Cypriots Are The Guinea Pigs

I think this is exactly right:

One flabbergasted Larnaca bank employee, 28, was grabbing a coffee before returning to the rolling TV news he said the nation was glued to. He found the bank levy an "extraordinary" surprise. "Are we the guinea pigs? There's a feeling they are trying this out on us before they do it elsewhere. Let's see how the markets react."

So now it looks like they may lower the levy on accounts under $130,000 to 3% in some attempt to assuage people that it's not so bad.

But make no mistake - if they get away with this here, they will do this elsewhere in the near future.

Bloomberg Threatens To Lay Off Teachers At The Same Time He Gives Raises To 48 Members Of His City Hall Staff

It's that time of year again, folks - it's time for Mike Bloomberg, the genius fiscal king of New York City, to claim the only way he can balance the city budget is to lay off teachers and other city workers.

I posted about his latest threat yesterday.

This time around, he's threatening layoffs at the same time he's handing out generous raises to his staff at City Hall:

Despite a gaping budget hole that could lead to layoffs of teachers or police officers, Mayor Bloomberg found money in the city budget to give out raises to 48 members of his City Hall staff.

A Daily News review of payroll data found that 10 of those lucky employees got raises that topped 20% since last summer.

“It is hypocritical,” steamed City Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn). “It’s just disrespectful to the people who basically make the city run.”

But Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna said the mayor’s office was paying some employees more because they were performing more work as a result of staffing cuts.

He said the office shrank by 17 workers, going from 484 employees in June 2011 to 467 in June 2012.

“Fewer people on staff means some employees have been promoted or taken on more work, so their salaries increased, but we’ve pushed our overall salary costs down,” he said.

...

Gregory Floyd, head of Teamsters Local 237, which represents 20,000 city workers, was angry about the raises.

“I thought there was no money for raises for any city employee, and the last I checked the people who worked in the mayor’s office were city employees,” he said. “They’re being paid with taxpayer money.”

Harry Nespoli, who heads the sanitation workers union, said every union is working without a contract and being told to inform its members to work harder without any rises.

“He had enough money to give raises to the people in City Hall, but not the people that work for the citizens of New York City on a day-to-day basis?” he questioned. “That is totally unacceptable.”

Yes, you teachers had better work longer and harder for the same money, get those test scores up as measured by the city's jive ass value added measurement system with the 87% margin of error or they will "I-rate" your ass and fire you.

But people on the mayor's staff get a 20% raise for working harder at whatever it is they do there at City Hall (i.e., mostly bullshit political stuff - like looking for ways to spin why the city needs to do layoffs.)

Just another example of the hypocrisy of this mayor and the Ruling Class he represents.

Austerity for the commons, party time for the connected.

Corporate profits reached an all-time high in June 2012.

Corporate tax rates are at their lowest rate in 40 years.

Wages are the lowest they have been in 25 years.

So corporations are making more money than they ever have before, their paying the lowest amount of taxes in two generations, and they've been squeezing wages for the last 25 years and they're STILL telling us there's no money for anything?

It is clear that the Ruling Class have stolen all the of the money, all of the wealth, and have relegated the rest of us to fight it out amongst ourselves for the scraps.

Until they fear that there will be an uprising to take back the stolen wealth, circumstances are not going to change.

We will continue to have the Ruling Class and their corporate media push austerity for the masses and party time for themselves.

This is why the Chicago teachers strike is so important - it's the first popular, member-led uprising in the face of the Ruling Class Austerity Movement.

Make no mistake, education reform is NOT about improving schools, it is about pushing austerity and fear for the masses while opening up $600 billion in new revenues for the Rupert Murdochs of the world.

It is time to fight back against this austerity, call the education reformers the corporate criminals they are and take back what they are stealing.

It is time to fight back.

Believe it or not, this is what the Rahm Emanuels, Mike Bloombergs and Rupert Murdochs of the world fear.

It is true, they've got the guns and the power of the Surveillance State on their side.

But CTU showed how we can get the numbers on our side and stand up to our corporate overlords.

It is time to stand up to Herr Bloomberg.

Off Duty Police Join Public Sector Worker Protests

This scene from a few days ago is bound to give the hedge fundies and Wall Street criminals nightmares - the cops joining in London protests against austerity cuts:





Somebody wrote in one of the comments "How come there's no police there to beat the police?"

Indeed.

Vive La France

Europe just might need Victor Laszlo in the fight against the evil austeritarians...

Greece Punishes Austerity Politicians

Unfortunately, one of the parties that has benefited from Greeks turning against the ruling coalition that sold the country out to the bankers is the fascists.

