1/ The Angry Rich
Paul Krugman with a challenging assertion - it's the rich who are the angriest at this Administration because they might have to pay a little more in taxes.... the rich own the media, so that's the message we're all getting....rage!
Anger is sweeping America. True, this white-hot rage is a minority phenomenon, not something that characterizes most of our fellow citizens. But the angry minority is angry indeed, consisting of people who feel that things to which they are entitled are being taken away. And they’re out for revenge.
No, I’m not talking about the Tea Partiers. I’m talking about the rich.
These are terrible times for many people in this country. Poverty, especially acute poverty, has soared in the economic slump; millions of people have lost their homes. Young people can’t find jobs; laid-off 50-somethings fear that they’ll never work again.
Yet if you want to find real political rage — the kind of rage that makes people compare President Obama to Hitler, or accuse him of treason — you won’t find it among these suffering Americans. You’ll find it instead among the very privileged, people who don’t have to worry about losing their jobs, their homes, or their health insurance, but who are outraged, outraged, at the thought of paying modestly higher taxes
2/ Disturbing story about older workers over 50 worried about never working again......the unemployment crisis affects people in their 50's proportionately more than others because they normally earn more, have more health costs etc. so companies dump their older employees in favour of younger, cheaper people......but that's corporate America.....
Being unemployed at any age can be crushing. But older workers suspect their résumés often get shoved aside in favor of those from younger workers. Others discover that their job-seeking skills — as well as some technical skills sought by employers — are rusty after years of working for the same company.
Many had in fact anticipated working past conventional retirement ages to gird themselves financially for longer life spans, expensive health care and reduced pension guarantees.
The most recent recession has increased the need to extend working life. Home values, often a family’s most important asset, have been battered. Stock portfolios are only now starting to recover. According to a Gallup poll in April, more than a third of people not yet retired plan to work beyond age 65, compared with just 12 percent in 1995.
Older workers who lose their jobs could pose a policy problem if they lose their ability to be self-sufficient.
3/ Maureen Dowd on the weeks events in politics .....she sure doesn't like Obama any more....
On Christine O'Donnell.....
This anti-abortion, anti-masturbation, anti-premarital-sex, anti-stem-cells, anti-gay-marriage, dubious-about-evolution Christian conservative has rocked politics by snatching the Delaware Republican nomination for the Senate away from the seemingly sure-thing moderate Mike Castle.
On the President.....
The first African-American president, who wrote in his memoir that he trained himself as a young man not to let his anger show in a suspicious white society, now faces anger on an unprecedented scale from a mostly white movement.
He seems weary of crisis management, conveying the attitude of the hero in “The Incredibles” who has to keep saving the world: “Sometimes I just want it to stay saved!”
The president seems put upon and impatient with reality while his foes seem happy to embrace fantasy.
4/ Climate Change
Thomas Friedman asserts the Chinese are ahead of us again because they have totally bought into the idea of a green future and are creating the industries that will make green energy products. In the meantime our Senate, purchased by big oil and coal, continue to insist there is a "debate" about climate change. We're toast....
What a contrast. In a year that’s on track to be our planet’s hottest on record, America turned “climate change” into a four-letter word that many U.S. politicians won’t even dare utter in public. If this were just some parlor game, it wouldn’t matter. But the totally bogus “discrediting” of climate science has had serious implications. For starters, it helped scuttle Senate passage of the energy-climate bill needed to scale U.S.-made clean technologies, leaving America at a distinct disadvantage in the next great global industry. And that brings me to the contrast: While American Republicans were turning climate change into a wedge issue, the Chinese Communists were turning it into a work issue.
“There is really no debate about climate change in China,” said Peggy Liu, chairwoman of the Joint U.S.-China Collaboration on Clean Energy, a nonprofit group working to accelerate the greening of China. “China’s leaders are mostly engineers and scientists, so they don’t waste time questioning scientific data.” The push for green in China, she added, “is a practical discussion on health and wealth. There is no need to emphasize future consequences when people already see, eat and breathe pollution every day.”
5/ Florida Politics
The incoming leaders of the House and Senate promise an even more conservative legislature than ever.....so get ready for mandatory gun ownership, no abortions unless it's an alien baby, public school classes limited to no more than 60, gay marriage when hell freezes over, Qu'ran burning every Sunday, nothing for the poor and needy and forget green energy rebates.....yeay.....Florida's No. #1.....yeay.....
Ever since Republicans came to dominate Tallahassee, the GOP-led Senate has been a moderating force on the more partisan and conservative Florida House. That practice appears sure to end as incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos takes the helm.
The 40-year-old Merritt Island conservative has already replaced a dozen high-level Senate committee staffers, and has made it clear he's done with the Senate's image as a check on the conservative activism that is often associated with the state House. Where the Senate used to be known as where bold conservative ideas would die, Haridopolos likes to say, it's about to be a place where they thrive.
