Crossposted at DKos. Graphs there are in wider format.

Updated numbers and commentary from Emmanuel Saez (h/t Krugman) reminds us just how bad things are and have been for a while.  One might hope that the current economic crisis does not divert our attention from the longer term issues.  

I would argue that pretty much all of our problems and issues, be it health care, education, environment, collapsing public infrastructure, jobs, trade, taxes, and yes right-wing populism can be directly linked to income and wealth inequality.  And the fact that inequality has gotten MUCH MUCH worse ever since 1979-1980 (I suggest looking up who became president in the United States at that time):

On the one hand, it is not just a U.S. story. Income inequality has risen throughout the developed world, according the OECD.

I dreamed that I opened my eyes one morning and all of America was wide awake. I could hear the echoes of the Bush/Cheney consortium desperately proclaiming their innocence from deep within the Hague, but the world had long since stopped listening. I dreamed that Rush, O'Reilly, and FOX News had imploded into a metaphor for latter-day McCarthyism, and the phrase corpo-congressional alliance was a new vulgarity that had become a part of the American lexicon.

Two strong speeches by Obama made just a year apart.

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

The Moral Strangulation of America 

In my last article I pointed out that the character of America is being fundamentally changed. In less than two generations we've gone from citizens who were politically engaged and socially aware, to zombies who simply accept what we're being told by our favorite demagogues. We've gone from citizens who held our politicians' feet to the fire, to a group of cattle who allow our politicians to dictate what is, and what isn't, off the table - in spite of our instinctive clamor for the simple adherence to the law. We've allowed politicians to go from representatives with the single mandate of do our biding, to so-called leaders who dictate to us what's in our best interest. As a direct result, the script has been flipped - we now define what's in the people's best interest, by what's in the best interest of the politicians who are supposed to defer us.

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

In this post DrSteveB covers a number of topics starting with an emerging scandal over PBS' latest health care documentary.

PBS FRONTLINE "Sick Around America"

After the relatively outstanding PBS Frontline documentary "Sick Around the World" which looked at how health care is funded and delivered in other countries, many of us were looking forward to hearing from  T.R. Reid in his follow-up "Sick Around America." 

To our surprise, Mr. Reid was missing. And to paraphrase and summarize Trudy Lieberman's piece on it over at the Columbia Journalism Review, the show was disjointed, confusing, misleading and kinda sucked. It turns out those two facts are probably connected.  

In the earlier "Sick Around the World," T.R. Reid gave an accurate and entertaining portrayal of several single-payer-like health systems around the world. Many reform advocates hoped this new documentary would discuss single payer as an option for the United States, too, particularly given its popularity among the U.S. public.

Bumped and promoted. Originally posted 2009-03-21 06:56:35 -0500. -- GH

Is Anybody Listening?

Many have already heard about the kids from Pomona California Village Academy High School, many have probably caught their little eight minute video that has launched them into the National Spotlight and Political Debate on what this Country is now going through. But this isn't new it's just affecting many more kids and families now, with more added each day. Kids can't learn and achieve any dreams they might have if their families are struggling and their living those struggles daily.

Last night on the PBS News Hour they showed a report on these kids and their videoed thoughts and feelings, that report is directly below.

Hat-tip ricardomath. -- GH Originally posted 2009-03-18 23:45:36 -0500.  Bumped by carol. I missed it yesterday and I was afraid someone else may have overlooked it also.

What the hell are we teaching our children?

More precisely, what the hell are we teaching our children about hypocrisy, about expectations, about fair and equal treatment under the law, about life and about rote idiocy?

From the Sioux City Journal:

Student rejects 'demeaning' test, is suspended
High achiever faces possible expulsion
By Russ Oechslin, Journal correspondent | Posted: Thursday, March 05, 2009

STORM LAKE, Iowa -- Lori Phanachone is a member of the National Honor Society, has a 3.9 grade point average and ranks seventh in the senior class of about 119 at Storm Lake High School.

But school officials have told her she is considered to be illiterate based on her refusal to satisfactorily complete the English Language Development Assessment, a test she says is demeaning and racist.

Why? Because the test is for students who have English as their second language.

Bumped and promoted. Originally posted Tue, 03/10/2009 - 11:11. Summary of 5 points added by me. -- GH

President Obama outlined five pillars of education reform in his remarks on "A Complete and Competitive American Education" at the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on March 10, 2009. The five pillars are:

1. Reward quality, incentivize excellence with an Early Learning Challenge Grant -- rewarded to states that develop and demonstrate a "cutting edge plan to raise the quality of ... early learning programs" that ensure children "are better prepared for success by the time they enter kindergarten."
2. Encourage better standards and assessments to "end what has become a race to the bottom in our schools and instead, spur a race to the top."
3. Recruite, prepare and reward outstanding teachers.
4. Promote innovation and excellence in America's schools.
5. Provide every American with a quality higher education, regardless of "whether it's college or technical training."

Here's the transcript of the President's remarks (continued over the fold):

[transcript]
THE WHITE HOUSE ~ Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release     March 10, 2009

Remarks of President Barack Obama
A Complete and Competitive American Education
US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
March 10, 2009
Washington, DC

Every so often, throughout our history, a generation of Americans bears the responsibility of seeing this country through difficult times and protecting the dream of its founding for posterity. This is a responsibility that has fallen to our generation. Meeting it will require steering our nation’s economy through a crisis unlike any we have seen in our time. In the short-term, that means jumpstarting job creation, re-starting lending, and restoring confidence in our markets and our financial system.  But it also means taking steps that not only advance our recovery, but lay the foundation for lasting, shared prosperity.

Promoted. Originally posted 2009-02-14 20:04:25 -0500. -- GH

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

The Republican Rape of America

The Republican Party has demonstrated repeatedly that they are lousy at governance but there are none better when it comes to marketing their philosophy–and they should be, because they have but one philosophy–to divide and conquer. It would be inaccurate to call them racist, however, because they don't care any more about poor and middle class White people than they do minorities, but neither do they have any qualms about using racism and division to advance their interests.

Ironically, conservative Republicans have taken the Democratic Party's primary strength and used it against both the Democratic Party, and the American people as a whole. First they took the Democratic Party's penchant for being concerned with the plight of America and coin phrases like "bleeding heart liberals" and "tax and spend Democrats." Then they played on middle class frustration by tying civil rights, welfare, and crime into one neat bundle, and then attributed all of America's problems to the Democrat Party's tendency to be compassionate, or what they call, "bleeding heart liberals."

Promoted. Originally posted 2009-01-24 16:09:45 -0500. -- GH

When I was a young, broke but care-free philosopher in the University of Arkansas, hanging out with poets, working at a red-neck bar for beer money, and fancying myself a writer, I worried a lot. The bar had a big red button behind the counter, right above a double-barrel, twelve gage shot gun. I was told it was loaded with rock salt. Pressing the red button killed the juke box and called the cops. I only had to use those bar-back tools once, then promptly quit.

What happened at that Chicago manufacturing plant brought back alot of memories of how extremely talented workers fought for what they knew were their rights, decent wages for their labor, on the job safety, trading wages for benefits like health and welfare directly and much much more. Fights that shouldn't have really happened in a real model of capitalism where all should share directly in the quality and growth of their work and the companies they work for.

We need to return to that pride in company and product, quality products and customer service, correcting the defaults, and growth for all, owners, workers, and investors.