Ignoring the constituency

June 1, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living Comments Off on Ignoring the constituency

Again and again, Republicans are ignoring what the voters sent them to do: create jobs, help people who’ve been harmed by the Great Recession, fix public infrastructure, strengthen the public safety net …

Instead, at state and federal levels, they do just the opposite, catering to the big corporate money that got them there. They seem intent on creating a permanent underclass to serve the super-wealthy, who keep getting wealthier under these policies. Even worse, they’re blackmailing the president and governors to accept their draconioan budgets or they’ll drive the country off a cliff.

In North Carolina, more than 46,000 people have had their unemployment benefits cut off. Most of them don’t have enough savings to tide them over for long. The Republican majority won’t reinstate the benefits unless Gov. Bev Perdue agrees to drastic and disastrous cuts to education, human services, mental health care and more. Now, the unemployment benefits don’t even come from state money — it’s all federal, so it really has nothing to do with the state budget.

The Republican majority proposes tax cuts to the wealthy while slashing the most basic human services. Already, children are losing health care benefits because of cuts to Healthy Choice, the state’s health insurance plan for low-income children.

Most North Carolinians will tell you they don’t want these cuts. They also would tell you they don’t want payday loan companies to be able to charge up to 90 percent interest per year, but the state legislature is about to pass a law that will allow them to do just that.

Nationally, the GOP insists we have to gut Medicare or they won’t raise the debt ceiling. Medicare is one of the most popular programs the government has ever run. It is not about to go broke, and the majority of Americans don’t want to see it gutted.

The Republicans are holding the whole world economy hostage over raising the debt ceiling, which used to be a routine vote.

But the Right doesn’t care. They want their money, no matter who has to go without, and their lies, spread by the so-called mainstream media, cause people to vote against their own best interests.

Even people who have been devastated by the worst spate of tornadoes in history can’t get help from the Republicans; the’re saying the Democrats have to cut something out of the budget before these poor people get aid.

This is the same party that refused to put George Bush’s wars into the budget so people wouldn’t know just how much they were spending. But then, their corporate friends are getting fatter and fatter off of those dollars.

 On the bright side, the recall elections are going nicely. Let’s hope we see more of that.

The immorality of ‘optional’ care

May 30, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living Comments Off on The immorality of ‘optional’ care

I read in the newspaper this morning that the NC Senate is considering cutting “optional” Medicaid services as the costs rise.

Sounds reasonable, right? That’s until you hear what’s optional. The place where my friend Stacie and her best friend, Ashley, live is optional.

That’s Stacie in the photo, showing off her beautiful smile. I met her and Ashely five or so years ago when they went to their prom. Although both young women are non-verbal, they have effective ways of communicating with each other and their caregivers. When Stacie thought she was running late for her hair appointment the day of the prom, she tugged on my sleeve, pointed to her watch and touched her hair. I promised her the hairdresser would wait for her.

Stacie and Ashley have lived together since they were small children; they’re in their mid-20s now, living at one of three residences at the Irene Wortham Center. Their days are filled with activities and caring people, and they are as close as any two sisters — there’s even a little rivalry between them.

But the NC Senate believes these residences and the services they render are “optional.” Extra. Non-essential. If the funding is cut off, Stacie and Ashley don’t have family who can take them in and care for them. They likely will land in separate nursing homes where there is little emotional or physical stimulation.

Liz Huesemann, the executive director of the Irene Wortham Center, doesn’t think she will be able to get enough money to continue caring for these two young women — and 22 other people who are helpless to decide their own fate.

“I’ll tell you what will happen,” Huesemann said. “They’ll wither away and die. They’ll just die.”

Also optional will be eye care and dental care for adults, and God only knows what else. The story in the newspaper didn’t go into much detail. Maybe that’s because the people in the NC Senate know people would be upset to know what’s about to happen to people with serious disabilities.

Or maybe they figure most people really don’t care what happens to less-than-perfect human beings. Historically, their needs have been ignored. They were warehoused in places like Wrentham State School in Massachusetts and Letchworth Village in New York, and they died very young.

Then in the 1960s and 1970s, advocates demanded humane treatment, and things improved. Warehouses became homes, with people grouped in smaller numbers, and even the most profoundly disabled people receiving stimulation and therapy.

We’re about to take a huge step back in time. Don’t think for a moment people with disabilities don’t understand when no value is placed on their lives. Stacie and Ashley know people care about them. They know someone will help them when they need it.

