Be the Wind

New Painting: A Day in Tunisia with Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, 24 x 37 in. $350.

And this pisses me off: Sarah Palin's Alaska TV show gets tax subsidy of $1.5 million. How ironic is that? But she publicly said she was willing to sacrifice Wisconsin's public employee bargaining rights -- that's big of her.

Like comedian Andy Borowitz said the other day, freedom movements against dictators in the Middle East continue to spread in countries that we didn't invade. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and others. At least the tear gas canisters in Libya don't say Made in USA; I think Libya buys French weapons. Hundreds of brave protesters have been killed in Libya alone. If we leave Iraq and Afghanistan later today, perhaps freedom movements will erupt there as well.

The Koch brothers are pulling the puppet strings on Governor Walker in his attempt to break unions in Wisconsin. Governor Walker receive a campaign donation of $43,000 from the Koch brothers who own numerous businesses in Wisconsin. The Governor gave Wisconsin corporations $137 million in tax breaks and now is demanding teachers and public workers pay for it. And they AGREED, but that wasn't good enough. He is now demanding a limit in their ability to negotiate contracts. And from my brother in law Kevin in North Dakota: only 5 states do not have collective bargaining for educators and have deemed it illegal. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores are as follows: South Carolina -50th; North Carolina -49th; Georgia -48th; Texas -47th; Virginia -44th. If you are wondering, Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is ranked 2nd in the country. Let's keep it that way.

Republican/Koch Brother/Tea Party dupes/Supreme Court are now going after Mexicans, Muslims, Planned Parenthood and women, sick children, union members, AmeriCorp, Public Television and Radio, Pell Grants, the unemployed, gays and lesbians, the environment, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, education, 43 million uninsured Americans, and pretty much the entire middle class in order to pay for their tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of the country and their corporate subsidies. Robert Reich points out that if the earnings of the thirteen highest paid hedge-fund managers were taxed as ordinary income instead of receiving an enormous tax break, the revenues generated would pay the salaries and benefits of 300,000 teachers. Yes, you read that right - 13 hedge fund managers' taxes would pay the salary and benefits of 300,000 teachers.

In this country we have socialism for corporations and the wealthy and capitalism for the rest of us. When the Republicans campaigned on Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, I thought they meant create jobs, not eliminate them. My bad.......

Quote of the day: Mary Kay Henry, the new president of the Service Employees International Union. "Politicians put their fingers to the wind," she memorably said. "We need to be the wind."