Occupy Wall Street says the top one 1 percent of Americans have gotten too rich. Are they right? – Slate Magazine

By Annie Lowrey

According to an analysis (XLS) of Internal Revenue Service data by the economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, the 99 percent account for 79 percent of income in 2008, with the top 1 percent taking the other 21 percent. “That’s not that bad,” you might say. “Of course, some people are going to be richer than others.” Perhaps. But the 1 percent has been eating a bigger and bigger share of the pie over time. Back in the 1970s, the 99 percent were earning about 90 percent of income, for instance. The top 1 percent of households took a bigger share of overall income in 2007 than they did at any time since 1928.

Occupy Wall Street says the top one 1 percent of Americans have gotten too rich. Are they right? – Slate Magazine [hat tip to NewMexiKen]

We Are the 99 Percent

Brought to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?

• wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
• www.OccupyWallSt.org
• www.Occupytogether.org

We Are the 99 Percent

Baked goods as a metaphor for affirmative action – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

The story goes as follows: the GOP student group at the University of California at Berkeley wanted to illustrate its opposition to pending legislation that would allow state universities to consider race, gender, ethnicity and national origin as factors in admission. So it sponsored an “Increase Diversity Bake Sale,” in which the prices varied according to race. White men were asked to pay $2 for what Asian men could get for $1.50, Latino men for $1, African-American men for 75 cents and Native American men for a quarter. All women received a 25 cent discount off those prices.

If I were going to use baked goods as a metaphor for affirmative action, my price scale would go like this: Black and Native American men would pay $10, Asian and Latino men $7 for brownies white men were able to buy for a buck, and the blacks, the Native Americans, the Asians and the Latinos would have to walk a gauntlet of gunfire, physical assault, name calling and legal roadblocks in order to reach the counter. Women would not be allowed to buy any brownies, but would be required to remain in the kitchen baking them, preferably while barefoot and pregnant.

After 350 years, the black, Latino, Asian and Native American men would get a $5 discount off the original prices (do the math) but they’d have to listen to white men carp about the gross unfairness of it all. Women would also get a discount, but would have to sweep up the bakery after it closed.

That said, I’m troubled at the response the GOP students have faced. There has been outrage, which is fair, but they say they’ve also been harassed and threatened online, which is not.

Baked goods as a metaphor for affirmative action – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com

Eschaton: What She Said

Elizabeth Warren:

I hear all this, you know, “Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever.”—No! There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there—good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea—God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

Eschaton: What She Said

Empty conservative blather.

Egghead and Blockheads – NYTimes.com

By MAUREEN DOWD Published: September 17, 2011

The Republicans are now the “How great is it to be stupid?” party. In perpetrating the idea that there’s no intellectual requirement for the office of the presidency, the right wing of the party offers a Farrelly Brothers “Dumb and Dumber” primary in which evolution is avant-garde. …

The occupational hazard of democracy is know-nothing voters. It shouldn’t be know-nothing candidates.

Egghead and Blockheads – NYTimes.com [hat tip to NewMexiken and to Pat]

Where are the compassionate conservatives? – The Washington Post

By Eugene Robinson, Published: September 15

Blitzer interrupted: “But Congressman, are you saying that society should just let [someone without insurance] die?” There were enthusiastic shouts of “Yeah!” from the crowd. You’d think one of the other candidates might jump in with a word about Christian kindness. Not a peep. ..

I believe the Republican candidates’ pinched, crabby view of government’s nature and role is immoral. I believe the fact that poverty has risen sharply over the past decade — as shown by new census data — while the richest Americans have seen their incomes soar is unacceptable. I believe that writing off whole classes of citizens — the long-term unemployed whose skills are becoming out of date, thousands of former offenders who have paid their debt to society, millions of low-income youth ill-served by inadequate schools — is unconscionable.

Perry, who is leading in the polls, wants to make the federal government “inconsequential.” He thinks Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme” and a “monstrous lie.” He doesn’t much like Medicare, either.

Where are the compassionate conservatives? – The Washington Post

DUHbya solemnly declaring the “first war of the new millennium.” My heart fell: the first, meaning he knew there would be more war. Endless war. Hope for a new age died with those words.

“You’re either with us or against us.” Swaggering idiot.

The thugs who raged against dissent. How many of those same people openly hate the president today?

The odious un-American “PATRIOT” Act, unread by those who rushed to make it law. "Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism." (Renewed under Obama.)

My shock at first hearing “Homeland Security.” It still appalls me.

The militarization of the police. Heavily armored “cops” with tear gas masks and bayonets lunging at peaceful protestors. A local sheriff sneering, “Let me at them.”

Machine guns in a backwater airport like Albuquerque’s. I didn’t fly again for eight years – not for fear of terrorists, but disgust at our response.

Free Speech Zones in cages.

You cannot be free and afraid. You cannot have peace and rage. Wounded, we made many wrong choices. We’ll never fix the worst of our mistakes.