Neocons on a Cruise

From Johann Hari, Independent UK via Alternet, and with my emphasis:

From time to time, National Review - the bible of American conservatism - organises a cruise for its readers. I paid $1,200 to join them. The rules I imposed on myself were simple: If any of the conservative cruisers asked who I was, I answered honestly, telling them I was a journalist. Mostly, I just tried to blend in - and find out what American conservatives say when they think the rest of us aren't listening.

[...]

To my right are two elderly New Yorkers who look and sound like late-era Dorothy Parkers, minus the alcohol poisoning. They live on Park Avenue, they explain in precise Northern tones. "You must live near the UN building," the Floridian says to one of the New York ladies after the entree is served. Yes, she responds, shaking her head wearily. "They should suicide-bomb that place," he says.

[...]

"I went to Paris, and it was so lovely." Her face darkens: "But then you think - it's surrounded by Muslims." The first lady nods: "They're out there, and they're coming."

[...]

"Down the line, we're not going to bail out the French again." He mimes picking up a phone and shouts into it, "I can't hear you, Jacques! What's that? The Muslims are doing what to you? I can't hear you!"

[...]

" thank God for Fox News"

[...]

A Filipino waiter offers him a top-up of his wine, and he mock-whispers to me, "They all look the same! Can you tell them apart?"

[...]

"The coverage of this war is unbelievable. Even Fox News is unbelievable. You'd think we're the only ones dying. Enemy casualties aren't covered. We're doing an excellent job killing them."

[...]

"The election in the US is being seen by [the bin Ladenists] as a victory on a par with the collapse of the Soviet Union. We should be prepared for whatever comes next."

clickhereforallofit

I think "bin Ladenists" is my favorite. I know it's in brackets but I'm pretty sure the person really said that in another sentence or something, that's why Hari included it. These quotes aren't coming from your run-of-the mill Republican, these are conservative elites. But the really disturbing part is that ordinary people who label themselves as conservative look up to some of these cruise-goers that Hari meets.

If this is such a rich country, why are we getting squeezed?

From Alternet:

The commercial media is telling us two perfectly contradictory stories about the American economy. The first is how wonderfully rich we are in the United States. The stock market's booming -- some analysts predict the Dow will break the 15,000 this year -- the economy is expanding at a healthy clip, productivity growth is up and unemployment and inflation are relatively low.

But, at the same time, we're also told that we don't have the money to pay for a robust social safety net. When it comes to paying for universal health coverage, affording retirement security for our elderly, investing in programs for the poor or educating our children, we need to pinch pennies.

[...]

Saying that the majority of the country's economic gains in recent years have gone to the top one percent of the income ladder understates the trend. You have to cut the pie into even smaller slices to get the full picture. Because while the bottom half of the top one percent of the income distribution have done far better than the average wage slaves, it is a smaller slice still -- the top .01 percent -- that has grabbed most of the gains--seeing an impressive 250 percent increase in income between 1973 and 2005 -- from an economy that's grown by 160 percent.

[...]

An analysis by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez gives us the best perspective of what's going on for everyone else. They found that despite several periods of healthy growth between 1973 and 2005, the average income of all but the top ten percent of the income ladder -- nine out of ten American families - fell by 11 percent when adjusted for inflation. For three decades, economic growth in the United States has gone first and foremost to building today's modern Gilded Age.

[...] economists like to mention globalization, mechanization, or other factors that require us to be lean and mean and more "competitive."

[...]

But that's simply not true.

The economy--as measured by gross domestic product (GDP)--has grown by over 160 percent since 1973 (PDF).

click here for the whole thing

I really like how they used the term "Guilded Age," because that's exactly what we've been living in. Corporate media and corporate politicians boast about our economy, but most Americans don't benefit at all. We're systematically being ripped off, and it's completely intentional.

Meanwhile, talk radio pundits, and most cable news pundits, chomp at the bit about how poor people and anyone who questions our corporate system need to shut the hell up and realize how great our country is, and supposedly "liberal" CNN blatantly lies about the facts presented in Sicko and no one but Michael Moore himself calls them on it (just one example of many others I could name).

Some people don't realize how FUCKED UP this is.

