Harry Reid: "I Love the Blogs"
Thanks to David Grossman and the wonderful folks at PoliticsTV.com (PTV), we have a nice clip of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), from the PTV program "The Congress," expressing his appreciation for the blogging community.
" They've been able to become powerful because they've learned to break through the monopolies we have with the media. That's why I so admire the blogs," said Reid. "They're able to get their message out and they don’t need to run it through some editor, they don’t have to run it through some publisher to get it done -- they just do it. And so, I love the blogs."
You can see more of that clip here and, if you haven't discovered PoliticsTV yet, now's the time to check out this great resource for original political programming straight from inside the beltway -- but not controlled by the beltway!
You can reach Bob Geiger at geiger.bob@gmail.com
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Our bankrupt country
Richard Pedersen
My company(US Airways)declared bankruptcy and with Congress's and federal judges' approval cancelled my pension. With this scenerio in mind, I suggest some noble Senator stand up and propose that the pensions of Congress be likewise cancelled. Also future congressional salary increases tied to the percentage increase in the minimum wage.
In this way we could help in keeping our country safe and sound.
I’m sorry to hear that
I’m sorry to hear that Richard. Something is horribly rotten.
Does anyone know the order of those entities/humans to be paid when a corporation goes bankrupt?
If it's like the other
If it's like the other airlines bankruptcies taken to strip themselves of their employee pension and health liabilities and collective bargaining agreements, a committee of mostly the secured creditors will be formed to work-out a reorganization plan that has to be approved by the bankruptcy judge to bring the company out of bankruptcy with the secured creditors holding most of the shares and owed most of the debt of the emerging company. If the company is liquidated it's the IRS, secured creditors, unsecured creditors, and then the shareholders.
If it is a defined benefit plan, future accruals are stopped, the plan goes to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. What you get depends on how well funded it is. The PBGC pays a low guaranteed level of benefits if the existing accruals are not fully funded by the company (which they won't be). Existing retirees get first dibs.
Sorry for your misfortune.
Thanks Marc.
Thanks Marc.
Big Thanks to the Groundbreaking Bloggers
It is nice that the progressive bloggers are finally coming into their own. Let me tell you, it's been a long slog. Back in early 2001 when I first started writing commentaries for Democrats.com, then later also Unknown News and News Insider (the original site now disbanded) there were VERY few bloggers who were taking a strong stand against Bush, especially after Sept. 11. Daily Kos, for ex., wasn't even founded until May 2002. So that should give you an idea. Early 2001 through summer 2003 were tough times to be a blogger committed to holding the line against Bush. It got REALLY scary after Sept. 11. We were called "commies," "traitors," "Bin Laden lovers," (and later, of course, "Saddam Lovers.") And yet the early bloggers - most of us working for free - got it right more often than the mainstream newsfolk who are paid so handsomely...to get it wrong!
When we suggested, for example, that the WMD evidence was being fabricated and that global warming DID exist and could be catastrophic if unaddressed, we were dismissed as "conspiracy theorists" and "grassy knollers". We received hate mail of the most obscene and sometimes threatening nature, and knew our phones and emails were probably being screened. It felt more like we were part of the French resistance than writers for a supposedly free press in a supposedly free America.
What really was tough was that most mainstream "progressives" were afraid to be associated with the outspoken blogs....The DNC, for example, was always making public statements about how they had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH DEMOCRATS.COM!! When Democrats.com ran my "Smoking Gun: The 9/11 Evidence that may Hang G.W. Bush," raising questions about 9/11, Bob Fertik was assailed with scared Democrats demanding that he stop running the piece. That happened many times over other stances Democrats.com took. So having Harry Reid and others recognize the importance and validity of bloggers's efforts is a huge and welcome shift that really shows how times are changing.
Here is a list of people and sites in the blogosphere I want to honor for having had the courage to print the truth and raise questions when no one else was doing it. I only include blogs started before Sept. 11, 2001 and which consistently spoke out against the "Reich" (even some progressive blogs became very "mealymouthed" for a while after 9/11). There may be a few others I didn't know about, or left off...if so, please feel free to add a name to the "Honor Roll"
BLOG HONOR ROLL
Democrats.com: Bob Fertik and Ted Kahl
Unknown News: Helen and Harry Highwater
News Insider: Isa Atkins, Wayne Madsen, John Stanton
Emperor's New Clothes
Yellow Times
BushWatch: Jerry Pollitex
Meria Heller
Common Dreams
Antiwar.com: Justin Raimondo