I can’t imagine placing them in a nursing home that doesn’t have the facilities or the staff to care for them properly.

It matters very much to me. If it matters to you, call your state senator in Raleigh and tell him or her you’re watching.

Black tag of courage or a Liberal learns about war

May 30, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living Comments Off on Black tag of courage or a Liberal learns about war

I was a Paramedic in the Air Force in the early 90’s.  Joining the military was one of the better decisions I have made in my almost 50 years and even at the old age of 27, the training I went through gave me a wealth of discipline I previously did not have. There’s a plethora that I completely disagree with in how our military personal are utilized, but I was lucky to be at their disposal before the right wing, corporate quest for empire began to pick up speed in earnest.  Pretending to assist the wounded and pick up dead soldiers on the battlefield is all fun and games until it really happens.

The Air Force Medical Core / Paramedic training was (at that time) conducted at Shepard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. I love Wichita Falls, but that’s another post. We slept in tents, ate MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) out of plastic pouches plucked out of 55 gal. drums of boiling water, rescued the pilots of a long forgotten war from their rusting C-2 Greyhound and learned about triage. The pic to the left was taken during my time at the Med Red (Medical Readiness) training grounds somewhere near or on Shepard Air force Base.

The one and only time I ever argued with a superior officer was in triage class over the black tag. In the military they call the black tag “expectant” and in the civilian world the term “morgue” is used.  The protocol for the black tag soldier was a simple one… pain meds until dead. How could anyone not do all that could be done to treat all the wounded, no matter how badly they were injured, I asked? To the instructor’s credit he was very kind to me as he explained that war is not about helping the few, it’s about helping the many. Maybe I was not the first bleeding heart liberal he ever had in his class. That was probably lesson one for me on my way to seeing what all soldiers probably know, even the person of peace is sometimes called upon to fight and die for it. A person who hates war must sometimes wage war to stop it. Until humans decide to deal with our differences differently, create a world where despots have no place and stop ignoring that our precious freedoms depend on all of us finding our common ground and contributing what we can to that common good… there will always be bloodshed.

I wrote the following letter to the editor of my conservative, East Tennessee town in early October, 2004. It was my first act of publicly putting my thoughts in front of the Republican faithful. I didn’t get lynched and a couple of people even told me, in confidence of course, that they felt the same way.

The Policy is not the Soldier

A Memorial Day flashback to October 2004

The Republican party would have you believe that their policy is the Soldier. They would prefer that no one make the distinction between their personal agenda and the Soldier that dies in Iraq.  As Mr. Bush’s comments clearly stated: that would simply send the wrong message, “mixed messages” to our brave troops.  How indeed could they follow a leader of questionable intent, morals and leadership?

How indeed? The Republican Party’s story is that this is all about freedom, bringing democracy to the middle east and fighting terrorists wherever they may be.  Those of us who don’t believe that story is entirely true are considered by many as un-patriotic and un-supportive of our sons and daughters fighting and dying in Mr. Bush’s war.

Every person that I meet who cannot allow my right to that opinion has cited the same sentiment, that it disrespected the soldier. No! The Soldier and the policy are not the same thing.

As a Gulf war veteran, I respect those who have chosen to protect our country. I do not respect a commander and chief that would spill their blood for profit, power and a personal vendetta while lying about it.

This president seriously underestimated the consequences of his actions; he will not admit his error in judgement and he hoping that Americans will not be able to separate his failed policy and premature actions from the brave men and women he put in harm’s way.

The spin is relentless in keeping the idea going that one cannot disagree with poor decision-making without disrespecting the troops, and sadly, it seems to be working.  I imagine Mr. Bush and his cronies having a good laugh at just how much the American people are willing to swallow.  And after numbing us out with the unprecedented fear this administration generated in the wake of 9/11, the religious right was waiting to take us all in and show us the error of our ways and their path to salvation.  The path of writing discrimination into the constitution, the path of altering the idea of separation of church and state, the path of intolerance and judgement.

The right to disagree, the right to speak out belong to us all for the moment. Even Mr. Bush and his ilk have the right to express themselves under the same principles, but they do not have the right to legislate for their own purposes and enrichment. It is our duty as informed citizens to keep them in check for the day they overtake us the “other” terrorists will be the least of our worries.  that will be the day none of us are free any longer, not even the right-wing, Republican, Moral majority, Christian Coalition, NRA life member.

