The Hollywood Liberal

25 Hedge Fund Managers Worth 658,000 Teachers
Les Leopold: What work do we value most? In 2009, the worst economic year for working people since the Great Depression, the top 25 hedge fund managers walked off with an average of $1 billion each. With the money those 25 people “earned,” we could have hired 658,000 entry level teachers. (They make about $38,000 a year, including benefits.) Those educators could have brought along over 13 million young people, assuming a class size of 20. That’s some value.

Late Late Night FDL: Club ‘Ganja’ Poodle
Featuring music of Peter Tosh, Buddy Guy and The Rolling Stones.

Early Show: Peter Tosh “Legalize It” (Acoustic)
Late Show: Buddy Guy and The Rolling Stones “Champagne and Reefer”

What’s on your mind tonight?

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Urgency After Copenhagen
The developing world seems to get it: In the first climate change conference since Copenhagen, leaders from the Global South have said the need for a new worldwide climate change agreement is “greater than ever.” The industrialized world has been historically underwhelmed by the idea of cutting emissions, largely due to its suspicious claim that reducing the capacity to pump out pollutants would ruin its economies … especially at a time of crisis. —JCL The BBC: The need for a new global climate deal is “greater than ever”, according to developing country delegates speaking at the opening of UN climate talks. Blocs representing the poorest nations called for intensive talks during the year, leading to agreement on a legally binding treaty in December. The EU backed the call, re-stating that the conclusion of December’s Copenhagen summit had not met its ambitions. But other industrialised countries do not appear so keen for a new treaty. Read more

The developing world seems to get it: In the first climate change conference since Copenhagen, leaders from the Global South have said the need for a new worldwide climate change agreement is “greater than ever.”

The industrialized world has been historically underwhelmed by the idea of cutting emissions, largely due to its suspicious claim that reducing the capacity to pump out pollutants would ruin its economies … especially at a time of crisis. —JCL

The BBC:

The need for a new global climate deal is “greater than ever”, according to developing country delegates speaking at the opening of UN climate talks.

Blocs representing the poorest nations called for intensive talks during the year, leading to agreement on a legally binding treaty in December.

The EU backed the call, re-stating that the conclusion of December’s Copenhagen summit had not met its ambitions.

But other industrialised countries do not appear so keen for a new treaty.

Read more

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Florida GOP Staffer, Melanie Phister, Had $1.3 Million In Credit Card Charges
She was a 25-year-old junior staffer when the Florida Republican Party gave her an American Express card. Over the next 2½ years, nearly $1.3 million…

Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [118] — Cold War Jumps Shark
The Cold War has officially jumped the shark. Yesterday, President Obama signed a strategic arms reduction treaty (the “New START”) with the president of Russia….

Bill Quigley: Nine Myths About Socialism in the US
The fact is that the US is not really all that generous to our working and poor people compared to other countries.

Dave Maass: Republican House Candidate Talks Testicles in the Military
Recently, for San Diego CityBeat, I interviewed Nick Popaditch, a retired Marine, Republican and the Tea Party favorite to replace Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) in Congress.

Perino falsely suggested Cadillac tax “carve-out” only applied to union members

Dana Perino falsely suggested that health care reform allowed unions a “carve-out” so that their high-cost “Cadillac” healthcare plans would not be taxed, but those of “the rest of us” would be taxed. In fact, changes made to the Senate health care reform bill delays the application and increases the thresholds of an excise tax for all high-cost plans — not just union plans — until 2018.

From the April 9 exempted high-cost union health care plans from the excise tax until 2018, reportedly to give union members more time to renegotiate their contracts, while non-union high-cost health care plans would have been subject to the excise tax starting in 2013. That proposed compromise was never implemented.

Leading Texas Supreme Court Candidate Has Checkered Ethical Past, Religious-Right Worldview (VIDEO)
A former Texas legislator who has a good shot at being the next justice on the state’s Supreme Court would bring to the job a checkered ethical past, a Bible-based view of the law, endorsements from Chuck Norris and Alan Keyes, and a commitment to “keeping God in the equation” in American civic life.

Judge Who Vacationed With Massey CEO Now Running For Congress
In 2006, Spike Maynard, then a former West Virginia judge, vacationed with Massey energy CEO Don Blankenship while the company had business before the court on which Maynard sat. Now Maynard is running for Congress.

YOS Productions Presents: Pop Quiz
Bachm

10 Visionary Ideas for Progressives
AlterNet’s Vision coverage offers creative, innovative ways of rethinking and tackling our society’s most pressing problems. Here’s 10 of our recent best stories.

AlterNet's Vision coverage offers creative, innovative ways of rethinking and tackling our society's most pressing problems. Here's 10 of our recent best stories.

How Stanislav Grof Helped Launch the Dawn of a New Psychedelic Research Era
The world of medicine may finally be ready to catch back up with psychedelic pioneers, whose work was rejected a half-century ago.

The world of medicine may finally be ready to catch back up with psychedelic pioneers, whose work was rejected a half-century ago.

The Tea Parties Bring Back Social Darwinism
The right-wing populism manifested in the movement is essentially the same old Social Darwinism that appeared in U.S. society in the nineteenth century.

The right-wing populism manifested in the movement is essentially the same old Social Darwinism that appeared in U.S. society in the nineteenth century.

Nation Review Attacks Gen. Petraeus As Anti-Israel & Jeff Goldberg Unveils Himself
Andrew McCarthy, a far right columnist at National Review Online, has had it with General David Petraeus and his defenders. He is particularly furious with Max Boot, the neocon columnist and Senior Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, for…


Israel – David Petraeus – Max Boot – Council of Foreign Relations – Middle East

Greenspan, Summers, and Why the Economy Is So Out of Whack
I’m in the “green room” at ABC News, waiting to join a roundtable panel discussion on ABC’s weekly Sunday news program, This Week. Alan Greenspan is now being interviewed. He says he bore no responsibility for the housing bubble that…



Alan Greenspan – Business – American Broadcasting Company – United States – Real estate bubble

The Best Quote On AIPAC EVER!
You never know where Jeff Goldberg will end up on a particular issue except that he will never deviate more than a few degrees from the AIPAC line. It is then no surprise that his piece today is called “AIPAC…


American Israel Public Affairs Committee – United States – Israel – Middle East – Warfare and Conflict

The Week In Blog: Bling Bling Edition

The latest edition of The Week In Blog is up at BloggingHeads.tv featuring Matt Lewis and myself on blog reaction to Michael Steele’s shaky week, Confederate History Month and the nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Watch it below.