Still, the leftist, anti-bailout party appears to be "the biggest winner," according to the NY Times:

ATHENS — Greek voters appeared to radically redraw the political map on Sunday, bolstering the far left and neo-Nazi right in a wave of protest against the dominant political parties they blame for the country’s economic collapse.

The parliamentary elections were the first time that Greece’s foreign loan agreement had been put to a democratic test, and the outcome appeared clear: a rejection of the terms of the bailout and a fragmentation of the vote so severe that the front-runner is expected to have extreme difficulty in forming a government, let alone one that can either enforce or renegotiate the terms of the bailout.

The elections were seen as a pivotal test, determining both the country’s future in Europe and its prospects for economic recovery and the outcome, along with that in France, could resonate far beyond Europe, possibly leading to more upheaval in the euro zone. The early results were also a clear rebuke to European leaders that their strategy for Greece had failed.

An exit poll made public just before 9 p.m. nearly two hours after the polls closed, indicated that center-right New Democracy party was in first place with 19 to 20.5 percent of the vote, much less than the 34 percent it won in 2009. But in a major shift, the Socialists, who dominated for decades, won 44 percent of the vote in 2009 and were in power when Greece asked for foreign aid in 2010, appeared to have 13 to 14 percent of the vote, putting them behind the Coalition of the Radical Left, called Syriza, which opposes Greece’s agreement with its foreign lenders. Syriza appeared to be drawing 15.5 to 17 percent of the vote.

A projection by the Interior Ministry based on votes counted at a quarter of the country’s 20,000 polling stations broadly reflected the results of the exit poll.

...

Exit polls also showed the far-right Golden Dawn party, whose symbol resembles the swastika and whose members perform Nazi salutes at rallies, attracting 5 to 8 percent of the vote, enough to enter Parliament for the first time. The ultimate expression of a protest vote, the party has gained ground by campaigning on the streets of Athens, where many residents fear a sharp rise in illegal immigration and where politicians from mainstream parties have had trouble walking for fear of violent attacks from angry voters.

In a triumphant televised statement issued after the exit polls, the party’s leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, pledged to “fight the memorandum of the junta inside and outside Parliament,” a reference to the country’s debt deal with creditors.

...

The biggest winner in the elections appeared to be Syriza, a coalition of leftist parties founded in 2004, which included splinter groups from Greece’s more hard-line Communist Party. Its campaign slogan was “They chose without us, we’re moving on without them,” and it appeared to receive the bulk of the Socialist protest vote. Led by Alexis Tsipras, an energetic 38-year-old, the party is in favor of Greece remaining in the euro zone and the European Union, unlike the Communist Party, but has opposed the loan agreement.

Describing the elections as “probably the most critical ever,” Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, a technocrat installed in November to help Greece push through changes promised to creditors by the Socialists, called for voters to think about the implications of their decision. “We must all think carefully as we are not only deciding who will govern, we are determining the country’s course for decades,” he said.

One possible outcome could be a government composed of small parties opposed to the onerous terms of a second debt deal hashed out between the previous government and creditors in February in exchange for about $170 billion euros in loans and a restructuring of the country’s privately held debt.

In any case, with up to 10 parties expected to enter Greece’s 300-seat Parliament it will be difficult to form a stable government.

Austerity took a drubbing in France, Greece and England this week.

The left, such as it is, was the beneficiary in France and England.

Greece is a little more complex, but the message there is clear too - "No!" to banker bailouts and enforced austerity.

If only we had a "left" here in the U.S. to turn to.

But we don't.

We have a right wing party that bails out the banks, drops thousands of drone bombs on innocents across the world, vilifies unions and looks to privatize everything in sight, including public education.

And we have the Republicans...

Sarkozy Loses In France

This is good to see - the odious, fascist Sarkozy has lost:

François Hollande has won power in France, turning the tide on a rightwards and xenophobic lurch in European politics and vowing to transform Europe's handling of the economic crisis by fighting back against German-led austerity measures.

The 57-year-old rural MP and self-styled Mr Normal, a moderate social democrat from the centre of the Socialist party, is France's first leftwing president in almost 20 years. Projections from early counts, released by French TV, put his score at 51.9%.

His emphatic victory is a boost to the left in a continent that has gradually swung rightwards since the economic crisis broke four years ago.

Nicolas Sarkozy, defeated after one term in office, became the 11th European leader to lose power since the economic crisis in 2008.

...

The defeat of the most unpopular French president ever to run for re-election was not simply the result of the global financial crisis or eurozone debt turmoil. It was also down to the intense public dislike of the man viewed by many as the "president of the rich" who had swept to victory in 2007 with a huge mandate to change France. The majority of French people felt he had failed to deliver on his promises, and he was criticised for his ostentatious display of wealth, favouring the rich and leaving behind over 2.8 million unemployed. Political analysts said anti-Sarkozy sentiment had become a cultural phenomenon in France.

