"Dave Lindorff" - A Boomers Revolt -- Madison a Foretaste of Things to Come?

Published on Friday, March 4, 2011 by ThisCantBeHappening

http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/493

The Next Big Occupation Could be Boomers Taking Over the Capitol Building

by Dave Lindorff

The dramatic and inspiring occupation of the Wisconsin Statehouse in Madison by angry public workers and their supporters over the past few weeks is an exciting preview of what we can expect to see in the halls of Congress before long, as right-wing forces, funded by corporate lobbies and corporate-funded think-tanks push hard for cutbacks in Social Security and Medicare.

The drive to undermine these two critically important social programs is moving into high gear as the 79-million Baby Boomers this year start to reach eligibility, even as their other assets--their homes and their investment portfolios--are still shriveled by the Wall Street heist known as the “fiscal crisis” and Great Recession.

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Ellen Brown: How Wisconsin Could Turn Austerity into Prosperity

An answer to state budget woes that doesn't need to involve sacrificing workers' rights.

 by Ellen Brown

posted Mar 05, 2011

http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/how-wisconsin-could-turn-prosperity-into-austerity-own-a-bank

Public sector worker sitting in a bar: “They’re trying to take away our pensions.” 
Private sector worker: “What’s a pension?” 

—Cartoon in the Houston Chronicle

As states struggle to meet their budgets, public pensions are on the chopping block, but they needn’t be. States can keep their pension funds intact while leveraging them into many times their worth in loans, just as Wall Street banks do. They can do this by forming their own public banks, following the lead of North Dakota—a state that currently has a budget surplus.

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Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, whose recently proposed bill to gut benefits, wages, and bargaining rights for unionized public workers inspired weeks of protests in Madison, has justified the move as necessary for balancing the state's budget. But is it?  

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"Robert Freeman" - 2011 is 1848 Redux, But Worse

Published on Sunday, March 6, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/06-3

Robert Freeman:  2011 is 1848 Redux, But Worse

by Robert Freeman

“Gentlemen, I warn you.  Though the violence is not yet upon us, we are sleeping on a volcano.”

~ Alexis de Tocqueville, addressing the French parliament, January, 1848

In 1848, a series of revolutions convulsed Europe.  From Berlin to Budapest, Venice to Vienna, Paris to Prague, people rose up and overthrew the authoritarian monarchies that Metternich had installed in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.  It was these revolutions that prompted Karl Marx’s opening words of The Communist Manifesto:  “A specter is haunting Europe.  It is the specter of communism.”

Of course, Marx was wrong.  The specter of rebellion was more one of nationalism, and to a lesser extent, liberalism.  More importantly, all the revolutions ultimately failed.  They were all defeated by monarchical forces which mounted counter-revolutions and routed the insurrectionists.  Though many governments made token concessions to the rebels, all maintained, and in some cases strengthened, their authoritarian rule until finally, decades later, they could no longer suppress the impetus for change.

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"Ralph Nadar" - Selling Out Injured Baby Rights

Published on Saturday, March 5, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/05-4

by Ralph Nader

New York State's Governor Andrew Cuomo will be judged harshly by history if he doesn't reverse his position supporting limiting the legal rights of brain damaged babies. Imagine a life-time $250,000 cap on pain and suffering and families having to endure a burdensome and humiliating struggle to get medical bills paid as they arise from an insurance funded entity.

Governor Cuomo is hiding behind the recommendations of his Medicaid Redesign Team, which has more than a sprinkling of hospital and industry lobbyists, and which was the stalking horse for this heartless proposal.

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Tackled Wisconsin Representative Says His Capitol Key Card Is Disabled

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/tackled_wisconsin_representative_says_his_capitol_key_card_is_disabled.php

Eric Lach | March 4, 2011, 4:37PM

Wisconsin's Capitol building has "always been open to state legislators, to come and go as they please," state Representative Nick Milroy (D), the lawmaker who was tackled by Wisconsin Capitol Police on Thursday night, told TPM in an interview on Friday.

