Weekly Reading List From Common Dreams

You can’t go wrong with any of these:

• Tim DeChristopher: I Do Not Want Mercy, I Want You To Join Me
• Jeff Cohen: Obama is NOT “Caving” to Corporate Interests
• Paul Buchheit: The Question Conservatives Can’t Answer
• Paul Krugman: ‘Centrism’: The Cult That Is Destroying America
• Christopher Brauchli: The Tax Burden of the Very Rich
• Robert Reich: Why Washington is About to Make the Jobs Crisis Worse
• Robert Scheer: Debt Madness Was Always About Killing Social Security
• Holly Sklar: CEOs to Workers: More for Me, Less for You
• Glenn Greenwald: On Not Freaking Out With Fear: An Un-American Response to Oslo
• Tom Tresser: None Dare Call it Privatization

New Rule: Rich People Who Complain About Being Vilified Should Be Vilified

New Rule: Rich People Who Complain About Being Vilified Should Be Vilified

Bill Maher’s latest effort is brilliant and fuunnny.  Go read it.

I would like to put the obscenely wealthy in the Super Dome, just pack them in, and have them listen to a recording of Bill Maher reading this post on a continuous loop for eternity.

Well at least a couple of days, without bathroom breaks or refreshments.

What a wonderful read, it should be set to music, I’d like to be able to hum along
Bill Maher: at HuffingtonPost

Sally Kohn: An Ideological Intervention: Tax Cuts for the Rich

[Editor's note: Sally Kohn of Movement Vision Labs posted this excellent and hilarious video at Huff Post before lunch. It's the best, the most concise post I've read dealing with ending the Bush tax cuts, and it's in layman's language so I totally understood it. I think you will too. I think I have permission to run it, but it's so good I'm going to take a chance before I hear from her. Bob Higgins]

How stupid is the idea of extending tax cuts for the top 1% of Americans and further draining resources for the average, hard-working Americans?

To find an analogy, you need look no further than your own hand. Check out my latest popular education 101 video about why cutting taxes for the rich in the midst of our economic crisis is bad for you and our overall body politic.  Sally Kohn

Can All These Joes Be Wrong?

Note: The cartoon is the logo of the real Joe the Plumber in Amarillo. Send him some business, I’m told that he’s an Obama guy. If his website takes off because of all this attention maybe he can switch from actual plumbing to an online plumbing advice column. Bob

The month began with Sarah Palin celebrating her campaign’s close identification and long association with “Joe Six Pack,” the mythic every man vision of America that he and they dream that they represent.

Then in last night’s “debate” came “Joe the Plumber,” a guy who claims that he wants to buy a business which “makes” 250k a year and he’s worried about Obama’s tax policies. Who’s next, Joe Bananas, Joe Cool, Joe Mama?

Forgetting for the moment that I have strong suspicions that “Joe the Plumber” is a ringer. Yes, nefarious as it sounds I’m afraid that Joe may be a not too carefully selected, and poorly rehearsed plant from the McCain camp. He was probably chosen by the same group of desperately drunken political geniuses who trotted out Sarah Palin.

Joe the plumber should probably rethink this entrepreneurship thing if he believes that a business that “makes” 250k a year means that he will have an income at that level. A good plumber working steadily by himself with occasional labor help is doing extremely well to gross a quarter of that.