Turnout was high in the election - The Guardian reports it was 80%.

AFP puts some perspective on Sarkozy:

PARIS — Nicolas Sarkozy's defeat on Sunday marked the end of a five-year presidency during which he divided a France that had put its hopes in him to break with a history of timid government complacency.

Never has a French president been so disliked, as much for his personal style as for his austere deficit-busting policies, and the right-wing leader vowed months ago to quit politics if defeated.

...

At the height of his powers, he was the most popular president since General Charles de Gaulle.

"I have no right to disappoint," he said. But disappoint he did. First with his overbearing manner and then through his actions.

The first faux pas came on the very evening of his election, when he feted his victory in fine style in the glitzy Paris eatery Fouquet's with some of France's richest people, setting the seal on an image of tasteless excess.

One of his worst decisions was to allow his son Jean, a 23-year-old local councillor who had not yet graduated college, to try to take charge of the powerful public development agency in the La Defense business district.

He also struggled with the 2008 credit crunch and the subsequent financial crises.

Sarkozy tried to rise to the occasion as a global statesman, staging crisis summit after crisis summit, but his high-rolling Rolex and Ray-Ban image sat ill with an age of austerity, and French voters turned their backs on him.

"The most important factor is the way in which he vulgarised politics and lowered the status of the presidential office for his own ends," said political scientist Stephane Rozes of the Cap Institute.

Chirac was never happier than when greeting farmers, tasting food and admiring prize cattle at the Paris agricultural show. Sarkozy was famously filmed there telling a grumpy bystander: "Get stuffed, you stupid bastard."

His supporters point to the reforms that he managed to push past a dubious parliament and public -- an unpopular increase in the retirement age from 60 to 62 and a measure to ensure the independence of universities.

He had an impact on the international stage, helping negotiate an end to Russia's drive into Georgia and leading the NATO intervention that helped Libyan rebels topple Moamer Kadhafi.

Those most disappointed are those who believed in his slogan "work more to earn more" -- unemployment is approaching 10 percent and he did not live up to his promises to tackle tax loopholes and discrimination.

And of course there was his embrace of fascism:

He shocked some by pushing far-right themes, increasingly so between the April 22 first round presidential election and the run-off as he sought to claw back votes from the National Front.

He linked crime to immigration, expelled EU citizens of Roma descent and launched a debate on the threat Islam supposedly poses to French national identity

Good riddance to Sarkozy.

Disaster Economics

Austerity for the masses, free money for the banksters, or we're all dooooommmmmmmeeeeedddddd!!!!!

So says The Economist.

Frankly the doomed part might be right if the Euro Zone goes under.

Or even if it just hits a deep recession and tilts the rest of the world into the abyss with it.

But it's these same arrogant assholes who are clamoring for bankster bailouts or we're going to see Lehman 2.0 x 2 who caused all this shit in the first place.

How come the austerity comes for the masses, but the banksters and hedge fund criminals who caused all of this stuff get to ride off on huge waves of free, newly minted cash?

I'm not an economist, I'm not a political scientist, I'm just an English teacher with a skeptical nature, but my sense is that these people have no idea what the fuck they're doing, are making things worse rather than better with all these imposed austerity measures, and when the Lehman 2.0 x 2 crash comes, the disorder and chaos that is set to be unleashed is going to make the Great Depression look like the Eisenhower Fifties.

No wonder they're clamping down so hard and heavy on the Occupy encampments and such.

And no wonder they're unleashing all that Homeland Security technology on the Occupy people.

They know, man.

They know.

And they're scared.

Imagine what happens if we get Lehman 2.0 x 2?

People are pissed and living in fear already.

And some are finally waking up to not only how dire the circumstances are, but just who it was who caused this mess in the first place.

People aren't going to put up with this bailout for the banksters/austerity for the masses shit a second time.

And they're going to come looking for the arrogant assholes who caused the disaster.

How's That Austerity Thing Working Now?

From the NY Times:

ATHENS — The instability rocking Greece this week is the latest manifestation of a troubling new phase in the global financial crisis: political turmoil is sweeping through Europe, toppling governments and threatening to undermine efforts to rescue the financial system and, ultimately, the euro zone itself.

It seems likely that Prime Minister George Papandreou of Greece will manage to hold his government together long enough to push through the deep cuts required for his debt-ridden country to receive its next installment of international aid. He reshuffled his cabinet on Friday, replacing Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou with veteran Socialist Evangelos Venizelos as part of a broader cabinet reshuffle aimed at restoring waning confidence among Greeks and foreign creditors.

But with a rising tide of voter anger against bank bailouts, budget cuts and austerity measures, his popularity is plummeting. And it is not just Mr. Papandreou who is feeling the public’s wrath.

