Example A and the inevitable correction. I could say a lot about this, but instead I’ll just say: I can understand John’s frustration. Technically, he’s not wrong, and we all will pay back the irresponsible “tax cuts,” with interest. And what will the rich get, while we snap and snipe at each other about who is more poor? A bunch, I bet.

John isn’t hurting, he’s got a nice place and some security. But like the poorest, he too can sense how easily the rug could get pulled out from under him. It’s less likely that will happen to him than to say, a homeless Latina veteran. But he’s right to feel anxiety. This post just seems bitchy and self-concerned, and makes him look unaware of how much worse off the plight of those who will get a “tax cut” suffer. More common than you may think, that particular shortcoming and many of our leading “progressive” voices.

The lesson for the movement: make all tax increases on the truly wealthy. There are plenty of them, they can afford it, include corporations and then no better-than-average “centrists” or “liberals” will complain again.

Matt speaks for me. It’s so good to know that even when I’m too tired or beat down to express myself, I’ve got friends in the blogosphere with the outrage and eloquence to do it for me. So good I’m posting the whole thing:

“Now, after she shaved her head in a bizarre episode that culminates a months-long saga of controversial behavior, it’s the question being asked by her fans, her foes and the general public: What was she thinking?”— Bald and Broken: Inside Britney’s Shaved Head, Sheila Marikar, ABC.com, Feb. 19

What was she thinking? How about nothing? How about who gives a shit? How’s that for an answer, Sheila Marikar of ABC news, you pinhead?

I’m not one of those curmudgeons who freaks out every time that Bradgelina moves the war off the front page of the Post, or Katie Couric decides to usher in a whole new era of network news with photos of the imbecile demon-spawn of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. I understand that we live in a demand-based economy and that there is far more demand for brainless celebrity bullshit than there is, say, for the fine print of the Health and Human Services budget.  Read more 

Tula, Mike and the gang run a great blog, and I need to link to it more often. As the minimum wage bill works its way through the halls of Congress, this post reminded me of a couple of points we need to talk about more:

Opponents of a clean bill to the raise the minimum wage—which is at its lowest buying power in more than 50 years—claim that without a multibillion dollar tax break lifeline, the nation’s business community faces economic disaster. We are not the only ones who say that is balderdash.  Read more