Why I Got Arrested in Madison | The Progressive:

Because it’s ludicrous that you can carry a concealed weapon into the Wisconsin State Assembly gallery but you can’t take pictures with your cell phone or hold a sign.

Does anybody think this policy is actually defensible? What the hell has happened to our state?

How OWS confuses and ignores Fox News and the pundit class.:

Maybe the days of explaining the patently obvious to the transparently compromised are finally behind us.

One can only hope…

Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance :

Really excellent bunch of quotes.

“The fact is, the system is not working right. It is not right that we have so many people without jobs when we have so many needs that we have to fulfill. It’s not right that we are throwing people out of their houses when we have so many homeless people.

Our financial markets have an important role to play. They’re supposed to allocate capital and manage risk, but they’ve misallocated capital and created risk. We are bearing the cost of their misdeeds. There’s a system where we’ve socialized losses and privatized gains. That’s not capitalism! That’s not a market economy. That’s a distorted economy, and if we continue with that, we won’t succeed in growing, and we won’t succeed in creating a just society.” - Stiglitz Speaks at Occupy Wall Street – Bwog

New York Observer: Exclusive “Occupy Wall Street” Unaired Fox Footage (by mavgirl69)

Keep Your Government Hands Off My Government Programs! - NYTimes.com:

Interesting statistics: about 44% of people that receive Social Security and about 40% of those receiving Medicare believe that they “Have Not Used a Government Social Program”.

“I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.” - Warren Buffett via Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

Newt: Worst Campaign Promise Ever? | Right Wing Watch:

Look at the statistics at the bottom of the linked article. This is what happens when a state cuts all of it’s social services. Do we really want all states in the nation to be at this level (hint: Newt and the Pauls do)?

Want to fix the budget? How about instead of cutting social services we try cutting tax breaks given to corporations that are already generating huge returns. At least make them conditional.

Anybody that calls this “class warfare” is right: it’s a war, but the only ones dying are the poor.

Russ Feingold Speaks Out | The Nation:

Your father was a La Follette Progressive, and you have often noted that La Follette and others identified more as progressives than members of a particular party. There are people who see the changes in our elections in general, and your defeat in particular, as evidence that the progressive tradition is a relic that won’t be viable in the twenty-first century. What’s your take?

To me, that’s nonsense. When I said on election night, “On to 2012!” what I meant was that—for all the progressives who believe in what we have fought for, not just in recent years but for a century—nothing ended in 2010. There will be more elections. There will be more opportunities to step forward on behalf of our ideals. At some point it may include me again, but it certainly doesn’t have to. I do not believe for a minute that that tradition is dead…. There is no way we’re at the end of this. It will be revived, and it will prevail.

And you presume to be a part of that revival?

I very much intend to be a part of it. I guarantee I will be.

The Loss of Russ Feingold: Lamentable and Shameful «:

Best article I’ve read yet on how screwed up it is that Feingold lost.  A pretty depressing read really.

I’m voting for Feingold, and I hope my Wisconsin friends and family are too.

On the way into work this morning it struck me how many Johnson yard signs I saw. Maybe it’s just my neighborhood, but it scared me. It also reminded me that no matter how much you think “your” candidate is going to win, you must still vote.

I’m really proud to have Feingold as our senator in Wisconsin. He has consistently voted for what he feels is right, often times ignoring bipartisan party lines in doing so:

• He voted against the war in Iraq.
• He was the only dissenting voter in the Senate against the Patriot Act, recognizing how many civil liberties the act would eliminate.
• He voted against the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, a deregulation act that is widely considered the major factor causing the current mortgage crisis (and subsequent bailout).
• He has consistently stood for campaign finance reform, trying to eliminate corporate power over elections in a time when the Supreme Court has granted corporations even more power over elections.
• He has stood by his promise to not accept a pay raise while in office, returning any raise to the US Treasury, and only accepting a raise at the beginning of a Senate term.

This is only a small sample of what he has done while in office, look him up if you need to learn more. Personally, I think that we as Americans need Feingold’s voice and vote in the Senate. Let’s give him a raise this year. Vote!