The 10 percent of households with the highest incomes account for nearly a quarter of all spending, according to data compiled by research firm Moody's Economy.com from a 2006 federal survey.
I wonder if this leads to ridiculous waste in the economy at all. I wonder.
OT: I'm asking people to support my push back against a local columnist who wants to split the peace movement by characterizing peace activists as a bunch of dirty f'n hippies. The action is described at the link and will only take a few minutes. Thanks!!
That 'nearly a quarter' lists toward high-priced stuff, tho. The great amount of low-priced stuff bought doesn't amount to a large proportion, when things like private jets are put against milk and eggs.
"if we get rid of Nancy Pelosi...she is replaced in all probability by Steny Hoyer or Rahm Emmanuel. "
If we get rid of Pelosi, she'll be replaced by someone who will know for certain that being as bad as Pelosi can lose him his seat. "Pour encourager les autres," and all that.
Argh - I know that Obama has to play this horse race game and explain n numbing detail every thought that went into every decision behind his ads but it's still frustrating when there are actual issues to discuss. Of course, if he's going to compromise those issues away right off the bat (i.e. domestic drilling), then maybe the horse race stuff is better. Argh again.
Ed G. has it exactly right. If Speaker Pelosi is defeated her successor will have a big bull's eye on him and he'll know it. In the mean time, let's not forget the power in the House during most of the Speaker Hastert years resided with the House Majority leader Tom DeLay.
Let's also not forget we are all supposed to be upset that Speaker Pelosi took impeachment off the table for reasons that are quite suspect. We'll never get to the bottom of things but it is rather obvious that a lot of the Bush crimes related to prisoner abuse and wiretapping occurred while Pelosi, as a member of the Gang of Eight, was being apprised of what was going on and she failed to fulfill any of her responsibilities to defend the Constitution and the Laws of the United States.
She gave Bush a pass, you can give Pelosi a pass. Not me.
Ah ha, the Laurel Canyon article finally explains why Frank Zappa ended up being a high-ranking military officer in the Wild Cards universe. (I think it was Walter Jon Williams who came up with that detail; not surprising, from the author of "Red Elvis" and other primo alt-universe stories.)
Ruth - yes, I know. Only the wealthy buy Humvees, thousand dollar tennis racquets, etc.
Hi Avedon. Another sign it's a Depression: Executives have started slumming with the commoners. Presumably when stock options become lucrative again the unwashed masses will be granted them, right?
Sign me up with Ed and CMike.
Getting rid of Pelosi would send a message of biblical proportions, that the grassroots is active, paying attention, and willing to sacrifice to have its will done.
Doesn't matter who replaces Pelosi. She has broken the law repeatedly (she had no legal right not to pursue impeachment, she's obligated by law to do so), and firmly and unequivocably supported Republican and corporate interests against those of her constituents. She has no right to remain in Congress.
Lookee here at who's found some consulting work:
Packers hire Fleischer to consult on Favre sagaI suppose if anyone can coach football players on how to give non-responsive responses to the media about Favre's return, it's Ari Fleischer.
The Green Bay Packers have apparently decided they need a little help on the public relations front when it comes to handling the ongoing Brett Favre saga.
FOXSports.com has learned that the Packers will employ former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer for one month as a consultant.
Fleischer, who was President George W. Bush's official spokesperson for a majority of his first term in office, is now president of Ari Fleischer Sports Communications, a joint venture with IMG.
According to an Associated Press report, Fleischer met with Packers players Thursday, but the meeting was scheduled several weeks ago, before the Favre controversy flared up. The report also said while Fleischer didn't focus on how players should handle the Favre situation, the topic was discussed.
"Obviously it's a topic, and it wasn't ignored," Fleischer told the AP in a phone interview Thursday.
Oh, yeah, wasn't Laurel Canyon where Heinlein set "And He Built A Crooked House"? He spent a couple sentences at the start of the story on how Laurel Canyon was a little too weird even for L.A.
I'd thought the blowback was bad enough, knowing that Ken Kesey was originally turned on by the CIA (as a grad student guinea pig for an MKULTRA experiment), but this makes me wonder why I'd never heard any of it before . . .
"Do Democrats Even Know How to Go Negative?"
Gracious me. Of course they do. Apart from Sister Souljah and others, how 'bout ThanksRalphery, the attacks on Hillary by Obamamaniacs and on Obama by Hillaryphiles, etc.? In general the Democrats are much more negative about those to the left than they are about the Republicans, which may be why this writer couldn't quite make their negativity register.
"What is up the canyon will even eventually come down." --Van Dyke Parks. (I did know about Crosby's ancestors, but then I have Long Time Gone somewhere in here.) And just what was this nebulous conspiracy trying to do?
And speaking of dislodging the Kool-Aid IV drip: via Brilliant at Breakfast, the LA Times suggests the "presumptuous" business is more nonsense.
Meanwhile, I am calling on Zombie Molly Ivins and zombie newshounds in general to rescue good journalism from these...people, although there will probably not be enough brains to go around.
That Laurel Canyon site is a great read.
Part VII's background on Nicholson, Fonda, Hopper and the rest, wow. The connections between what gets labeled counterculture and the Establishment are everywhere.
Thanks for the link.
So should we assume that Joni and Neil's arrival were (successful) Canadian attempts at infiltration of LC, and that Graham Nash's was a British one?
I speak as the son of a former Naval officer who lived in Westwood a few years before all those people showed up...perhaps I was the advance guard!
If Speaker Pelosi is defeated her successor will have a big bull's eye on him and he'll know it.
No, he'll know that Pelosi made the mistake of being from one of the only districts in the country where anything like that could happen. Steny Hoyer is never going to have to worry about losing his seat to a carpetbagging internet star.
I am all about running primary challenges and diselecting people. I take the NRA as a model there, because it works. But honestly, I wish Cindy! would just go home. Wrong time, wrong target, wrong vehicle.
It won't happen in Pelosi's district either. Any successful primary challenger to an incumbent has to have more going for them than the protest vote. Unless everyone's out on the streets protesting, obviously.
David W.,
Cindy Sheehan is not challenging Nancy Pelosi in the Democratic Primary. Sheehan is running as an Independent in the general election. That's why Greenwald, Kos, and the Firedoglake crowd won't support Sheehan. They are Democrats first. For them, networking with very important people and being on exclusive mailing lists is of primary importance.
Pelosi's Califronia 8th Congressional District is most of San Francisco County. If the Republicans are smart they won't run a candidate this time.
tatere,
Steny Hoyer's 5th Congressional District in Maryland is 30% black. I'd guess that blacks make up 50% or more of the Democratic registration there. Apparently, Hoyer is not good on issues important to the black community.
Glenn Greenwald, Act Blue, and some other groups have long range plans to challenge Hoyer in the 2010 Democratic primary.
Hoyer would be more vulnerable to a challenge from the Left in a primary, Nancy Pelosi would be more vulnerable to challenge from the Left in a general election.
One of the toughest losses ever in my election work was coming up about 600 votes short of beating her from the left in a Democratic primary, in a special election in 1987; my candidate was Harry Britt.
The close brush with defeat had the desired effect of pulling her back leftward for a while. But that wore off a decade ago, at least.
Why bother with the Laurel Canyon story? It's not news that the US is ruled discretely by a power elite; it's not even news that the American people pointedly ignore reminders that they are ruled discretely by a power elite?
(Don't forget the link between the Mellon family and LSD apostle Owlsley.)
Nancy Pelosi's responsibility, like any member of Congress, is first and foremost to her constituents. If her constituents are fed up with her betrayals, it is their prerogative to get rid of her, Rahm Emmanuel be damned.
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