But this week, he says, has been different.

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Libya Stalemate, but Eruption of Savage Fighting Casts Civil War Shadow

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/05-1

Published on Saturday, March 5, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

Gaddafi's forces encircle rebels in Zawiyah after a day of pitched battles intensifies pressure on the embattled dictator

by Martin Chulov in Benghazi, Peter Beaumont in Tripoli and Jamie Doward

Forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi have encircled rebels in the town of Zawiyah after a day of pitched battles in the far west and east of Libya that intensified the pressure on the embattled dictator.

The fighting in Zawiyah, 30 miles west of the capital, Tripoli, was some of the most savage so far of the two-week uprising that has seen the east of the country fall into rebel hands and the veteran autocrat's rule pushed to the brink of collapse.

A contact of the Observer inside the city said the fighting was intense. "You must tell the world what is happening," the man said by phone. "Snipers are firing at anyone who moves."

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Michael Moore in Madison: 'This is our Last Chance to Wrestle America Away From the Grubby Hands of the Greedy Rich.'

Published on Saturday, March 5, 2011 by The Nation

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/05

by John Nichols

Filmmaker Michael Moore will march with members of Madison Firefighters Local 311 to the Wisconsin Capitol today and join a mass rally at the King Street entrance around 2 p.m.

Moore will speak up for union rights and cheer on the mass protests at a rally organized by the Wisconsin Wave movement, which has been backed by Wisconsin labor, farm, community and grassroots groups. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, former Mayor Paul Soglin, State Rep. Kelda Helen Roys, Liberty Tree Foundation director and Wisconsin Wave organizer Ben Manski and others will also speak, while singers Ryan Bingham, Jon Langford and Michelle Shocked will also join the rally.

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Romney to criticize 'Obama Misery Index' in address to GOP in early primary state

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/147651-romney-to-hit-obama-on-handling-recession-business?page=1#comments

By Daniel Strauss - 03/05/11 12:51 PM ET

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) will hit President Obama's economic policies and handling of the recession hard in a speech in New Hampshire on Saturday night.

Speaking at the Carroll County Lincoln Day Dinner in Bartlett, N.H., Romney, a likely 2012 Republican presidential candidate, will criticize the Obama administration on its relationship to American business and efforts to solve the country's economic woes, according to remarks obtained by The Hill.

"Senator Obama campaigned hard in New Hampshire but he apparently didn’t like what he saw. He certainly didn’t learn from it," Romney will say in the speech. "Instead of lowering taxes, he raised them. He wrapped businesses in red tape, he grew government, he borrowed trillions of dollars, and he made it clear that he doesn’t like business people very much."

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China's Key Aim is Taming Prices as Wen Vows to Narrow Widening Wealth Gap

By Bloomberg News - Mar 5, 2011 11:00 AM ET

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-05/china-s-key-aim-is-taming-prices-as-wen-vows-to-narrow-widening-wealth-gap.html

China will target inflation as the top economic priority this year and narrow the gap between rich and poor as the government seeks to maintain social stability, Premier Wen Jiabao told lawmakers in Beijing.

“We cannot allow price rises to affect the normal lives of low-income people,” Wen said in his state-of-the-nation report to the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress yesterday. “We will reverse the trend of a widening income gap as soon as possible.”

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“Kevin Donohoe” - In 22 Statehouses Across the Country, Conservatives Move to Disenfranchise Voters

By Guest Blogger  - Kevin Donohoe

Mar 5th, 2011

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/05/state-disenfranchisement-schemes/

In statehouses across the country, Republican lawmakers are raising the specter of “voter fraud” to push through legislation that would dramatically restrict the voting rights of college students, rural voters, senior citizens, the disabled and the homeless. As part of their larger effort to silence Main Street, conservatives are pushing through new photo identification laws that would exclude millions from voting, depress Hispanic voter turnout by as much as 10 percent, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars. In the next few months, a new set of election laws could make going to the polls and registering to vote significantly more difficult — in some cases even barring groups of citizens from voting in the communities where they live.

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