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Thom,
You are making this public function/private for profit issue (prison or any government function) way too complicated. To make the "making money off of misery argument" is a legitimate argument, but for too complicated and leaves too much room for argument. Here is the simple argument. It's one that people can understand; it's easily stated.
Take any privatized government function:
One: A corporation's PRIMARY legal duty runs to the owners (in a public corporation, the shareholders), whether or not the interests of the shareholders converge or diverge with the interests of taxpayers. And when the corporation acts in the shareholders' interest divergent from the taxpayers, there is no recourse because that's the corporations' requirement
Two: Government functions FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE TAXPAYERS (at least it's supposed to), period. When the government does not act in the taxpayers' interest, there IS recourse. We vote them out.
Conclusion: Corporation: primary duty to shareholders. Government: primary duty to taxpayers.
Steve Pipenger (a person who works near Ground Zero and who supports the Islamic Community Center)
PS: One more thing regarding the teacher in the prison. Look at how Reaganomics, and the bashing of unions, has skewed our thinking. Rather than insisting that his pay be raised to the guard's, he wanted the guard's lowered.
I was at the grocery yesterday when I got into a discussion with a gentlemen as I looked over a display of sushi. The conversation eventually turned to the egg recall with the gentleman taking the stance that it was the governments fault for not doing enough inspections and that maybe there shouldn't be an FDA. The gentleman failed to grasp that the system broke down not because of a lack of inspections by the government but because of a lack of compliance to existing regulations by the company.
"The country will be washed in blood...and Halliburton will get the clean-up contract."
I think what we're hearing is the grumblings of a suppressed population working longer in degrading conditions for less wages. Their not sure what to do about it yet, but sooner rather than later the "Let them eat cake" anger is going to reach a critical mass.
"There's a storm coming, we had all best be ready when she does."
Oh yea! Philip has the standard Conservative failure of imagination. If something is wrong in any Government undertaking, the solution is to privatize it!
Good Point tho Thom; we need to treat people who will be released, like their going to be released! DOH!
I have been away for some time but have found my way back.
My GOD I'm disgusted! Leonard Gilroy =^P
Thom this is a guy who is paid for his political narrative.
Classic he listens to you point out where his stats come from, and just jumps off into a, "but listen to this," misdirection!
If your gonna have these guys on, at least get them to respond, or show them not responding, don't let them spin on you like that.
OK, I have a question re: Glenn Beck
Listening to the clips that Thom read, plus the other, increasingly crazy clips of his rants, (IF you don't think this is possible-check out his radio rants today), posted on MediMatters.org; I find myself wondering...
One rant is "if you put your faith in God, I ask you to look at Gold"
Another: Those who think Beck is insane: "MIGHT be a little misguided"
And in others he says he "doesn't know how much time this Country has", and that he's "only jotting down bullets points", because he "doesn't want to get in the way of the spirit in case he wants to talk"
Almost every one of these clips, Beck also yells out, "For the love of PETE"!!
I WANT to know WHO this "Pete" is and if Glenn may be hiding something more than his diagnosis of insanity?
I think we ought to make CEO's compete with CEO's from foreign countries who make $12K per year.
Look at how badly the auto workers were beaten up over their wages & benefits.
I remember McCain making a point that they should have to compete with foreign workers salaries and lack of benefits. To my mind his words were Un-American to the core.
A lot of public sector jobs are being supplied by Temp agencies. The pay is about the same, but the benefits and security of the jobs aren't. It's already happening.
N
Jim McDougald (and his ilk) cringes at the thought of "Raising Wages". A fair labor environment supported by enforced tariffs, a higher tax rate on the rich, universal health care, etc... is where we should be heading, where McDougald wants to head is the few uberwealthy doing as they want, taking all the money, and leaving the rest of us living on starvation wages, and eating weeds trying to survive.
