Well.

I'm gonna fire this up again.

The Destruction of the Middle Class

"The erosion of collective bargaining is a key factor to explain why low-wage workers and middle income workers have seen their wages not stay up with inflation," (former Labor Department Economist Bill) Rodgers said.

Without collective bargaining pushing up wages, especially for blue-collar work -- average incomes have stagnated.

International competition is another factor. While globalization has lifted millions out of poverty in developing nations, it hasn't exactly been a win for middle class workers in the U.S.

Factory workers have seen many of their jobs shipped to other countries where labor is cheaper, putting more downward pressure on American wages.

"As we became more connected to China, that poses the question of whether our wages are being set in Beijing," Rodgers said.

Follow the money.

Representation in Washington is not through elected officials and never really has been: groups and causes are represented by lobbyists. If your cause or group (or corporation) funnels enough money through the system via lobbying, it will be heard, and thus represented.

Unions were the lobbyists of the working class - the money, power, and conglomeration of the labor force to get worker-forward agendas that became the New Deal and the Great Society (and, to an extent, civil rights) on the radar in Washington.

Starting with Reagan, the corporate interests' first Our Guy president since the 1920s, the Republicans and later Democrats began a full 30- year quest to destroy the union lobbying base and institute their more controllable military and banking agendas that could be used toward their interests.

Americans complain about jobs going overseas, but that is exactly what the rich wanted in the first place - jobs are not important to the rich. And as we see now, when unemployment is at half-century highs, they aren't concerned with creating jobs, they're concerned that people spend so that they can stay rich. Job creation doesn't even get mentioned - its about consumer confidence and spending levels. There is no one at the back room meeting fighting for jobs. The only benefits workers can get from Washington today are those that already fit within the plan of making -their- existences richer.

The military contractors have paid for war, and they're going to get it. Its not a rise to the occasion like in the 40s - its an industry that must be sustained, and good jobs for young people coming out of college makes it much harder to keep a volunteer army staffed without a draft. And if it becomes any harder than it is now, be sure they'll create some other situation that merits more troops.

Its a business.

Not so ironically, representatives of the Tea Party movement are now in Wisconsin for the weekend backing the Government against the middle class because they've been taught that the Unions that fought for them to have the weekend off in the first place are the problem with America.

Oh Yeah, Life Goes On

The disappearance of the middle class and the virtual non-existence of recovery growth in this generation..

Okay. Enough of that.

I've let this blog be lately, mainly because, frankly, my outrage wasn't broken. It became overwhelmed.

I haven't been immersed in the reading and current events of late, mainly because I can't really stomach it. As always has been the case here, the media is my main source of disgust, but equally maddening is that fact that the great 'Change' hasn't amounted to much, and all that cynicism I put aside to let the man do his thing has been met with more military-industrial-complex status quo that I can frankly believe.

So. I've stayed away from it - I have a life and a family, and really soaking in the bullshit of 2009 was making have that moment that Lewis Black has 3 or 4 times per show where he nearly vibrates into pieces in rage, except all the time.

So. Yeah. Fuck that. I'm gonna make this space a little more versatile. I haven't gotten into the Twitter nonsense quite yet (I'm always one platform behind, it seems), so I think everything that would resemble an insane thought or status thingie will go here for a while. We'll see what happens.

I types 'inane' the first time. Perhaps I should have left it.

Who Owns Our Asses

Bangles' Bassist Elected Republican Party Chairman

Michael Steele (pictured, far right, naturally) is your new RNC Chairman

Note To Republicans

You were wrong before you lost..

Four Thousand People Died...

...because they 'had to die'...

The Ballad Of Dollar Bill

So long, farewell..

Deep Thought

Would anyone be okay if India specifically declared war on Pakistan based on these terrorist attacks based on our precedent?

Bonus: would anyone be okay if, in holding with our precedent, India decided to skip Pakistan altogether and invade Nepal or Bagladesh for the hell of it?

Next..

.. Citigroup, the monolith that pretty much brought forth the repeal of Glass-Steagall in the first place, appears to be next in like for the can..

"Let The Record Show, No Hands Went Up.."

The big three automakers testified before congress today begging for bailout money and got bitchslapped for flying their private jets to Washington..

Peter Schiff Was Right

.. and Arthur Laffer, like most very serious people, was really, really wrong..


This is from two years ago..

(h/t Eldridge)

Deep Thought

We'd be better off had Ned Lamont won the general election and not just the primary.

Don't Drive Angry

Nate at 538 gets John Ziegler on the line, and hilarity ensues..

I agree with one of the commenters, in that I think Nate actually should have been better versed on the poll contents. But the main points were made, and Ziegler totally went nutcase douchebag on him. Nice work!

Sayonara, Jackass

Mark Begich's lead over Ted Stevens has passed the recount threshold, AP calls the race.

I Got Your Riot Right Here II

Seattle, from The Stranger

Yes, its the horrid dancemix version. Still, dancing in the streets. Mr. Obama tore down this wall.

I Got Your Riot Right Here

Quote O' The Day

I confess a certain impatience, on this poignant day, with all the earnest talk about how America achieved something remarkable yesterday by electing our first African-American president, as if the choice has been about race all along. I do not mean to diminish an historic first, like electing a Catholic in 1960; I, too, choked-up when John Lewis spoke. But relief today is not about Americans choosing an obviously black man over a white man, which proves we can come to terms with our past. It is about our choosing an obviously brilliant, reciprocal man over a thick, cynical one--a man who articulates a coherent vision of global commonwealth over someone advancing vague, military patriotism--which proves we can come to terms with our future.

-- Bernard Avishai at TPM

Free At Last

I got the girls down for bed tonight (part one of three), came downstairs, watched the end of the 9News update on evil Musgrave losing and 'Boulder Liberal' Udall winning, and then they cut back to NBC national with a graphic "Senator Barack Obama Elected 44th President Of The United States"...

I sat there for a second, and the first thought that came into my head was my grandmothers living room, where she has the Martin Luther King memorial plate that every african american over the age of 60 has somewhere.

And I totally lost it. A perfectly thorough five minute cry.

Then, of course, I had to go upstairs again. But I just got completely overwhelmed by it, the eight years lifted, the struggles of my family and everyone who ever got called a name for looking like me, it all fell off, if only for a minute.

I don't know how well he'll do - the task is epic and virtually insurmountable. But I remember four years ago yesterday, November 3rd, 2004, I woke up the morning after Bush's inconceivable reelection, knowing that my second child would come into the world later that day.

I'm hoping her world just got a little better.