Across Europe, people are complaining that they are unfairly paying the price for the mistakes of their governments while they are growing increasingly resentful of the international banks and the preferential treatment they seem to receive. And they are getting louder.

“They took everything, and we have to pay,” said Katerina Fatourou, 30, an elementary school music teacher in Athens, summing up a common sentiment here after a large and sometimes violent general strike. It is not likely to be the last in Europe this summer.

In a vicious cycle, the rising political turmoil is sowing unrest in global financial markets, raising the interest rates paid by heavily indebted nations in Europe to ever higher levels and threatening their solvency.

European officials are also worried that if Greece’s politicians bow to popular anger and reject the austerity route, other countries might follow, with potentially dire consequences for Europe’s banks and the common currency. So concerned were European Union officials about the potential for trouble that the bloc’s top financial official, Olli Rehn, hinted in Brussels on Thursday that Greece might get the new financial aid even if European finance ministers failed to approve the loan at a meeting this weekend.

In recent months, the governments of Ireland and Portugal have been ousted over efforts to cut budgets and benefits. Students have rioted to protest tuition increases in Britain, and young people who feel shut out of their own futures have held nationwide sit-ins in Spain, where the governing Socialists are in trouble in the polls. Right-wing political parties are gaining strength, tapping, in part, the populist rejection of austerity plans.

This week, Mr. Papandreou became the latest politician pulled in opposite directions by the markets, which hang on his every word, and his country’s citizens, who have already been stung by one round of wage and pension cuts and are resisting new spending reductions and tax increases. But he needs those measures to persuade the International Monetary Fund to release the next installment of a $155 billion bailout package negotiated a year ago.

“It’s hard enough to get the electorate to support austerity at the best of times,” said Simon Tilford, the chief economist of the Center for European Reform in London. “They promised endless austerity with no prospects of a return to growth, and there will be mounting opposition to this.”

The banksters and hedge fund managers thought that they had gotten away with their thefts.

They thought that they had handed the bill over to the working and middle classes in the form of budget cuts, layoffs, benefit cuts, service cuts and austerity measures.

They have continued to enjoy government bailouts and tax cuts for themselves, even as the middle and working classes are forced to bear the brunt of a crisis created in large measure by the banksters and hedge fund managers..

But there is a lot of anger and resentment out there.

Take this, for example:

In Athens this week, the pessimism was as thick in the air as the tear gas that the police sprayed during Wednesday’s demonstration.

“A year ago it was bad, but not like now,” said Irene Anastasiou, 22, a quiet marketing student who has been taking part in a peaceful sit-in in Athens’s central Syntagma Square for the past three weeks. “I am a young Greek girl. I have dreams, and they destroyed them,” she said of the government.

Silly 22 year old - you have had your dreams destroyed so that Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase can make money.

That's what all these politicians have been put into place to do - help the banksters and the financial companies and the corporations steal and exploit their way to unimagined wealth.

This is a horrific cycle - layoffs, budget cuts and service cuts for the working and middle class, tax cuts and bailouts for the wealthy.

Repeat until working and middle class are jobless, moneyless, and hopeless.

The banksters and the politicians say it's the only way to save the economy.

And yet, it's not working, is it?

Except for the banksters and many (though not all) of the politicians themselves, it is working.

And after all, isn't that what life is about - helping out the banksters and their political hacks?

Austerity - Chris Christie-Style

Too much:

New Jersey's Gov. Christie got beaned by his critics Wednesday for taking a $12.5 million State Police chopper to his son's high school baseball game.

The Republican darling stayed only through the fifth inning Tuesday before helicoptering back to the governor's mansion in Princeton to meet with an Iowa businessmen who tried to get him to run for president.

"The people of the state of New Jersey should not be required to pick up the tab so he can meet with Iowa donors at Drumthwacket," Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) told the Newark Star-Ledger.

Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, (D-Turnersville), said Christie should pay taxpayers back for his private use of the state's chopper.

"Taxpayers cannot afford his helicopter joyrides," he said.

Christie's spokesman defended his use of the helicopter, but he wouldn't say where the governor was flying from.

"It is a means of transportation that is occasionally used as the schedule demands," Michael Drewniak wrote in an email to the newspaper. "This has historically been the case in prior administrations as well, and we continue to be judicious in limiting its use."

Drewniak also did not detail how much Christie's chopper cost hard-pressed Jersey residents, but it costs about $1,200-an-hour to operate the Agusta Westland helicopter, which can reach nearly 200 miles per hour and was added to the state fleet last month.

The tough-talking Jersey governor is being courted by Republicans unhappy with the current crop of GOP candidates. He has so far rebuffed them.

Christie landed near the St. Joseph Regional High School baseball field in Montvale, N.J., shortly before the game started, the Star-Ledger reported.

