Yesterday, I told you how Dennis Kucinich single-handedly saved Cleveland’s public utility from a takeover by the banks. Even though it cost him a job he loved, being Mayor of Cleveland.
But I neglected to mention that Dennis’s courage could have cost him more than his job. It almost cost him his life.
When Dennis Kucinich refused to turn over Cleveland Public Power to the One Percent, they decided to kill Dennis. Not kill Dennis’s political career. Kill Dennis.
You don’t have to take my word for it. You can read the chilling account in the Cleveland Free Times cover story, which includes quotes from the police interview with the hit man.
Mitt Romney did not invent predatory capitalism. It’s been around for a while.
Predatory capitalism was already alive and well in 1978, in Cleveland. That was when the One Percent who controlled the banks, and pretty much everything else of value, decided that they wanted to steal the local power company from the people of Cleveland.
By way of background, Cleveland Public Power was founded by the Mayor of Cleveland, more than a century ago. It provides the people of Cleveland with electricity -- without the price gouging, poor service, pollution and monopolization for which Big Energy seems to strive.
The One Percent didn’t like that idea at all. So they invested in a private company called Cleveland Electric Illuminating. They wanted to steal Cleveland Public Power from the people, and then jack up the rates, and make lots and lots of money.
We hear this a lot: “I wish I could vote for Alan, but I don’t live in his district.”
Well, now you can.
Democracy for America (DFA) is a million-member national organization founded by Gov. Howard Dean. DFA is holding its “Grassroots All-Stars” contest, to help choose the candidates whom DFA will support in 2012. The contest is here.
We have only three words to say: VOTE-FOR-ALAN.
I listened to Gov. Perry’s concession speech this morning. All of Perry’s speeches remind me of NASCAR races – really long, and kind of boring to me. Unless there’s a crack-up.
But I know of one campaign that’s doing well. That’s ours.
Yesterday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) named our campaign as one of only three in the country to earn the title of “Majority Maker,” which confers the national party’s highest level of support.
In America, whites have 20 times that wealth of African-Americans. So says census data.
Not 20% more. Not twice as much. Twenty times as much. Specifically, the median household wealth for whites in 2009 was $113,149, and the median household wealth for African-Americans was $5,677.
When I heard this a few months ago, it was not entirely news to me. When I was in Congress, I read the reports that the Federal Reserve sent to Members; to me, that was interesting reading. In the appendix to one of those Fed reports, from a survey of respondents selected in 2007, these numbers caught my eye:
White, non-Hispanic households - $149,900
Hispanic and African-American households - $23,300
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