Unfortunately it will ultimately lead to violence, he just thinks the top 1% will be above it all... however, that's not always the case. Greed and foolishness are not honorable values, no matter how much the uberwealthy wish them to be.
How much better would this world be if we would strive to provide man woman and child adequate food, shelter, health care, education and a meaningful job.
N
Why do conservatives insist on wanting public service workers to make less than private workers? Why do they care? Why don't they care about executive pay? And why can't they ever respond to questions about raising the cap on social security contributions?
And if it bothers them so much, maybe they should take a public sector job. Become a teacher, if you think teachers have it so peachy. But before you slash a teacher or garbage man's pay, slash executive compensation, especially for those executives who screw up companies and workers. Or pipe down.
These kind of clues are how we know how far down the slippery slope of Freedom vs. Security we have slid. It reminds me of a quote from, Orwell Rolls In His Grave, where people recoil from tragedy's and accusations like this in a general failure of imagination, and nerve.
All we have are whistle-blowers now. Were trapped in a corporate media bubble, and masses will never know from them what is actually happening, and as such we are all headed for an abrupt stop.
It reminds me of a little known theory in physics having to do with how order arises from chaos; A complex system (society/civilization) creates more complexity to deal with the entropic ever changing universe, until it collapses under the weight of its own complexity. It's why empires fall.
However given Natures desire to conserve energy/matter, a new system always arises out of the ashes of the old, and begins it ascension up the ladder of complexity, in an attempt to outrun the ever rising tide of Entropy.
I know I sound like Prof. Falken here, but untill a large enough majority of us recognize whats happening, we're only sliding faster.
The, "I just can't believe that could happen" crowd, Right and Left, are about to be the death of us all.
I think there is a lot to be said about the Coexist foundation. Tolerance, we all need more of it.
www.coexistfoundation.net
n
Australia recently elected some Greens.
N
IRV is the way to go... loyal Green member myself. We should stop talking about the Third party option, we should be talking about the Third and Fourth party options. Lets get a radical right and left party out there to challenge the status quo on both sides, instead of trying to infiltrate and co-opt the existing mainstream parties.
N
Unfettered Business is not good for Children and other Living things.
Wear Hijab on 9/11, Defy "Burn a Quran Day"
I started a Facebook group late last night with the above name. Over 200 people have already joined and have left many heartwarming comments.
Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=144913692209438
A 1/2 hour into the show and no posts. What does it mean when one of the most popular progressive talk show hosts has fewer and fewer active listeners? It seems as though apathy is setting into the left... sigh.
N
These kind of clues are how we know how far down the slippery slope of Freedom vs. Security we have slid. It reminds me of a quote from, Orwell Rolls In His Grave, where people recoil from tragedy's and accusations like this in a general failure of imagination, and nerve.
All we have are whistle-blowers now. Were trapped in a corporate media bubble, and masses will never know from them what is actually happening, and as such we are all headed for an abrupt stop.
It reminds me of a little known theory in physics having to do with how order arises from chaos; A complex system (society/civilization) creates more complexity to deal with the entropic ever changing universe, until it collapses under the weight of its own complexity. It's why empires fall.
However given Natures desire to conserve energy/matter, a new system always arises out of the ashes of the old, and begins it ascension up the ladder of complexity, in an attempt to outrun the ever rising tide of Entropy.
I know I sound like Prof. Falken here, but untill a large enough majority of us recognize whats happening, we're only sliding faster.
The, "I just can't believe that could happen" crowd, Right and Left, are about to be the death of us all.
That's exactly what I thought: an Islamic YMCA, or perhaps "YMMA" would be more proper.
I think we will see Democratic support for this considering this is an election year the economy is way down and Democrats want to keep there jobs. The tax cut is over stated anyways, blue collar
working class people will not get anything.
God just isn't very good at managing money, so keep sending those checks!
@THOM: Since Libertarians appear to be wholly without empathy and incapable of normal human emotions, would it be okay to use them for as lab animals?