Instead of walking the 100 yards to the field, the burly governor and first lady Mary Pat Christie hopped into a black car with tinted windows and rode the rest of the way.

Their oldest son, Andrew, plays catcher for the posh private Delbarton School, which beat St. Joseph by a score of 7-2.

I love it - not only did Christie get flown to the game in a helicopter, but rather than walk 100 yards from the landing site to the field, he got driven in a car.

Then he flew back to meet with Republican Party donors.

All on the taxpayer's dime.

I guess austerity is not for the New Jersey governor, only the people he governs.

America: Raise Taxes On Rich People

Apparently the austerity measures and "shared sacrifice" promoted by both Republican and Democratic politicians are not very popular with Americans:

Despite growing concerns about the country’s long-term fiscal problems and an intensifying debate in Washington about how to deal with them, Americans strongly oppose some of the major remedies under consideration, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey finds that Americans prefer to keep Medicare just the way it is. Most also oppose cuts in Medicaid and the defense budget. More than half say they are against small, across-the-board tax increases combined with modest reductions in Medicare and Social Security benefits. Only President Obama’s call to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans enjoys solid support.

...

The Post-ABC poll finds that 78 percent oppose cutting spending on Medicare as a way to chip away at the debt. On Medicaid — the government insurance program for the poor — 69 percent disapprove of cuts.

...

In his speech last week, the president renewed his call to raise tax rates on family income over $250,000, and he appears to hold the high ground politically, according to the poll. At this point, 72 percent support raising taxes along those lines, with 54 percent strongly backing this approach. The proposal enjoys the support of majorities of Democrats (91 percent), independents (68 percent) and Republicans (54 percent). Only among people with annual incomes greater than $100,000 does less than a majority “strongly support” such tax increases.

An across-the-board tax increase is decidedly less popular, at least when coupled with benefit reductions. A report by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility , co-chaired by former senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, recommended “shared sacrifice.” But in the poll, a slim majority — 53 percent — opposes small tax increases and minor benefit cuts for all as a way to significantly reduce the debt. Strong opposition to that kind of solution outnumbers strong support by 2 to 1.

There is broad support for keeping Medicare structured the way it has been since it was instituted in 1965: as a defined-benefit health insurance program. Just 34 percent of Americans say Medicare should be changed along the lines outlined in the Ryan budget proposal, shifting it away from a defined-benefit plan. Under that proposal, recipients would select from a group of insurance plans providing guaranteed coverage, and the government would provide a payment to the insurer, subsidizing the cost. Advocates say this approach is more sophisticated than a pure voucher plan.

The message is clear - raise taxes on rich people.

Start with the richest 400.

Then move to Wall Street and the hedge fund managers.

People are seeing through this tax nonsense.

Rich people are paying the lowest rate of taxes in decades.

Most corporations aren't paying any taxes at all.

Only middle and working class people are paying a substantial portion of their incomes to taxes even as the programs that help these people the most face the starkest cuts under the austerity measures promoted by people like Chris Christie and Little Andy Cuomo.

It's time to end this nonsense.

Raise taxes on rich people.

Cuomo's War On The Middle and Working Classes

From Alan Singer:

The Cuomo budget, which was negotiated in secret, is a virtual war on the middle class, working people, and the poor. It calls on us to make sacrifices, while exempting the wealthiest New Yorkers. It includes an annual spending slash of roughly $3.4 billion with a $2 billion year-to-year cut in health care and education. The district-by-district impact of the cuts is not yet available and the geographic distribution apparently has not yet been determined.

In addition to the cuts in education and health care, the governor refused to extend state rent regulations, which are set to expire in June. Meanwhile, Cuomo blocked continuing the state's higher tax rate on people in the top income brackets that would have prevented many of the budget cuts.

Cuomo, who was elected governor with labor support that he has now apparently alienated, seems determined to make a name for himself in national politics as a Democrat who can cut deeper to the bone than right-wing Republican governors in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Deeply ambitious, it is not clear whether he is maneuvering for a Presidential run in 2012 in the event Obama falters even further or will be content to wait until 2016.

In a few short months in office, Cuomo has assumed virtually dictatorial power, ignoring calls for compromise and the teachers, parents, and students who have rallied around the state and marched and lobbied in Albany. He threatened that if state legislators missed an April 1 budget deadline, he would put his preferred cuts into an emergency spending measure, forcing them to vote for his budget or risk shutting down state government.