Happy Memorial Day and Peace Y’all

 

 

At least the left apologizes

May 26, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living Comments Off on At least the left apologizes

Me and and my good friend Ed Shultz (OK, so I'm more of a fan than a friend).

I’m a big Ed Schultz fan; I have been ever since he kept health reform alive and on the radar after most everyone else had given up. Ed just kept talking about it and talking about it.

Ed came to an informal Congressional hearing on the day after a huge health care rally in Washington, and he wept as he listened to the stories. These were not crocodile tears; Ed Schultz is a real mush, and injustice and lies fire him up — sometimes a little too much.

I heard him call Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut” on his show and I knew this would be trouble. It was a case of open-mouth-insert-foot. This time, though, he seemed to have gotten both feet in there.

See, Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity can call people any names they want and there’s no blowback. Laura Ingraham can use the “n” word and then wonder why people don’t respect her freedom of speech, and the right will stand behind her and call the left overly sensitive.

I’m not saying what Ed did was right. I shook my head in disappointment when I heard it. But what happened next is something the right never does: Ed Schultz went to his bosses and voluntarily took a week’s suspension from  his MSNBC TV show without pay. Keith Olbasmann and Joe Scarborough both recveived  suspensions from the network for violating campaign contribution policy, but this is for something said outside of MSNBC’s employ. Unlike Olbermann, Schultz won’t complain about the suspension.

He apologized on his show before taking leave and called his own comment “vile and inappropriate.” He apologized to Ingraham, to his family and to his listeners.

As for Ingraham, according to Huffington Post: “Ingraham did respond on Facebook and Twitter, where she wrote, “MSNBC suspends Schultz. Oh great, now his ratings will go up.”

Ed Schultz is loud and he can be abrasive, but he is sincere. He speaks his mind, and even when I disagree with him, I respect him. He’s there for all of us not-wealthy who are being screwed by big corporations and their influence on government, and he’s telling the truth. When Big Media choose to ignore stories like the demonstrations in Wisconsin, Ed’s there with his big mouth, making noise and keeping the story alive.

Yes, he slipped. But he’s humble enough — and decent enough — to admit it, apologize and accept the consequences.

Well, I’m a sucker for a sincere apology and for a man big enough to make it.

I’m proud to have him on my side.

Seasons

May 26, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living Comments Off on Seasons

So I was thinking about the rapture myth today and not just because of all the recent hoopla or non hoopla.  I’ve long been fascinated by this concept and people who really believe in its literal translation. I like a little give and take, but seriously, if there’s not some room in this story for the metaphorical then all I can say is “wow”.

I don’t mean to bash people who believe this is actually going to happen, literally, exactly like it says in the Bible. I really don’t (conservatives don’t wast your time on this point). I do however marvel at the lack of desire to just simply and naturally expand one’s consciousness a little, forget thinking completely outside the box. There was a study a week or two ago that said conservatives and liberals are just wired different. Sorry I don’t have the link to that story… feel free to Google it.  Is this divide between left and right all in the hardware? I don’t know about that, but I do know it’s definitely in the stuff we can’t measure. The consciousness, the Soul, the essence, the life force, the spirit… the whatever.  Not being able to grasp the symbolism and simply choose to learn from it right now, combined with the delusion that hard working patriots just naturally need larger sexual arenas, It all just screams second chakra to me. Look, we all have our baser natures, but the idea is not to use the fires of hell and the rapture story to keep other people in line while you party like it’s fucking 1999.  It’s mostly at the intersection where pious ass and stone cold hypocrite meet that the Holy head banger logic just doesn’t add up for me and I just don’t care to deal with them anymore. What if way back some plugged in peep got a glimpse of the world after we got done hating each other and the planet to death? What would you have called an offshore drilling rig if you didn’t have the damnedest idea what the hell it was?

There is definitely a shift in consciousness taking place, my conservative fellows, but it has nothing to do with being rewarded for allowing your fear to make you a tacit accomplice of legislative extortionists if not an outright one. If the rapture is about teaching us anything it’s about bringing the dream of cooperation and community to fruition. The model where individual liberty meets social responsibility. We can’t ever completely eject the Paul Ryans from the relative world, without the dark we can’t appreciate the light, but I sure as hell don’t want him and his ilk making that choice for me. Change the polls, my ass.

