Outsourcing my outrage

I''ve been crazy busy and have company on the way. So I'm outsourcing my outrage to John Cole who has been a ball of fire for the last few days. If you're not reading Balloon Juice reguarly, here's the must read posts, with excerpts:

If you read nothing else, this is the must read on vacuous paid punditry.

What I don’t know for sure is if Brooks, Klein, Sullivan, etc. are cowardly careerist sociopaths, just plain stupid, or both.

Well, both, obviously, but I would add a couple more things- lazy, incurious, insulated, and well-rewarded for staying that way.

What's the difference between IKEA in Sweden and their plant here?

Laborers in Swedwood plants in Sweden produce bookcases and tables similar to those manufactured in Danville. The big difference is that the Europeans enjoy a minimum wage of about $19 an hour and a government-mandated five weeks of paid vacation. Full-time employees in Danville start at $8 an hour with 12 vacation days — eight of them on dates determined by the company.

What’s more, as many as one-third of the workers at the Danville plant have been drawn from local temporary-staffing agencies. These workers receive even lower wages and no benefits, employees said.

A whole lot of shrill out there.

Ryan’s plan is anchored in an open contempt for anyone who isn’t wealthy enough to completely take care of themselves in their old age. He describes Medicare as some kind of cushy “hammock” that people laze about in, when in fact it has been the difference between moderate comfort and grinding poverty for generations of retired Americans.

Bummed out? John reminds us why we have to F. We have to I. We have to GHT.:

And btw, we’ve talked about the Ryan plan to gut medicare and medicaid and give the proceeds to the rich while feeding the warpig, and it is important to recognize this is not some one-off. This is what they want. They are also coming for your pension, they are after your social security, they want to destroy your union so you can not organize against them, they will go after your minimum wage next, they want to get rid of the EPA so their donors can pollute your water, air, land, and food and not have to worry about being punished, they want to deregulate Wall Street more so they can screw you again and not face any consequences, they want to tell you what you can do with your body, and they are spending lots of time and money making it harder and harder for you to vote. The Ryan plan isn’t an isolated incident, it was just shots fired on another front. If you are disheartened by the budget deal the other night, which is one small skirmish in a big war, you probably should just give up and go buy yourself a ton of lube.

No retreat. No surrender. Too much at stake.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]