In other words, from the beginning of the Bush administration, during which the erosion of middle-class income and the growth of super-rich income accelerated to a gap difficult to bridge. Obama has been hamstrung since day one, although he really should have abandoned bipartisanship when he had the chance in his first two years. Will the middle class remember who’s really to blame? America’s middle-class earners lost significant ground during the last decade as their incomes dropped for the first extended period since World War II, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. The decade also…

My church, St Nicholas Episcopal, is located in Elk Grove Village. We run a food pantry 3 Wednesdays a month. I think a lot of our guests would be very surprised to find themselves part of a “culture of dependency.” I think Romney’s appearance in the village, aside from its convenience to O’Hare, is less to do with doing a gun-and-run fundraising appearance and more to do with supporting Reprehensible Joe Walsh (R-Anthrax)’s campaign to retain his seat against the very formidable Tammy Duckworth (D-Gave Her Legs For Her Country). They had a face-off for the Trib editorial board— apparently…

I don’t know if this affects anyone we might know, but even if not, it’s shameful. When sweeping health care cuts take effect Sunday, the parts of Illinois that stand to be hardest hit are the places where folks already are struggling to get by.City neighborhoods like Austin and Englewood, Humboldt Park and Pilsen. Inner-ring suburbs like Cicero. Rust-belt cities like Rockford. Whole swaths of rural Illinois. They’re areas where people make less, jobs are scarce and more rely on the government for help.Medicaid cutbacks mean hundreds of thousands will see health care benefits greatly curtailed, tens of thousands will…

Link: Fortune: ATF Never Purposefully Let Guns Walk During Fast And Furious | TPMMuckraker Of course not Because that would be ridiculous, but easily used against them because the simple lie is more believable than the complex truth. Reality is often messy. There is no narrative structure. One day ahead of a House vote to find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, a six month investigation by Fortune magazine found that Arizona-based agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives never purposefully allowed guns to “walk” during Operation Fast and Furious.

The Corporate-Person American movement is picking up steam… hilarious satire is always best when it flies a little under the radar. Stumbled across this when I was looking for images of Occupy cardboard protest signs for an event in Second Life. From the serious to the absurd, spectacular imagery, costumes, and music will accompany a cast of characters who self-identify as “Corporate Persons” gathering to celebrate the first anniversary of their Emancipation from the shackles of disenfranchisement, and demand full recognition of a new minority status: the Corporate-Person American. They will unveil their giant “We the Corporations” reworking of the…

This paragraph contains everything you need to know about Deadbeat Dad Rep. Joe Walsh, with the exception of his unwavering support for the state of Israel, and his complete failure to work on anything of actual benefit to the district. The meeting was held in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood — far from any of the districts he had considered representing but closer to TV cameras. Walsh, a darling of the tea party movement, has been a controversial political figure. At town hall meetings, Walsh has sharply rebuked some questioners, and he remains involved in a court dispute with his former wife…