests, less likely to feel compassion toward other people and feel like charity is a good thing,” said Paul Piff, a social psychologist who studies cultures of wealth and poverty."

How the Gun Industry Made a Fortune Stoking Fears That Obama Would Take People's Guns & Ammo Away | Alternet

How the Gun Industry Made a Fortune Stoking Fears That Obama Would Take People's Guns & Ammo Away | Alternet
"There is no divorcing the politics of guns from their profits. America’s gun lobby and gun industry both benefit from creating a fearful vision of life in the United States—a picture of criminals constantly menacing our families and a government hellbent on taking our guns—that is very effective at selling weapons. In fact, in large part because of the way anxieties about his gun policies have been manipulated, the Obama era has been a golden age for firearms manufacturers, and the run-up to Election 2012 could be for Glock and Remington what the Christmas shopping season is for Macy’s and Sears: a time to cash in before the narrative changes."

7 Ways Paul Ryan Wants to Betray His Fellow Generation X-ers | Alternet

7 Ways Paul Ryan Wants to Betray His Fellow Generation X-ers | Alternet
"Paul Ryan, voted “Biggest Brown-Noser” in high school and born with enough money for Colorado ski trips and a surefire job at his family’s construction company, embraced libertarianism in college, where he interned with Wisconsin senator Bob Kasten and volunteered on the congressional campaign of John Boehner. Clutching his copy of The Fountainhead or driving the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile for a summer job, Ryan’s High Dork partly explains why so many of today’s pundits either give him a pass or pretend that he is a guy with serious ideas."