Despite the announced deal, some Democratic Party insurgents, the teachers' union, and other groups are continuing their efforts to force reconsideration of those measures. Some Democrats have in recent days openly discussed voting against a budget that is too austere. New York City Council member Charles Barron has threatened that "Whereever he shows his faced people need to confront him. I am an elected activist. I don't think we should throw out anything from our arsenal to get some improvement in the lives of the working people of this state." In February, Barron interrupted Cuomo when he spoke at a reception for the Association of Black and Latino Legislators in Albany, chanting "Stop the cuts, tax the rich," and, "Shame on you."

At the news conference announcing the budget cuts, Cuomo declared "It's a new day in New York." He should have added that it is also a sad day.

Cuomo has 69% approval.

Until New Yorkers feel the effects of this "austerity" themselves, I doubt Cuomo is going to see his poll numbers drop.

People love the idea of austerity for others, cutting taxes, all that kind of thing.

But then when the consequences come home to roost - closed schools, fired teachers, closed parks, fired park rangers, closed libraries, fired librarians - they don't like the austerity so much.

We'll see how this plays out.

I say after a year of this austerity, Cuomo's numbers plummet to 50% and after two years, he is closer to the Mendoza Line.

Public Fed Up With New Congress Already

That didn't take long:

Once again, the public is getting increasingly disgusted with Washington.

It sees a failure to adopt remedies for even the most basic, pressing issues of the day, as Congress struggles to craft a federal budget. And incumbents are getting worried about the political implications.

"It's hurting some of us," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who's up for re-election next year. "They blame everybody."

A new Pew Research Center poll shows that about half of Americans think the debate over spending and deficits has been "generally rude and disrespectful."

There's even bipartisan agreement — 48 percent of Republicans and Democrats have that view, as well as 57 percent of independents. President Barack Obama signed legislation Friday to provide funding to keep the government open until April 8, the sixth such temporary extension in the 6-month-old fiscal year.

Pew surveyed 1,525 adults from March 8-14. The poll's findings suggest the political losers so far have been Republicans, who rode a wave of voter irritation to win control of the House of Representatives last fall.

After the election, 35 percent said Republicans had a better approach to the deficit, expected to reach a record $1.65 trillion this year. This month, that number has plunged to 21 percent.

People don't think Obama has better ideas, either — 20 percent found his approach better, down from November's 24 percent. Total sample margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Hey, I know...why don't you try putting people back to work!!!!

And why don't you try protecting the incomes and benefits of people who have jobs!!!

But noooooooooooooooo...

You'd guys would rather lay off public employees, slash government budgets to the bone and cut taxes on corporations who outsource their labor overseas or automate it rather than hire real, breathing, living Americans to do some work.

And of course the Beltway media crowd applaud all this deficit reduction stuff and the corporate media across the country applaud the state cuts.

Gotta love the austerity, right?

Actually, it doesn't seem like a lot of people do, looking at those poll numbers.

Ireland Throws Crooked Bankster Government Out

Not that the new crooks will be any better than the old crooks, but it's good to see SOMEBODY pay for the mess the banks and the hedge fund criminals made in Ireland.

Unfortunately it wasn't the banksters and hedge fund criminals:

LONDON — Ireland ousted its discredited government on Saturday, electing new leaders who pledged to restore faith in the country after the trauma of a calamitous economic collapse.

With most of the votes counted after the general election on Friday, a coalition government of the center-right Fine Gael and the Labour Party was on track to win a comfortable majority in Parliament.

...

Fianna Fail, which has run the government for 14 years, suffered its worst showing in its more than 80-year history. It won 78 seats in 2007; this time, it was on course to win as few as 25. Of the 47 parliamentary seats in Dublin, only the seat held by Brian Lenihan, who served in the government as finance minister, was set to go to Fianna Fail.

...

Fianna Fail has been blamed for presiding over an economy that spiraled out of control and then, unregulated and unmanageable, came crashing down. In 2008, when Ireland’s spectacular building boom collapsed, and the Irish banks that had fueled it threatened to collapse, too, the government, led by Prime Minister Brian Cowen, tried to solve the crisis by pledging to guarantee the banks’ debts.

That move has proved to be a huge drain on the nation’s finances, with the government pumping tens of billions of dollars into the banks to keep them afloat. In November, Ireland reluctantly accepted an international loan worth about $93 billion; in return, it pledged to adhere to a brutal four-year austerity program and to repay much of the money at onerous interest rates.

The terms of the loan humiliated Ireland, and many economists say they are worried that the country will be unable to keep up with even the interest payments.

Mr. Cowen, whose resignation as party leader last month led to the election, said in a television interview that his government had nothing to be ashamed of. He said he had explained his decisions fully and repeatedly.

“Everything I did, I did for the good of this country as I saw it; I did it conscientiously,” he told the state broadcasting network RTE.

You want to know what Cowen and the ruling bankster party did for the country?

