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(this is one heck of a baby step LiberalinLimbo! great diary!! - promoted by lamb12)
(Sorry to butt in Lamb, but I just wanted to shift the text so we can still see the other diaries on the front page - dmondom)
It was a failure of government regulation! No,to much regulation crippled the free market! Business got greedy! No, government couldn't keep it's meddling hands to itself! Bill Clinton's policies dragged us here! No, Reagan's did!
And so on.
It's been coined as The Great Recession. For a vast menagerie of reasons, the U.S. economy suffered a back slide, with unemployment spiking to a 30 year high of 10.2%, and a vast number of businesses from banks to auto giants failing, or needing billions of federal dollars to stay afloat. A lot of people like to say it's over, but with unemployment hovering at about 9.5% nationally, and all manner of corruption and bad habits that got us hear showing no sign of stopping in the near future... I'm not sure how likely I am to agree with that, no matter how desperately I might want too.
Folks, good news from your humble editor/fearless leader... For all of you who have suffered through my posts, I am proud to announce that you can take this suffering to a whole new, much longer level, because...
I just got a book deal!
Thanks so much to everyone who sent good words, vibes, etc., during the pitching process.
Stay tuned for more, but in a nutshell, it's about using the internet for creative marketing and buzz building, and suffice to say, Facebook will play a big role in it (just an FYI, since I know so many of you good folks came here via the FB activism efforts).
Beach-goers in Maine had an unexpectedly close encounter with former President George H.W. Bush when his fishing boat ran aground. Bush can often be seen piloting his 38-foot boat off the coast of Kennebunkport. This time, the Fidelity IV ended up stuck on Gooch's Beach for several hours.
(This deserves a front page acknowledgement-- thanks to Lysia and Faultguy--for teaming up to get this out to one and all! - promoted by lamb12)
Lysia asked for someone to repost this...and I gladly will. It's worth the 11 minutes of your life. If nothing else, just enjoy the dry erase board artwork [I'm no artist, so I'm always enthralled by what people can do with nothing more than a canvas, a pen and their hand].
Anyway, this is a great video that goes a long way to explain how the country got to this point from where it was in the 70's. I actually agree that labor shouldn't have too much power [so much for being a marxist, heh]. But the pendulum has shifted way Way WAY too far to the other side. I especially enjoyed the part where it talked about stagnant wages and how they got around that problem with easy credit. Nice way to not solve the problem.
Albert Einstein said "Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Well, looks like Americans are truly insane, because I think the Republicans are going to make significant gains in the House and Senate come November, even though they have yet to propose any policies other than the same ones they have been pushing for 30 years, and which have brought us to the brink of ruin.
We are constantly bombarded with examples of hypocrisy and false information from the right, and, no matter how many times it is refuted and repudiated by those of us on the left, the onslaught just continues. And, the sheep (the tea baggers, the fiscal libertarians/social conservatives, the religious extremists, the militia groups, etc) just keep eating it up. The leadership on the right is feeding us a banquet of bullshit, and the sheep act like it is a 7 course dinner.
So if you've been hanging out at Left Take, or on any of the gazillion Facebook activism pages we run, you've no doubt seen the name "CREDO." These are the folks who support something like 90% of the activist efforts we do, and they rock.
And so... if you are thinking of getting an Android phone, or switching your cell phone service in general, you absolutely, positively should check out http://LeftPhone.com, and consider CREDO as your provider.
(I really liked this one when Mr French wrote it last week, and felt then that it should be promoted. So, I am making it my first promotion.
Well done Frenchie! - promoted by SuzeB1964)
A new, conservative entertainment channel launching later this summer is being promoted as having "pro-America, pro-business and pro-military sensibilities."
Hmmm. I'm pro-America (both North and South; lovely continents, don't you think?) and pro-business (I've been desk jockeying and cube farming for three decades); admittedly, I'm not "pro-military" in the sense of any fondness for Halliburton, Blackwater Xe, or greedy defense contractors who sell $600 hammers to the armed forces, but I care a lot about the health and well-being of the soldiers who are on endless deployments in incredibly dangerous areas of the planet.
All hail the new guest editors! SuzeB1964 and lamb12!
This was a tough call between Suze and Lamb, so... f it, I think we go with both. I mean, they're both great, both long-time members, and... this will take us to four guest editors (plus of course, your humble Fearless Leader).
Let's give it a shot. I might ratchet us back to a smaller amount in September, but... for now I'm going to follow the smart example of Markos over at Daily Kos, and err on the side of extra guest editors in the summer, when people tend to not write as much, not be around for stretches, etc.
Besides, if it sucks, we can always cut back. But... I don't think it'll suck, do you? ;)
I know there are a few socialists here on LT, so this is definitely the best forum in which to seek opinions on this question. In the past few months (especially in light of the Great Recession), I've become convinced that some form of socialism is the answer to our economic woes. Our capitalist system concentrates wealth too highly in the hands of a small economic oligarchy, and this is leading to huge disparities between the rich and the poor that will harm our country in the long run. Capitalism to me is undemocratic, since it does not give workers the right to control their own labor. Workers are forced to sell themselves, and they essentially become tools of production, like a hammer or computer. I think socialism can - and indeed, must be - more democratic, but I'm still a little vague on how socialism would work in practice. One reason for that vagueness is the question of economic planning.
A FREEday is a good day. So naturally I'll light this candle with some songs about bad days! Afterall, you have to take the bad with the good. Goodness, this week was full of both.
Factory workers demanding better wages and working conditions are hastening the eventual end of an era of cheap costs that helped make southern coastal China the world's factory floor.
And it begins. The end of cheap Chinese labor has begun and companies are scrambling to figure out their next move.
(Okay, last chance for nominees and input. (And I must say, Fearless Leader is strongly inclined to go with the sentiment of picking a woman. It just makes sense...) - promoted by leftake)
Okay, so I've seen the chatter in the quick hits, and emailed with a few of you folks, and... here's what I'm thinking:
1) I like the guest editor thing. As much as I love the sound of my own voice, I'm digging diversifying the front page, the choices re: promotion, etc.
2) I'm digging the editors we have now (and Dmondom, good to have you back), and if they're up for it, I'd like to have them stay as guest editors until Labor Day.
3) I'd also like to add a third guest editor, for a few reasons -- one, it's summer, and the rest of us will have vacations, etc., to deal with, in addition to the normal stuff that interrupts life. And two, I think Kos started off with three (possibly 4?) additional guest editors the first time around, years back, and it seemed a nice blend.
So.... here's what I need from you folks. Nominees for the next guest editor! Yes, it's okay to nominate yourself, and yes, it's okay to argue passionately why you or someone else should get it. My own two cents, I'm a big fan of humor and creativity, and would like to see that factor in. But... I'm an even bigger fan of writing that engages, gets people commenting, recommending, etc.
So... go ahead, throw out your nominees, and... I'll decide whether to hold a vote, or just pick in a dictatorial (but benevolent) fashion. :D
Sometimes life just dishes out the metaphors in 
