Did you enjoy your little government check back in May? Is it gone already? Do you need a real tax break? Well, it's very simple to get one, actually, but first you have to join Cynthia McCain in the ranks of the mega-rich.

I'll explain after the flip.

Yesterday, Joe Romm testified that Congress should release oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to pop the oil price bubble caused by speculation and lower oil prices. Romm is the editor of climateprogress.org, and knows what he is talking about: he holds a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and was special assistant for policy and planning to the deputy secretary of energy, who oversaw the SPR. He said that offshore drilling won’t lower prices in the short-term (or even in the long-term), but releasing oil from the SPR will.

Excerpts of Romm’s testimony are below, and his entire testimony is available here.

This Bud isn't for you.

I understand that the board of directors of a corporation is only responsible to it shareholders but it seems to me that there must be more.  Anheuser-Busch was recently sold to InBev, a Germany company for a gazillon dollars ($52 billion).  The stockholders, including Cindy McCain, are doing a victory dance.  Everyone is happy.  InBev gets to decrease competition.  Upper management and stockholders of Anheuser-Busch get to cash in.  Yahoo!  Everybody dance.  

It seems there are some folks that aren’t dancing, again.  American Workers.  The employees of Anheuser-Busch aren’t dancing.  InBev is going to cut costs - their specialty.  Cutting cost is business speak for firing workers and making the workers who stay work harder for less money.  This is a very common scenario.  We, Americans, should be use to this by now.  We have seen companies buyout other companies and then institute "cost" savings.  Wall Street loves this.  The stock usually will skyrocket and folks with money will make more money.  

This incredible article by Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone exposes what's really happened to the economy: the fallout of Republicanomics, of robbing the poor to feed the rich and their military-expansionist fantasies.

It started with a stark description of individuals' lives as described by Middle Class Vermonters to their Senator Bernie Sanders who asked his constituents how the economic "downturn" was affecting them. Expecting a few letters, he was swamped with over 700, telling of such harrowing experiences as burning furniture to stay warm and property taxes (thanks to RepubliBush Federal Tax Cuts to the Rich) are eating into their food money, not to mention education. Health care and dental care, of course, already are out of question. Welcome to Third World America.

America: land of innovation, of the can-do spirit, of Yankee ingenuity.

Americans were the first people in the world to declare independence from an empire -- and get away with it. Americans dug the Erie Canal, reversed the flow of rivers, invented powered flight and the skyscraper, harnessed the power of the atom, sent men to the moon and brought them back alive. We supplied the world with an abundance of food and high-quality manufactured goods. We defeated fascism, take credit for having defeated communism, co-founded the United Nations, absorbed tens of millions of immigrants and made a single people out of many. We are one goddamn amazing country.

Or at any rate, we were. Something happened to us around 30 years ago. Suddenly, things seemed so awfully difficult. Preposterous, even. Reducing poverty? Building a 200-mpg automobile engine? Signing the Kyoto Protocols? Manufacturing consumer goods domestically? Fighting crime and terrorism without recklessly abrogating civil liberties? Forget it. It's too hard. Too inconvenient. Too unprofitable. Too much of a hassle. Or it might mean that we had to follow the same rules as every other country, that our specialness didn't render us exempt.

We've turned into Emo Nation, for crying out loud.

The list of what isn't wrong with this country is much shorter than the list of what is; we're all fighting battles against insurance companies, corruption, bad policies and rising prices.

Corruption in our current government is extensive.  In collusion, the media does its part because it is corporate owned; they will determine what others see (Comcast) and hear (Clear Channel). And while the web is good, as many as 1/3 do not have access to the Internet.

It's hard to have hope when you can't see it, hear it or if your routes to it are countered by corporate masters who feel they know what's better for you than you do.

I dunno about you, but I am super excited for Netroots Nation tomorrow.  

I would like to cordially invite you to attend a panel I will be speaking on along with David Sirota, Andrea Batista Schlesinger, the Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute and David Goldstein, of Horse's Ass.  The panel will be moderated by Elana Levin, the Assistant Director of Communications for UNITE HERE.

The full panel title is Middle class isn't middle of the road: Take politicians’ populist shpeil and make it real.  It is in Ballroom F at 10:30 AM on Friday.  The bios are all located here.

Full description on the flip.

I wrote yesterday about the situation that a lot of middle-class American are facing -- at least a lot of the ones that I talk to regularly -- in juggling the college debts of their own or their kids, or both, and I was a little surprised at the low response. Maybe I posted at a wrong time of day; I know there's a cycle of some sort that helps some diaries get seen more than others. Or maybe I wrote on a bad day of the week. Anyway, I wondered if maybe the problem wasn't as widespread as I thought it was, and whether it just happened to hit one geographic region worse than another.

My original post, "Slow death by strangulation," is here.

More than time for Obama and Democrats to take a stand in protecting the future of our middle class. We have jailed executives who stole a few million dollars from a few thousand shareholders. Now, Congress should stop to be more than naive, and give more money to Fannie Mae.