This:

Unemployment is up to 13.8 percent (it was as low as 4.2 percent as recently as 2005); public spending has been savagely and repeatedly cut since 2008; the deficit has risen to 14.3 percent; and current predictions suggest that 100,000 people will emigrate in the next several years, from a population of 4.3 million. The bill from the struggling banks may, in the end, total upward of $135 billion 100 billion euros, in an economy with a G.D.P. of $220 billion 160 billion euros.

Heckuva job, Mr. Cowen.

Heckuva job.

And how's that austerity thing going?

Not so well, I think.

Which is why thousands are sailing again:



Can't wait to see what austerity does here.

Chris Christie Brags About Austerity Measures

Raising health care costs on public employees by 22%, slashing Medicaid, refusing to fund the pension plan unless the unions agree to sharp cuts in benefits and hikes in retirement ages - and he was swaggering and bragging as he announced all of this, according to the NY Times:

TRENTON — A pugnacious and boastful Gov. Chris Christie proposed a no-growth budget for New Jersey on Tuesday, saying he had inspired a legion of copycat governors from Albany to Sacramento and was not about to let up in his efforts to shift money from public workers to property-tax payers and businesses that create jobs.

Declaring that his deep cuts last year had “established the new normal,” Mr. Christie, a Republican, carved out a modest increase for public-school aid, kept municipal aid flat, offered small increases for indigent care at hospitals and financial aid for college students, and set aside a bigger amount to support improvements in the state’s vital transportation system.

But to pay for his priorities, Mr. Christie, who has waged a 14-month rhetorical war against the teachers’ and other public-sector unions, stepped up the pressure to slash their members’ health and retirement benefits.

The governor conditioned a doubling of the middle-class property tax rebate, for example, on the passage of changes that would make public employees pay 30 percent of the cost of their health insurance, compared with an average of 8 percent that Mr. Christie said many now pay.

He also offered to make a partial payment to the state’s woefully underfunded pension system, but only if the system was overhauled to require bigger payments from workers, smaller payouts and an increase in the retirement age.

“Please, let’s not pick the special interests over our overburdened taxpayers,” Mr. Christie said during his budget address.

Mr. Christie said that even in Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to cut the benefits and collective bargaining rights of public workers had set off a firestorm of protests, officials “have decided there can no longer be two classes of citizens: one that receives rich health and pension benefits, and all the rest who are left to pay for them.”

Meanwhile the Times points out that post crisis, austerity measures seem very sexy, but they are actually harmful.

But you know, when you're talking about raising taxes on hedge fund managers, there can never be enough political courage in the form of austerity measures to lay off workers, squeeze their wages and slash their benefits.

Remember the lines the Founding Fathers wrote: Government by the hedge fund manager, for the hedge fund manager, of the hedge fund manager...

Getting The Attention Of The Ruling Classes

This is one way to express anger at the way the ruling classes and the banksters are continuing to live it up even as the livelihoods and living standards of working and middle class people are destroyed and get the attention of the establishment:

LONDON – Furious student protesters attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, vandalized buildings and battled riot police Thursday as a controversial hike in university fees triggered Britain's worst political violence in years.

In a major security breach, demonstrators set upon the heir to the throne's Rolls Royce as it drove through London's busy West End on its way to a theater. A group of up to 20 struck it with fists, sticks and bottles, breaking a window and splattering the gleaming black vehicle with paint.

In the frenzy, some chanted "off with their heads!"

Adnan Nazir, a 23-year-old podiatrist who was following the protesters, said Charles, 62, kept his calm, gently pushing his 63-year-old wife toward the floor to get her out of the line of fire.

"Charles got her on the floor and put his hands on her," Nazir said. "Charles was still waving and giving the thumb's up.

"It was just a surreal thing," he said. "It was completely manic."

...

Protesters erupted in anger after legislators in the House of Commons approved a plan to triple university fees to 9,000 pounds ($14,000) a year.

As thousands of students were corralled by police near Parliament, some strummed guitars and sang Beatles songs — but others hurled chunks of paving stones at police and smashed windows in a government building.

Another group ran riot through the busy shopping streets of London's West End, smashing store windows and setting fire to a giant Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square.

Police condemned the "wanton vandalism." They said 43 protesters and 12 officers had been injured, while 22 people were arrested. Police said the number of arrests would likely rise.

Home Secretary Theresa May said that "what we are seeing in London tonight, the wanton vandalism, smashing of windows, has nothing to do with peaceful protest."

The violence overshadowed the tuition vote, a crucial test for governing Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, and for the government's austerity plans to reduce Britain's budget deficit.

It was approved 323-302 in the House of Commons, a close vote given the government's 84-seat majority.

Many in the thousands-strong crowd outside booed and chanted "shame" when they heard the result of the vote, and pressed against metal barriers and lines of riot police penning them in.

