CMoore.com

Krugman’s got an article on the latest push to further establish a new gilded age. A fuedal society where only the Waltons and Hiltons and Rockefellers have the means and the rest of us plebes work for the benefit of those worthless sacks of flesh.

The Senate almost voted to repeal the estate tax last fall, but Republican leaders postponed the vote after Hurricane Katrina. It’s easy to see why: the public might have made the connection between scenes of Americans abandoned in the Superdome and scenes of well-heeled senators voting huge tax breaks for their even wealthier campaign contributors.

But memories of Katrina have faded, and they’re about to try again. The Senate will probably vote this week. So it’s important to realize that there’s still a clear connection between tax breaks for the rich and failure to help Americans in need.

Any senator who votes to repeal the estate tax, or votes for a “compromise” that goes most of the way toward repeal, is in effect saying that increasing the wealth of people who are already in line to inherit millions or tens of millions is more important than taking care of fellow citizens who need a helping hand.
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Who would benefit from this largess? The estate tax is overwhelmingly a tax on the very, very wealthy; only about one estate in 200 pays any tax at all. The campaign for estate tax repeal has largely been financed by just 18 powerful business dynasties, including the family that owns Wal-Mart.

Once again, the procedural vote will be the important one. If the vote for cloture succeeds then the bill will surely pass at an estimated cost to we, the People, of hundreds of millions of dollars. All for the benefit of herpes-infested nothings and antisemitic goons and messianic, prudish, sanctimoniously evil poverty profiteers.

This pandering to the base by the GOP is almost as sickening as the blatantly transparent bullshit W (et.al.) is spouting about supporting a Hate Amendment to the Constitution (side note: seriously, how mouth breathingly stupid are the bigots who vote GOP? Every 2 years, they pull out the same bigoted, nativist, mouthfrothing hate agenda as if they’re going to do something about it, and every 2 years these undead zombies pull the lever. And yet… nothing is ever done. Along with being hateful and inhuman, they’re all dumber than a bag of rocks.)

There are more than a couple senators and ’08 wannabe preznits who will vote for cloture and then against the bill on the full Senate floor. This is what Biden and Lieberman (among others) did on the execrable bankruptcy bill, and what Cantwell and Lieberman (among others) did on the scAlito nomination. This is what McCain will do. I’m sure Lieberman will right there with him.

Given the GOP’s nationalist, jingoist, reactionary, racist proposed bill this week that would make helping an 80 year old across the street illegal if she were an undocumented alien. This unamerican, unchristian, inhuman bill is one of the biggest disgraces of our recent congressional history.

Well, the immigrants and libs heard about it too.

Joining what some are calling the nation’s largest mobilization of immigrants ever, hundreds of thousands of people boisterously marched in downtown Los Angeles Saturday to protest federal legislation that would crack down on undocumented immigrants, penalize those who help them and build a security wall on the U.S. southern border. Spirited crowds representing labor, religious groups, civil-rights advocates and ordinary immigrants stretched over 26 blocks of downtown Los Angeles from Adams Blvd. along Spring Street and Broadway to City Hall, tooting kazoos, waving American flags and chanting “Si se puede!” (Yes we can!). The crowd, estimated by police at more than 500.000, represented one of the largest protest marches in Los Angeles history, surpassing Vietnam War demonstrations and the 70,000 who rallied downtown against Proposition 187, a 1994 state initiative that denied public benefits to undocumented migrants.

Given our gilded age, I’m sure this will have as much effect as the worldwide demonstrations against the Iraq invasion. Don’t these GOoPers know who provides all the essential services they rely upon? They cook their meals, they drive the ambulances. They connect our calls. They guard us while we sleep. Do not… fuck with them.

Abramoff’s singing like a canary to anyone who will listen. The first barn burner is Vanity Fair. Abramoff’s an evil little troll with an ego that demands acknowledgement. He’s going to jail, but he’s not planning on going either quietly or alone.

He’s the fellow responsible for what might be the biggest government scandal since Watergate, the man whose sullied example could maybe, possibly, help clean up Washington. He’s the guy who wore that infamous black hat on the day he admitted it all. Abramoff is known everywhere but in two buildings, that is: the United States Capitol and the White House. Sure, he spread around millions of Indian-tribe dollars, to say nothing of golf trips to Scotland and free meals at Signatures, his own fancy restaurant, and luxury-box seats at sporting events—American Indians, of all people, paying for Redskins tickets—among roughly 270 members of Congress.

The extent of GOP corruption is breathtaking, and at the same time quite unsurprising. This is what happens when you live in a gilded age lead by an oligopoly of the Haves. Thanks, Reagan.

Read more…

As with everything else he’s approached in his gilded life, Bush has apparently lost interest in Katrina and rebuilding NOLA and the other devestated parts of the south. This is the same pattern evident in his attention to companies, baseball teams, Osama bin Laden, “No Child Left Behind,” and Iraq – a bunch of hot air and attention followed quickly by disinterest and abandonment.

Bush, September 15:

And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.

Situation today:

The last time the president was in the hurricane region was October 11, two months ago.

The Boy King is done with this pony. Bring him another! Mars, bitches!

Rich get richer… poor get poorer. Welcome to the Reagan-Bush society, bitches!

The nation’s poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year, the fourth consecutive annual increase, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.
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The number of people without health insurance grew from 45 million to 45.8 million. At the same time, the number of people with health insurance coverage grew by 2 million last year.

Note: that last paragraph should read: of the 2.8 million new people eligible for insurance, we only covered 2 million, or a bit over 1/3.

The median household income, meanwhile, stood at $44,389, unchanged from 2003.

Read: while the nation was sliding into poverty, wages were stagnant (going backwards, actually, accounting for inflation), and the top 1% did very, very well for themselves. Bush boom? Not for we, the People.

Don’t have to tell me, brother, I know. Good news for American workers everywhere (and really good news for our gilded age bossman overlords). Soon, we’ll be able to achieve a level of “prosperity” that would please a Pakistani brick maker.

Real wages in the US are falling at their fastest rate in 14 years, according to data surveyed by the Financial Times.

Inflation rose 3.1 per cent in the year to March but salaries climbed just 2.4 per cent, according to the Employment Cost Index. In the final three months of 2004, real wages fell by 0.9 per cent.

The last time salaries fell this steeply was at the start of 1991, when real wages declined by 1.1 per cent.

Stingy pay rises mean many Americans will have to work longer hours to keep up with the cost of living, and they could ultimately undermine consumer spending and economic growth.

The war on inflation’s necessary corrollary is a decrease in our standard of living. I, for one, am tired of it.