Hope y’all are off to a great summer, but please remember to keep those who are suffering in your thoughts and wallets when and where you can. Especially don’t forget the pets that have lost their people. I heard a story this afternoon on a 880 The Revolution news break about a white German Shepherd that was hurt and wandering around a parking lot in Joplin Mo. The story says the animal control people caught her when she couldn’t walk anymore and just laid down to die. You know that shit made me cry. Don’t know what happened to her next, but people are helping them right now and you can lend a hand Right now. Hell there’s pulverized swaths of towns all over the place. Must be because God hates the Gays.

In other news I have a new love in my life. His name is Angus. He’s a handsome, but mischievous devil that loves to snuggle. Brother Wolf was keeping him for me until I realized he was looking for me. My love of beefy dogs is a lifelong one, but he is the first Pit mix I’ve experienced. He is an amazing little spirit.  Say hi Angus : )

More exciting news on the horizon for AWOP. Stay tuned for details on our new internet radio show. I will be volunteering and hosting our new show from the fabulous West Asheville studios of Asheville FM. Grass Roots community radio. Perfect. If you are interested in being a part of our new media stream, let me know. I will be looking for guests and sponsors. Thanks so much to Lesley Groetsch of Local Edge Radio on 880 The Revolution, Asheville’s Progressive Talk for your solid advice and words of inspiration about the project and for the great work you do on your show. I shall not chicken out.

And lastly, I’m just damn glad it’s summer.

Peace Y’all.

Social justice isn’t news anymore

May 23, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living Comments Off on Social justice isn’t news anymore

During most of my nearly three decades as a newspaper reporter, I covered social justice issues, religion and nonprofits.

I wrote stories about domestic violence, living wage campaigns, poverty issues, disabilities, and state and federal programs that weren’t doing their jobs.

That social issues/nonprofits beat is going away at the Asheville Citizen-Times as of this week, when one-third of what’s left of the newsroom staff gets the ax.

No one knows how the 30-plus remaining people will put out a newspaper every day. Functions that once required 15 people are pared down to three people now.

It isn’t the fault of anyone locally — Gannett, which owns what’s left of the paper, has made cut after cut after cut. In the last five years, half the newsroom staff has been laid off as some functions have been relegated to a central hub. The page design you see was done in Louisville, Ky., or Greenville, SC. The printing is done in Greenville. Ad design is done elsewhere; in all about one-third of the staff that was here 10 years ago remains to put out an ever-shrinking, ever more crappy excuse for a newspaper.

Craig Dubow, Gannett’s CEO makes more than $9 million in annual compensation; the corporation now is laying off fathers and mothers making under $50,000. A few months ago, they decided to lay off a non-citizen who is here legally, but who has two small children, a wife who can’t work because of visa restrictions and who was not eligible for unemployment compensation, even though he paid the same taxes as everyone else in the newsroom.

What happens now is that news just won’t get covered. What we used to call enterprise reporting — including investigative journalism — just won’t get done anymore. When Republicans in the state legislature cut $60 million from the state mental health system, which is already so bad the federal Department of Justice is investigating it, no one will know how harmful that will be to the population here in Western North Carolina because no one will be watching.

That was the function of newspapers when I got into the business: government watchdog.

But over the years, newspapers have been bought by a few huge — and conservative — coroprations. Staffs have been cut and news has become nothing more than the filler that goes between the ads. They’re not looking for an investigative piece about how the state is not caring for children with disabilities, or how people are dying because state psychiatric hospitals are releasing patients with no discharge plan. Readers won’t know if the state wants to close the places where people with disabilities work under close supervision, leaving both the people with disabilities and their caregivers in the lurch.

Newspapers don’t shame government anymore because they don’t cover government. Instead of the watchdogs of power, newspapers have become lapdogs.

Less than five years ago, I had an editor tell me public policy made his eyes glaze over. This was someone who supposedly was making editorial and coverage decisions.

This layoff is just another nail in the coffin of what used to be a good newspaper. There’s little reason to buy it anymore, yet the executives at Gannett corporate wonder why circulation keeps going down and fewer people want to buy ads. I can’t believe they’re really too stupid to figure it out; I believe it’s because they just don’t care about the people who work for them or the people who buy their papers.

A dozen capable news people will be out of work before the end of this week, and there’s no reason for it other than corporate greed.

Looks like we’re all still here

May 22, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living Comments Off on Looks like we’re all still here

It's probably best to not be out when the Rapture comes because of all the cars without drivers and whatnot.

OK, so I never took the whole Rapture thing seriously. I even made plans for after 6 p.m. yesterday: I went to a ballgame.