3 Facts That Could Change This Election (If We Share Them With Enough People)

Here are 3 facts that could not only change the outcome of this election, but with regard to the first two points, they could change the results of every election for years to come if we make enough people aware of them.

I want to keep this as simple and short as possible, so that the people who need to read this actually do (i.e. our low-info voting friends, family and co-workers, etc.). And again, I encourage you to share this information with as many people as you can, either by recommending and commenting on this thread, by emailing these points out and or by posting a link to this thread on the appropriate websites.

Also, Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks created a youtube clip of the 3 facts. And for the original post of the 3 facts which includes all of the sources, click here.

If you were to guess which of the following publications this graphic came from which would you choose?

Time
New Republic
Reader's Digest
Parade Magazine
National Review

The answer and some , maybe, hopeful news on the flip..

I will be attending the MoveOn.org Event: Day of Action for an Oil-Free President:

http://pol.moveon.org/...  

There are many of these events being organized throughout the country. 

This issue of Energy Economy Paradigms (old Oil/Hydrocarbon based vs. Renewable) is, in my considered opinion, THE CENTRAL ISSUE which will define whether we build a future of increasing: prosperity, security, and dignity for all; or descend into a zero-sum game; a MadMax style world of barbarity and increasing scarcity.

Ask yourself, and please consider with intellectual integrity, the following question:

Does a continued reliance on Hydro Carbon Resources, as the basis for our energy economy, represent a great risk to our national security?

The Preamble of The Constitution of the United States of America is:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice,insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Bush Preamble:

We the corporate powers of the United States, in order to form a more perfect bottom line, establish injustice, insure slave labor and free trade, provide our corporate friends large defense contracts, destroy the middle class, and secure the belssings of liberty to the mighty dollar and our personal prosperity, as we ignore and walk all over this
Constitution of the United States....

There has been significant discussion about the percentage of the price of a gallon of gas that is attributable to speculation.  Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat from Florida, has introduced a bill to end speculation in oil futures

Its so rare for traditional media to analyze anything, so Kudos and Diggs to Raj Cohan of CBS Denver for challenging this anti-employee rights scare ad:

Ad: What if labor bosses controlled class elections. Thanks for your vote. I want to assure you that a vote for me is best for you. Ms. Hudgens has just agreed that there isn't gonna be any secret vote. Sign these cards showing us who you like the best, and my campaign committee will collect and count em.

Here's the spin. The ad attacks legislation in Congress called the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). If approved, it would amend the National Labor Relations Act to make it easier for unions to organize. How would it work? If a simple majority of workers sign cards saying they want a union, EFCA would essentially require the National Labor Relations Board to certify the union, assuming there was no illegal coercion involved in gathering the signatures. Under these circumstances employers would be barred from demanding a secret vote.

http://cbs4denver.com/...

Why the Bush Tax Cuts to the Rich
need to be rescinded and the Middle
Class need tax equality.

June 25, 2008
A Sean Lewis Rant!

Ending the tax cuts to the rich will lower the debt, which will strengthen the US dollar, which will mean oil will cost less, which means inflation will go down, which means core inflation including food and fuel  will diminish, which means the economy will become stronger because US workers will be able to afford to buy discretionary products, which will employ other Americans who will now have jobs so they will not lose their homes which means the housing market will stabilize, which means banks will be more solvent, which means money will once again become liquid which means loans for investments will once again become available which means industry will grow which means increasing GDP growth and more jobs.

Here's a press release from some attorneys who are worried about the Employee Free Choice Act crippling their industry.  Union busting strategies are built around the premise of $0 penalties for labor violations and prolonging contract negotiations indefinately until employees give up and leave.  By adding fines for harrassing or firing union supporters, the EFCA would make it too expensive to violate the law, and it wouldn't be cost effective to hire expensive union busters.  

Sen. Obama vowed to stand by re-elected SEIU president Andy Stern and union members by ushering in a union- friendly administration. He also vowed to pass the Employee Free Choice Act if elected to presidential office.
...
Founded in 1958, Jackson Lewis LLP is dedicated to representing management exclusively in workplace law. With offices in 37 cities and 500 attorneys, Jackson Lewis has developed a specialized expertise in every aspect of employment, labor, benefits and immigration law. Additional information about Jackson Lewis LLP can be found at www.jacksonlewis.com .
http://newsblaze.com/...

Warren Buffett, ranked by Forbes magazine as 2008’s "Richest Man in the World", gravely observed: "If there is a Class War in America, my side is winning."  The populist "Oracle of Omaha" pleaded with the Senate Finance Committee last November to drop the wildly disproportionate tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 that Bush and the Republican Congress gave to his already wealthy kith and kin, and enact a fairer and more progressive tax program that would narrow – not widen – the existing chasm separating the haves from the have-nots:

During this election cycle you can bet we'll hear Republicans yet again try to convince us that if we would just lower taxes, then government revenues are guaranteed to go up.

Well, swallowing Republican logic like that it follows that if we simply eliminated all taxes, the government would then be guaranteed of having an infinite amount of money.