What a Lovely, Lovely Picture

I thought I would share some of the news articles I've read today via my rss feeds. It paints such a lovely picture of our corner of the world! (Note: The picture looks even better if you put on your rose-colored glasses.)

That 'Official' Poverty Rate? It's Much Worse than You Think
While the shocking new poverty statistics from the Census Bureau indicating that a record 43.6 million Americans lived in poverty in 2009 emphatically demonstrates the severity of the economic crisis, the Census is drastically undercounting this demographic. Apparently the government's poverty statistics are as accurate as its unemployment statistics.

...Let’s revisit the 2008 Census total stating that 39.8 million Americans lived in poverty. It turns out that the National Academy of Science did its own study and found that 47.4 million Americans actually lived in poverty in 2008. The Census missed 7.6 million Americans living in poverty that year.

How did that happen? The Census Bureau uses a long outdated method to calculate the poverty rate. The Census is measuring poverty based on costs of living metrics established back in 1955 -- 55 years ago! They ignore many key factors, such as the increased costs of medical care, child care, education, transportation, and many other basic costs of living. They also don’t factor geographically based costs of living. For example, try finding a place to live in New York that costs the same as a place in Florida.

So the Census poverty rate increase of 3.8 million people will put the 2009 National Academy of Science (NAS) number at a minimum of 51.2 million Americans. And if the margin of discrepancy is equivalent to the 7.6 million of 2008, we are looking at a NAS number of at least 52 million people for 2009...

Remember how the Obama administration was going to insure that science trumped politics? Well, maybe not.

Americans Vastly Underestimate Wealth Inequality
Americans vastly underestimate the degree of wealth inequality in America, and we believe that the distribution should be far more equitable than it actually is, according to a new study.

Or, as the study's authors put it: "All demographic groups -- even those not usually associated with wealth redistribution such as Republicans and the wealthy -- desired a more equal distribution of wealth than the status quo."

...More interesting than that, the report says, is that the respondents (a randomly selected 5,522-person sample, reflecting the country's ideological, economic and gender demographics, surveyed in December 2005) believed the top 20 percent should own only 32 percent of the wealth. Respondents with incomes over $100,000 per year had similar answers to those making less than $50,000. (The report has helpful, multi-colored charts.)

The respondents were presented with unlabeled pie charts representing the wealth distributions of the U.S., where the richest 20 percent controlled about 84 percent of wealth, and Sweden, where the top 20 percent only controlled 36 percent of wealth. Without knowing which country they were picking, 92 percent of respondents said they'd rather live in a country with Sweden's wealth distribution...

I find it interesting that, whenever someone suggests that socialism might serve America better, capitalists get all animated and scream, "We certainly don't want to mimic Sweden, do we?" Hmm. This study seems to indicate that we do after all!

UN Warned of Major New Food Crisis at Emergency Meeting in Rome
The world may be on the brink of a major new food crisis caused by environmental disasters and rampant market speculators, the UN was warned today at an emergency meeting on food price inflation.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) meeting in Rome today was called last month after a heatwave and wildfires in Russia led to a draconian wheat export ban and food riots broke out in Mozambique, killing 13 people. But UN experts heard that pension and hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds and large banks who speculate on commodity markets may also be responsible for inflation in food prices being seen across all continents...

Aah yes, the compassionate side of global capitalism...NOT!

Democrats Snared By Republican Tax Trap
When the Bush tax cuts were passed in 2001 and 2003, the thinking among cynical observers at the time was that the tax cuts were cleverly made to sunset at the end of 2010 not only to ease the worries of deficit hawks but to jam up Democrats politically.

Bush Administration officials and congressional Republicans knew back when the tax cuts were enacted that the day would come when the cuts would either be extended or left to die.

And anyone who voted to allow them to lapse (read Democrat) could be accused of raising taxes, never a popular position with most voters. In other words, Republicans set a tax trap for Democrats and seems to have worked...

For me, this issue proves one of two things: a) As a political party, Democrats are morons because a third grader could have figured out the trap or b) As a political party, Democrats are conniving because they can now use the "trap" to explain why they "had to" vote to continue the tax cuts for the rich elite.

FBI Raids Homes of Several Twin Cities War Protesters
The homes of five Twin Cities activists, including three prominent leaders of the Twin Cities antiwar movement, were raided Friday by the FBI in what an agency spokesman described as an "investigation into activities concerning the material support of terrorism." The office of an antiwar organization also was reportedly raided.

...Ted Dooley, an attorney, said he had reviewed the search warrant issued in the raid on Kelly's apartment. "It's a probe into the political beliefs of American citizens and to any organization anywhere that opposes the American imperial design," he said...

Having been a semi-professional peace activist from 1996 - 2007, I can tell you that the vast majority of such activists are NO THREAT to the safety and security of this or any other nation. The only threat posed is to changing public opinion and this faint possibility scares the elites far more than real terrorists. The wealthy elite like to keep citizens in the dark and the great threat posed by most peace activists is the dissemination of information. Damn scary stuff!