Vote for the Worst of the Worst of the 1%
You might call it an “unpopularity contest.” Brave New Foundation (BNF) wants to know who you think are the worst of the worst of the 1 percent who are doing the most to damage the economy and destroy democracy.
They’ve put together a rouges gallery of 30 bankers, politicians, corporate big wigs, hateful pundits and other assorted characters who are using their wealth and power to exploit the 99 percent.
There is no shortage of bad men on the list (and yes, they are all men). There’s Hugh Grant, for instance — not the actor, but the CEO of Monsanto, a Read the rest of this entry »
Ponzi THIS
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Imagine telling 54 million Americans who receive Social Security that it’s a “ponzi scheme.” Yet president wannabe and Texas Gov. Rick Perry did just that last night during the latest Republican debate.
In reiterating his erroneous statement about Social Security, Perry also attacked former Vice President Dick Cheney, who yesterday told ABC News that Social Security is not Ponzi scheme: “It’s a program that a great many people depend on.”
In fact, 64 percent of older Americans rely on Social Security as their retirement income. One of six U.S. residents–the elderly, the disabled and children who’ve lost parents–receive income from Social Security, the nation’s most successful safety net program.
So, the bottom line is this: Taxpayers are footing the bill for Perry’s retirement income from his years as governor. But he wants to deny elder citizens the right to get income back that they’ve contributed to the system.
Cheney Assault on Employee Free Choice: A Family Affair
As we noted last week, Dick Cheney did workers everywhere a favor by lending his massive unpopularity to the campaign against the freedom to form unions. You couldn’t pick a better symbol of the enemies of the Employee Free Choice Act than a discredited multimillionaire Bush administration villain.
As we’ve noted, even Republican insiders realize the widely loathed former vice president isn’t doing them any favors by keeping a high public profile of late.
But Cheney isn’t the only Cheney getting involved in the fight against workers’ freedom to bargain: His daughter, Mary Cheney, works for “Navigators Global,” a high-priced consulting firm whose clients include “Workplace,” one of the many deceptively named, well-funded corporate front groups behind the disinformation campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act. The work of the misnamed coalition is paid for by such champions of the health and safety workers as Wal-Mart and the Associated Builders and Contractors. (Check out how the consulting firm’s website brags about using “branding” to counteract their corporate funders’ weakness at the grassroots level.)
Cheney, Rove Attack Employee Free Choice. Thanks!
Workers who want to pass the Employee Free Choice Act don’t just have a broad coalition of allies in support of them—they’re also very, very lucky in their enemies. Opposing the legislation has become a cottage industry for out-of-work, right-wing hacks, and the fight has attracted the attention of one of the most widely loathed out-of-work, right-wing hacks: Dick Cheney.
The broadly unpopular former vice president attacked the Employee Free Choice Act as a “huge mistake” on a Fox News appearance yesterday, reports Sam Stein of the Huffington Post. And naturally—does it even need to be said—Cheney’s claims about what the bill would do are flatly false and repeatedly debunked.
As advocates of the Employee Free Choice Act, we enthusiastically welcome Dick Cheney as an opponent. What better symbol of the anti-worker campaign than an angry multimillionaire who’s already been broadly repudiated for his disastrous effects on the country? (Even some Republicans are wishing he’d “go back to his undisclosed location.”)