While Europeans Vacation, Americans Toil

From Marie Cocco, Truthdig, via Alternet:

Stingy leave policies in the United States go hand and hand with weekly work hours that exceed those in many industrialized countries. And they parallel skimpy sick leave and family leave policies that give millions of Americans no effective safety net when illness or emergencies strike. Nearly half of private-sector workers--57 million people--have no paid sick days, according to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a chief sponsor of a measure to require at least some sick days for employees who work more than 30 hours per week. The problem is particularly acute for low-wage workers, more than three-fourths of whom get no paid leave when they are ill.

clickhereforallofit

Yeah, I'm at work right now, and I thought this was a good article to post. This topic is actually covered a little in Sicko, Michael Moore's new documentary. It's kinda early in the morning right now so I don't have much to say about this, other than it sucks but I'm not suprised in any way. I actually haven't read the whole thing yet, as I type this, perhaps I'll waste a little more time and do that. Hey, my boss straight up told me yesterday that he was running out of work for me to do this summer, might as well kick backk a little.

The Rise and Fall of Immigration Reform: Language Had Everything to Do with It

From HuffingtonPost.com, via Alternet, by Drew Westen:

To be compelling, and to defuse the morality tale on immigration of the right and righteous, our story needs to begin with the most important truth, for which we needed no reminder this week from London and Glasgow, that the protection of our borders and safety is the first task of government. It then needs to steal the thunder from the right that readily reverberates through the middle by adding to the incantation, "If they're going to live in our country, they need to learn to speak our language," the simple, progressive, and quintessentially American phrase, "because if they don't, their children will never know the American Dream, and we will have done nothing for them but to relegate them to second-class citizenship."

And it should remind those of us who can sometimes be moved to hatred or callousness when it is intermingled with the language of terror or prejudice, but whose better angels will heed our call if only we summon them, that we were all once strangers in a strange land, and that when we look in the face of an immigrant who wants nothing more than to work hard for a better life for his or her children, we are looking in the mirror.

clickhereforallofit

I'm at work so I can't spend long on this. I just thought this was a really good post on immigration.

In other news, I recently ordered this shirt from Alternative Tentacles' website:

Quite bored, quite at work

So I'm working at my dad's power plant again, here in Pasadena, Texas, but I'm doing slightly different work than I did last time. For the past two weeks my partner and I have been entering into a computer three pieces of information for each piece of equipment IN THE ENTIRE PLANT as according to records printed on May 4th, 1988 (just a few days after I was born).

I'm down to the last few pages right now, but I'm so tired (it's not even 7:30 yet) my body keeps cramping up while I type this stuff in. I'm trying to loosen up by taking the risk of slacking off and maybe getting in trouble, you know how blogs are.

There's hardly anyone here so I don't feel too bad about half assing it, thought it should probably mean the opposite, what with the whole 'holding down the fort' idea. But I feel the fort is pretty well held down here, even with everyone gone on vacation (including my entire immediate family, who are on the way to Califuckingfornia at the moment).

I've concluded that this new job I have here is easier on the body, but much harder on the mind. I used to mow grass all day. It was a riding mower and everything, but I had to wear long sleeves, jeans, boots, a hardhat and goggles, and in the summer that's not so comfortable. If I had that job today I'd have nothing to do at all, so this blog wouldn't be a total waste of time, but anyway, I think I'd much rather be doing that one despite the toilyness.

HA, but I really like how my work is at a computer, faced away from the doorway, so it looks like I'm working while I type this.

I'M GOING TO VOODOO!!

My crazy girlfriend bought me a three day pass to Voodoo fest 2007 for an aniversary gift!!! I can't believe I'm gonna see Rage Against the Machine!!!!

That's all I got right now, I think that's a pretty good entry.

Sicko

Last Friday morning I went and saw the first showing of Sicko's premiere at the one theater in Houston that is showing Michael Moore's new film.

I've written about his film's before and praised his work, but I'll admit I've become less of a fan as time has gone on. Sicko didn't turn me a born-again Michael Moore fanatic, but it's definately his best work to date. I think his film's have gotten progressively honest, each one looking more at all sides of the conflict in question and keeping everything relevant. I think this film could be his most influential one yet, if we just get the word out...and that's all I'm really trying to do with this entry.

For those who don't know (because this film has been waaaaay under promoted) Sicko is about health care, and it addresses the issue of whether universal health care could work in the United States. While he might paint a too rosey picture of France and Canada's (and others') health care systems, it's pretty obvious that the US's is much, much worse, not just by poor results but by its actual design (especially post-Nixon). Most people realize this, but the film does a pretty good job of debunking the myths about an evil, authoritarian result from adopting socialized health care. Fox pundits are already spouting the same old "we'd have to sacrifice everything" rhetoric that this film destroys!

The best line of the film:
"If we have the money to kill people [with war], we've got the money to help people."
-Tony Binn, former British MP

So go see Sicko, you won't regret it.