Unlike many of my more liberal friends, I know all about the fundamentalist theology, so I knew this Harold Camping character was wrong. For one thing, only God is supposed to know. Jesus is quoted as saying even he doesn’t know when the end will come.

The Rapture isn’t in the Bible, although you can probably twist Revelation to say it’s going to happen.

As a kid, I was told to be ready ALL the time because the Antichrist was probably already born and growing up in Europe somewhere because the Eurpoean Common Market (which became the European Union) would become the one world government and the Pope would bring about this watered-down one world church and we who believed the truth would be persecuted.

The bar code would become the Mark of the Beast, and without it we wouldn’t be able to buy food or anything.

It was never clear whether this would begin before or after the Rapture, but the Rapture would be followed by seven years of Tribulation, which we definitely didn’t want to be around for. Lots of death and misery, topped off by the Apocalypse, which is supposed to be really messy.

This theology kept me very scared for a very long time. But as I grew and learned, I figured it was kind of like the government telling me we’re doing the right thing in Vietnam.

My epiphany came when a guest preacher at my church said — from the pulpit — “We’re doing the Lord’s work in Vietman killing all those Godless gooks.”

I was 17, and I was opposed to the war. I also was opposed to hate language (I still oppose both).

My parents would wash my mouth out with soap for using racial epithets, and I believed the Greatest Commandment: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

I approached the minister after church and told him I didn’t think we were supposed to be killing God’s children at all, since there’s a period at the end of, “Thou shalt not kill.”

My pastor told me I should show respect, and I told him I was showing respect, but not for this advocate of war; I was showing respect for God’s children.

It didn’t surprise me when the Rapture didn’t happen any more than it didn’t surprise anyone else I know.

But when it does happen, I’m going straight to the Mini Cooper dealership and getting me a sweet little red one.

 

Presenting our ideas

May 20, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living Comments Off on Presenting our ideas

Some of our ideas for combatting poverty in our community. We posted them on the wall yesterday and refined them today.

I don’t like “visioning.” My experiences with it up to now have been disappointing at best. I much prefer brainstorming, and it needs to be with people who are open to ideas.

The process I went through in the last two days with Children First/Communities in Schools was very much a brainstorming session with a ton of positive energy and people from a variety of backgrounds.

I’ve been involved too many times with groups of people who want to help “those poor people,” whose intentions are good but who have no experience living in poverty. I encountered a lot of them when my kids were little and I was poor. I had to subscribe to their ideas or I was a problem mom.

It’s easy to tell someone her son needs therapy, but it loses something when you tell a low-wage working mother she has to take two hours off every Wednesday afternoon — without pay — to get him there. It’s easy for people who’ve never been poor to think they know what it’s like, but it’s better to listen to people who are poor describe their everyday struggles and work toward solutions with them, respecting them as equals.

The solutions we come up with have to work for the people we’re trying to help. Most poor people do have jobs, and those jobs don’t pay them while they’re in a parenting workshop or at a clinic. We need real solutions and we need them to be where and when people can use them.

You can’t say you’re giving children a safe place for recreation when the park and their neighborhood are separated by a four-lane highway.

That’s why I was glad to hear so many of the solutions today involve going into the neighborhoods with services at community centers that are run by people in the community. There was a suggestion of child-care cooperatives that would offer training in early childhood brain development and appropriate activities to the people who will care for children.

A lot of small nonprofits are duplicating services instead of collaborating, and one group today decided to build a coalition of service providers — nonprofits and the Department of Social Services — that communicates so all our services reach the right people, and we can build partnerships to offer stronger solutions.

We had lots of ideas for mentoring — one-on-one services that I believe in. One of my favorite ideas was for every new parent to get a visit from a nurse, doula or grandmother-type who could answer questions and guide the new parents to any services they might need. This is especially important for first-time parents, who might have little or no experience caring for infants. Nothing helps like a little self-confidence, especially when it’s paired with a telephone number they can call if the baby won’t stop crying and they need a break.

Women who became mothers as teenagers make good mentors for teen moms. They make even better mentors for teenagers who are at risk of getting pregnant before they finish school. You’re more likely to trust somebody who’s been where you’re thinking of going than a middle-aged white woman with a degree in social work or psychology. That person can be the one behind the young woman with the real-life experience. I call it a positive chain reaction.

We also talked about getting funding from city and county governments for small programs and working with state lawmakers to change outdated or unreasonable rules and regulations. We aim to engage people in the community in these efforts.

