HOLD BUSH AND CHENEY ACCOUNTABLE


GETTING OLDER IS A SIN IN CAPITALIST SOCIETY


I'm going through my third layoff in this decade. I suspect a large part of it is that I'm over 40. Once you hit 40 in this society you have a target on your back. It's hard to get hired and if the economy turns sour you're immediately a target for a layoff. Businesses can always rationalize job cuts so that don't openly admit they're discriminating by age, but the large number of Baby Boomers getting laid off isn't just coincidental. This is yet another argument for a national health care system. Then businesses won't have the excuse that health care costs for older workers gives them good reason to lay off older workers. This commentary by Susie Madrak is at crooksandliars.com:

If this is true, this is exactly why it would be such a good idea to lower the Medicare age to 55 - because otherwise, industry paints a target on every Boomer back:

Every day there's another layoff announcement, so Sean O'Grady finds himself confused about why his Philadelphia-based recruiting company, CareerTV USA Inc., is doing so well.

"We had to shake our heads at that," he said, "because we're doing our best sales ever, and we had our best quarter at the end of 2008."

So O'Grady started asking his clients to explain why they are bothering to recruit in these times, even when, in some cases, they are cutting back on hiring.

What he learned and what he is seeing "is the layoff of the baby-boom generation. Companies are filling those holes with bright-eyed, bushy-tailed college graduates.

"They are essentially trying to hire people they can pay less and get a lot of energy and enthusiasm," said O'Grady, 26, a senior producer at CareerTV.

[...] One was Andrew Vavra, 55, of Schwenksville, an unemployed marketing project manager. He had been to a another job fair recently "and no one under 40 was there," he said. "It made me angry.

GOP AGENDA: SHAFT WORKING PEOPLE

Suddenly, to hear them tell it, Republicans are fiscal conservatives. They don't want to burden future generations with debt. They haven't had any problem since the days of Ronald Reagan in doing just that when they could pursue their wars and give tax cuts to their fat cat friends. But if a dime goes to working people it's tragic and the end of western civilization. Working people are the majority in this country, and the government should be representing our interests. This commentary by Bill Gallagher is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

The Republican Party of the 21th Century has no interest in doing anything to stop the wage inequality that chips away at the middle class. The economic "recovery" during George W. Bush's terms saw median incomes actually decline as wealth shifted to the top one percent.

Wage earning Americans are inordinately burdened with the responsibility of paying for Bush's debt while people living off investments and hedge fund managers saw their tax obligations significantly reduced. Does any sane person believe the Republicans want to upset that gravy train and change the tax codes?

If Republicans had their way, they would eliminate unions and restore despotism in the workplace, embracing the mentality that, "Hey buddy, you're lucky to have a job. If you complain you're outta here." Republicans want nothing whatsoever to do with safety and health in the workplace. The Democrats do.

We have the most expensive and inefficient health care system on earth and the Republicans are fighting to preserve the status quo. The drug companies and insurance companies profit mightily from the failed system and dump their campaign money into Republican coffers. The GOP wants to preserve Bush's privatization of many Medicare programs and Republican lawmakers still insist the government cannot negotiate prices with drug companies. How's that for a sound business practice?

The Republicans scoff at green energy and government incentives to develop and use renewable energy. They remain wed to the oil and coal companies and prefer continued dependence on imported oil and the absurd notion popularized by the intellectually challenged Sarah Palin that all we have to do to become energy independent is to "drill, drill, and drill."