Of interest (Tue, Mar 22nd, 10pm to Wed, Mar 23rd, 6am)

BBC News – Budget 2011: Corporation Tax to be cut to 23% by 2014

none

BBC News – Google books agreement torpedoed by US court

none

BBC News – Pet Shop Boys launch first ballet

none

BBC News – Portugal bail-out looms as government nears collapse

none

BBC News – Turkey warns against coalition ‘hidden agenda’ on Libya

none

BBC News – Kenyans fear Dakatcha Woodlands biofuel expansion

none

BBC News – Libya crisis: Allies join fight for city of Misrata

none

Plutocracy Now: What Wisconsin Is Really About | Mother Jones – Kevin Drum
This didn't all happen thanks to a sinister 30-year plan hatched in a smoke-filled room, and it can't be reined in merely by exposing it to the light. It's a story about power. It's about the loss of a countervailing power robust enough to stand up to the influence of business interests and the rich on equal terms. With that gone, the response to every new crisis and every new change in the economic landscape has inevitably pointed in the same direction. …

It's not clear how this will get turned around. Unions, for better or worse, are history. Even union leaders don't believe they'll ever regain the power of their glory days. If private-sector union density increased from 7 percent to 10 percent, that would be considered a huge victory. But it wouldn't be anywhere near enough to restore the power of the working and middle classes.

And yet: The heart and soul of liberalism is economic egalitarianism.

history plutocracy 2011_protests wisconsin union-busting

[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]

Creative Commons License
The Of interest (Tue, Mar 22nd, 10pm to Wed, Mar 23rd, 6am) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.