Earlier small groups of protesters threw flares, billiard balls and paint bombs, and officers, some on horses, rushed to reinforce the security cordon.

The scuffles broke out after students marched through central London and converged on Parliament Square, waving placards and chanting "education is not for sale" to cap weeks of nationwide protests aimed at pressuring lawmakers to reverse course.

The vote put Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democrat party in an awkward spot. Liberal Democrats signed a pre-election pledge to oppose any such tuition hike, and reserved the right to abstain in the vote even though they are part of the governing coalition proposing the change.

Those protesting were particularly incensed by the broken pledge from Clegg's party.

"I'm here because the Liberal Democrats broke their promise," said 19-year-old Kings College student Shivan David. "I don't think education should be free but I do think that tripling fees doesn't make any sense. We are paying more for less."

Clegg defended the proposals, saying the plans represent the "best possible choice" at a time of economic uncertainty.

Sure, it's the "best possible choice."

God knows, we couldn't make the banksters and hedge fund managers pay their fair shares, right?

Or make Charles and Camilla take the subway to theater.

But tripling college fees in England while Charles and Camilla party it up, or lowering the minimum wage in Ireland and imposing a 500 euro tax on every family while keeping the corporate tax rates at 12.5%, or raising taxes here in the U.S. on individuals making less than $20,000 and families making less than $40,000 while extending the Bush tax cuts - that we can do.

Boy, how'd you like to see Bill and Melinda Gates get rocked in their limo by a riotous crowd?

Or people chanting "Off with their heads!"

How about Bloomberg and Cathie Black encountering that kind of thing from the plebes?

That really would get there attentions, wouldn't it?

Ireland Cuts Minimum Wage Instead Of Corporate Tax Rate

This is exactly the kind of world hedge fund criminals like Whitney Tilson want:

The Fianna Fail government in Ireland has released the austerity plan it promised in response for the big bank bailout the rest of Europe forced on it.

There’s a lot that’s awful in it: big cuts in pension, huge increases in tuition costs, and a ludicrous claim that this austerity plan will help Ireland’s economy grow.

But I think the most telling aspect of it is that it lowers minimum wage from 8.65 euro to 7.65, a cut of 11.5%. But it retains Ireland’s controversial 12.5% corporate tax.

This is also the kind of state incoming governor/Mussolini acolyte Andrew Cuomo wants to bring to New York - little to no taxes for corporations and rich people, pensions slashes to the bone for government retirees, wages for middle and working class people cut, unions gutted and destroyed, and school budgets cut in half so the hedge fund criminal class can get some more tax breaks.

Until we make clear to the hedge fund criminals like Whitney Tilson that it is not acceptable for the top 15% to own 80% of the wealth in this country and until we make hedge fund criminals like Whitney Tilson fear the anger and wrath of the bottom 80%, hedge fund criminals like Whitney Tilson (and the politicians they buy with their criminal money) are going to continue to grab more and more of the wealth and power and declare it "reform."

London's Burnin'

But not with boredom:

Tens of thousands of people joined forces in England Wednesday to protest a proposed plan to boost university tuition fees.

Hundreds of protesters attending a London rally to oppose the plan later turned riotous and stormed the headquarters of Britain's Conservative Party, smashing windows, clashing with police and bringing chaos to what began as a peaceful demonstration.

Nearly 50,000 people gathered for a march organized by Britain's main student and academic unions, the NUS and UCU, to protest the government's plans to allow universities to charge between $9,600 and $14,400 per year in tuition fees.

Tuitions are currently capped at $5,264, according to The New York Times. The proposal, announced last month, would also cut public spending by around $130 billion by 2015, the Times reported.

Britain's current government, a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, said tuition hikes are needed to fill a gap left by cuts to university teaching grants.

The demonstrations kicked off peacefully, but trouble erupted when hundreds of people veered off to stampede the Conservative Party offices.

Chanting "Tory Scum!," the angry mob traded punches with cops in riot gear, set off flares, shattered windows and lit a fire in the courtyard of the building, Britain's Gaurdian reported.

...

As the violence escalated, police wielded batons, while the crowd threw placards, eggs and bottles at them, according to reports.

Part of the mob, which a witness told The Guardian was made up of mostly students and a few "old school anarchists," managed to climb onto the roof, while others used a fire hose to flood the building's stairwells.

Nothing like the anti-austerity protests on the continent, of course, but spirited nonetheless.

I think as more and more of these austerity plans go into effect and more and more cuts are made so that hedge fund managers can continue to live the Life of Reilly, we'll see more and more of this kind of thing.

I wonder what will happen when Obama puts through his own austerity measures here that will essentially decimate the middle and working classes and seniors so that corporate tax rates can be cut to 26%?

Tory scum indeed.