6/ Ladies - the President has released 500,000 bachelors from the strategic reserve because of the desperate shortage of eligible men.....one for the fairer sex from Onion News.....2 minutes....
7/ AutoTune the News video.......featuring politicians like Charles Rangel, Ron Paul, President Obama and the band Weezer....clever, funny stuff....4 minutes......
8/ TV tonight
Some new series starting tonight, so get ready for......
"The Event".....lots of hype for this series, if you liked "24" and "Lost" you will [allegedly] like this.....NBC at 9pm Mondays....
"Hawaii 5-O"....back again with new actors.....CBS at 10pm Mondays......book him Danno....
"Lone Star".....Mormons should like this one....a guy with two lives, and wives......Fox at 9pm Mondays....
9/ "Crash"....directed by Paul Haggis
Mary and I watched this again last week, and what a wonderful movie it is. If you haven't seen it, Netflix it - excellent and well deserved of the Academy Award for best movie in 2004.
If you saw it 7 years ago, watch it again - there are so many issues in this movie that are relevant about race today it's scary. Health care too....
Great cameo by Sandra Bullock as well....
10/ Music Video
Kylie Minogue with a brand new video......catchy song, lots of nubile lads dancing with Kylie......great costumes and choreography.....
This is a pre-release video and on a Google search only this gay website had it.......in case you were wondering......
Todays video - Toyota Bait.....car ad from Europe.....
Todays family jokes
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Todays seniors joke
A senior citizen in Florida bought a brand new Mercedes convertible. He took off down the road, flooring it to 80 mph and enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left on his head.
"This is great," he thought as he roared down I-95. He pushed the pedal to the metal even more. Then he looked in his rear view mirror and saw a highway patrol trooper behind him, blue lights flashing and siren blaring.
"I can get away from him with no problem" thought the man and he tromped it some more and flew down the road at over 100 mph. Then 110, 120 mph.
Then he thought, "What am I doing? I'm too old for this kind of thing."He pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the trooper to catch up with him.
The trooper pulled in behind the Mercedes and walked up to the man.
"Sir," he said, looking at his watch. "My shift ends in 30 minutes and today is Friday. If you can give me a reason why you were speeding that I've never heard before, I'll let you go."
The man looked at the trooper and said, "Years ago my wife ran off with a Florida State trooper, and I thought you were bringing her back."
The trooper replied, "Sir, have a nice day".
Todays LOL joke
God bless you for the beautiful radio I won at your recent senior
citizens' luncheon.
I am 84 years old and live at an Assisted Home for the Aged. All of
my family has passed away.
I am all alone now and it's nice to know someone is thinking of me.
God bless you for your kindness to an old forgotten lady.
My roommate is 95 and always had her own radio. Before I received
this one, she would never let me listen to hers, even when she was napping.
The other day, her radio fell off the night stand and broke into a
lot of little pieces. It was awful and she was in tears. She asked if she
could listen to mine, and I said fuck you.
Thank you for that opportunity.
Sincerely,
Agnes
"This is great," he thought as he roared down I-95. He pushed the pedal to the metal even more. Then he looked in his rear view mirror and saw a highway patrol trooper behind him, blue lights flashing and siren blaring.
"I can get away from him with no problem" thought the man and he tromped it some more and flew down the road at over 100 mph. Then 110, 120 mph.
Then he thought, "What am I doing? I'm too old for this kind of thing."He pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the trooper to catch up with him.
The trooper pulled in behind the Mercedes and walked up to the man.
"Sir," he said, looking at his watch. "My shift ends in 30 minutes and today is Friday. If you can give me a reason why you were speeding that I've never heard before, I'll let you go."
The man looked at the trooper and said, "Years ago my wife ran off with a Florida State trooper, and I thought you were bringing her back."
The trooper replied, "Sir, have a nice day".
Todays LOL joke
This letter was sent to the principal's office after an elementary
school had sponsored a luncheon for the elderly. An old lady had received
school had sponsored a luncheon for the elderly. An old lady had received
a new radio at the lunch as a door prize, and was writing to say
thank you. This story is a credit to all human kind, and really made an impression
on all
of the school staff.
Dear Faculty and Students,
God bless you for the beautiful radio I won at your recent senior
citizens' luncheon.
I am 84 years old and live at an Assisted Home for the Aged. All of
my family has passed away.
I am all alone now and it's nice to know someone is thinking of me.
God bless you for your kindness to an old forgotten lady.
My roommate is 95 and always had her own radio. Before I received
this one, she would never let me listen to hers, even when she was napping.
The other day, her radio fell off the night stand and broke into a
lot of little pieces. It was awful and she was in tears. She asked if she
could listen to mine, and I said fuck you.
Thank you for that opportunity.
Sincerely,
Agnes
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