American Dream Or Alternative Universe?

Economic Downturn Took a Detour at Capitol Hill nytimes Largely insulated from the country's economic downturn since 2008, members of Congress — many of them among the "1 percenters" denounced by Occupy Wall Street protesters — have gotten much richer even as most of the country has become much poorer in the last six years, according to an analysis by The New York Times based on data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group. Congress has never been a place for paupers. From plantation owners in the pre-Civil War era to industrialists in the early 1900s to ex-Wall Street financiers and Internet executives today, it has long been populated with the rich, including scions of families like the Guggenheims, Hearsts, Kennedys and Rockefellers. But rarely has the divide appeared so wide, or the public contrast so stark, between lawmakers and those they represent. Why Republicans Are So Concerned about a Bust of Winston Churchill ♥ gawker.com Now this is strange. What compels a Speaker of the House, as he's (supposed to be) trying to reach a deal to preserve various expiring government goodies before Congress recesses for the year, to move a resolution that would "commission the placement of a bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the Capitol"? "Has this place become so dysfunctional that even when we agree to things, we can't do it?" Obama said on Thursday. "Enough is enough." The top Senate Republican, McConnell of Kentucky, was ...

View Count: 81 Date: December 25, 2011