"The Hardest Vote I've Taken"

I happen to like Al Franken. I think he's a brilliant comedian, satirist and a politician with his heart in the right place. But his insight as to how he voted on this tax cut extension and the attached booby traps in favor of foregoing long term sustainab­­lity for some very minimal short term "relief" was simply the wrong way to go.
This was a bad vote.
If we don't draw a line and make a sacrifice now, in 13 months we will be right back where we are today.
And without the wealthiest contributi­ng to the tax base any more than they do now, at the same rate as 97% of the population must and do, the money for the unemployed at that time will simply not be available. It will suely be a case of "Deja vu all over again".
Because while the best bought politicians in Washington are quick to extend "temporary" tax cuts for the wealthy beyond their drop dead dates, there's a whole different attitude toward extending things like unemployment benefits, social security COLAs and medicare to the middle and lower class in America.

Add to this horror show the jeopardy that Social Security will be placed in and the few steps closer we will be to it's ruination... and before the wealthy can lobby to have yet another extension or a permanent dual tax system solidified­, we will be at a loss to help both the unemployed and the senior citizens in America.

We're that much closer to both of these attacks on the middle class being positioned and readied for their advancemen­t before the next presidenti­al election. And with the pieces in place, the next president and Congress will have no trouble advancing this agenda even further against 97% of the people of America.

Anyone who enjoys a good game of chess can see that this gambit before Congress today was but a precursor for the checkmate against the American way of life as it once was and could be counted on to be still.
Sure this was a tough vote. But it would have been better to be tough now, than powerless later.

Read the original article at HuffingtonPost

New Figures Detail Depth Of Unemployment Misery, Lower Earnings For All But Super Wealthy (VIDEO)

I wonder if the champions of capitalism rich and poor alike, (which has solidly failed the American people twice now in but 80 years) are ready to concede that it may not be all it has been cracked up to be?

The immediate response to this (if any) will be through Ad Hominem from those who see the world in only two contrasting colors with the ever popular shield that surely I must be talking about taking our country communistic, socialistic or some other "istic"...failing to see that perhaps a mix of the tried and untrue economic models might be the way to go for us. Or something new entirely.

But surely, I'm just dreaming in print, because our economic and social futures are already designed and set for us all (globally) by the wealthiest and most powerful; who amassed said wealth and power through nurturing the system(s) we live under to the detriment of the vast majority of Americans whose misfortune can be seen growing daily.

I wouldn't want to be a person of grade school age today, anywhere in the western (or eastern) world and have the next 80 years of being treated like a farm animal... to look forward to.

This is the result of short sighted greed and rampant capitalism with no consideration toward it's workability for the people or the possibility of adapting it when it's failure showed itself evident.

This is the legacy we leave our children.

And our "children's, children's, children".
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost