poverty

Friends -- as the far right steamrolls over our state, it is more important than ever for us to show the world that not all of North Carolina is a reactionary backwater intent on living in the 1950's. This coming Saturday is a great opportunity to come together and take a stand: please, join Progress NC and many other groups (some posting here) as we support our brothers and sisters at the NAACP in this year's HKonJ march to the General Assembly. This is the year to show our strength! To join us, just show up at Shaw University in Raleigh on February 9th and look for the Progress NC banner. Trust us: you'll have a great time and you *will* feel your power. Complete flyer after the jump.

Great idea: HuffPost will be streaming discussions of three issues the parties won't address:

HuffPost Live is bringing you Shadow Conventions 2012 with the goal of sparking a national conversation on three issues that neither party is seriously addressing: the corrupting influence of money on our politics, the persistence of poverty in America, and the disastrous war on drugs. Our new streaming network will devote a day during each of the national conventions to focusing on one of those three issues. Today, HuffPost Live's team of host/producers will be joined by a broad range of politicians, thought leaders, activists, and celebrities for in-depth interviews and panel discussions on various aspects of the drug war.

This video was posted today on the Big Orange Satan and I thought it was worth trying to embed here for others to see. If my technique isn't good, I'll just post the link.

As you watch, keep in mind the apparent GOP nominee...Mittens Romney...would like to do away with all taxes on capital gains and dividends and interest. Since capital gains are already taxed at a max of only 15% as opposed to the usually 25% or more on sweat-earned income this is just another ploy to further screw the 80% of Americans who have only about 7% of the wealth while placing a kevlar lining in the pockets of the already sticking-it-to-us ultra wealthy.

Hat tip to Action NC for Tweeting this story:

Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans - nearly 1 in 2 - have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

Of course, the Free Market corporate lackies think this is a great way to reshape the country:

It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry at such an embarrassingly dimwitted and offensive statement.

One in six Americans now officially living in poverty. Look for Republicans to fix things by changing the definition of "poor."

I am very troubled, even hurt, by what I see in America today. Intellectually I understand the falling and the raising of political fortunes as well as the gulf which separates so many Americans ideologically, socially, financially and politically. There are vast differences of opinion among us regarding how we can, or should go forward as a world power, a prosperous nation and a place where we can all be free to pursue happiness without unnecessary interference, or encumbrance by our government, or anyone else for that matter.

Our diverse views, each strongly held,have been with us ever since the founding of our nation and yet over the past ten years something has changed. The “We The People” part has changed. It has been weakened. Political forces, I believe, have finally succeeded in convincing much of America that, as a people, we exist in two separate and opposing camps which can never reconcile their differences. Something new has reached us ... something bad ... something not cognizant of how we became so great through the very diversity it opposes ... and it's tearing us apart.

What makes a story timeless? Recent research suggests that every enduring story has a few common components. There needs to be a setting: agreed-upon facts or rules that provide context and set the scene. There must be a plot with a beginning, middle, and end, and a moral point that the audience finds compelling. Most of all, there have to be recognizable characters: a villain to cause trouble, a set of victims who suffer at the hands of the villain, and a hero (perhaps flawed in his or her own right) to step in and save the day.