Too many government programs have taken away the ability of people to advocate for themselves; we want to give that back to people who receive services.

No one of the ideas we came up with during the last two days will eliminate child poverty in Buncombe County, but it is a step in the right direction. I believe we can reduce poverty by helping people improve their communities and giving the skills and the self-confidence to become civic leaders and bring about real change.

What does it look like to you?

May 19, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living Comments Off on What does it look like to you?

My team's vision of a community where people help each other and there's enough for everyone.

I was at an anti-poverty summit today, sponsored by Children First/Communities in Schools of Buncombe County.

The activities centered around how we could eliminate poverty in a county where nearly one in four children lives below the national poverty level, an income of $22,050 for a family of four. In reality, it takes double that to be able to make ends meet here.

Parents struggle with unsafe housing, low wages, few good food choices, little or no health care for themselves, inadequate child care and a social services system that’s confusing, seemingly uncaring and traps them in poverty.

We told each other stories of families we knew — or our own families, and talked about what we might be able to do to change those stories.

We started with ideas: a home visit by a nurse to every new parent, plus a guide to parenting resources; community centers where people could go for help and rise to become volunteers and community leaders themselves; child-care cooperatives at the community college and in the community that would offer parents training in child care and age-appropriate toys and materials to promote optimal early brain development; community gardens, or trucks that sell fresh fruits and vegetables that travel to neighborhood that have no grocery stores or farm stands; access to safe recreation; help navigating the social services system; programs with rules that are flexible enough to accommodate different families and cultures, and of course, access to quality health care for children and their parents.

There were a couple hundred ideas posted on the walls before we were done.

We talked about the “benefits cliff” that removes assistance before people are ready. For example, someone who works overtime and makes a few extra dollars just winds up having to pay it in housing because the rent is tied to income, or taking away child care subsidies as soon as a mother finds work. People can’t get ahead; they feel trapped.

We were asked to illustrate our vision of what the county could look like in five years if our solutions were implemented — but we also had to talk about how they might be implemented. Who would work together to get a visiting nurse into the home of every new parent? Who would be responsible for putting together a parenting resource guide? Who would operate the community resource centers in our dream community?

At the end of the day, we were asked to write a statement of our vision. This is my group’s statement:

“We share the value of strong families and recognize the interdependence of our community. We choose to be bold and build innovative and efficient resource networks that nurture a holistic, healthy, sustainable and abundant life for all.”

It will take bold action to fix our communities and clean up the mess left by corporate greed, but we can do it, one community at a time.

Tomorrow, summit participants will talk about how we do it here.

Which criminals cost us more?

May 15, 2011 a world of progress, progressive living Comments Off on Which criminals cost us more?

I spent a blissful five days without the Internet last week, except for what I could get and transmit from my phone, which I could only use outside in 95-degree heat.

I had to rely on television news — in Texas — for my information. All it did was piss me off.

Early in the week, one local station promised an investigative report on illegal immigrants.

“They come into this country and commit crimes. They get arrested and cost U.S. taxpayers money. How much? Tune in to hear the whole story.”

Probably each undocumented alien who gets arrested — which is a small number compared to the number who are here — costs us a few thousand dollars.

Compare that to the Wall Street moguls who destroyed our economy. They cost us billions, and not one of them went to jail for their activities. In fact, they’re still doing the same things they did before the economy crashed, and those of us who have to work for a living and pay taxes to fund two wars are losing our jobs and our homes at rates not seen since the 1930s.

And how about BP Oil? They spilled millions and millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, killing birds, fish and other wildlife, poisoning salt marshes and estuaries where sea creatures reproduce. The oil is still there, even though we can’t see it. It will affect the sea life and the livelihoods of people along the coast for generations to come. That cost us taxpayers billions, too.

No one went to jail for that, either. In fact, the oil companies are making record profits as we who have less income pay ever more at the pump. There are promises to investigate that, but nothing’s being done yet.

It’s not new — as my father was dying from emphysema in the 1980s, tobacco company executives were testifying before Congress.

“No sir, I don’t believe nicotine is addictive,” they said as the committee members nodded and pretended to believe.

That bastard didn’t get charged with perjury, even though we all know he was lying.

Illegal immigration is down because our economy is a mess. Still, the wealthy want us to blame someone other than the real culprits for our economic woes. They want to distract us from the real issues, and most of the media follow merrily along, holding the shiny object of illegal immigration in front of us while corporations and their minions steal us blind.

Tune in at 11 for more shine objects.

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