Very well said. I wonder how long it will take before my fellow Christians realize that they're being cynically duped by these agents for darkness? Ha, the answer is, "they won't." It's their naive foolishness in following these kinds of people that is destined to ironically bring about "end times." Funny how that works.

You're very welcome, Eileen. When it boils down, truth and precision is what matters. We're all Americans, and we sink or swim together, you know?

They vary. Action adventure, sci-fi, and music-related. Large studio pics. I stay away from politics, turning down a big-money one a couple months ago dealing with the civil rights movement of the early 60's, because I don't want to be pegged into a genre as a writer, regardless of the chances of it winning awards (kind of kicking myself). That said, one project I'm on deals with deployment to Iraq and the challenges of becoming one's self again as loved-ones once knew them to be. That one's still in rough, but I promise that regardless of whether you're left or right, center, or whatever, you'll dig it. It's respectful and doesn't make political statements. Human ones are more valuable to me. Thanks for asking.

I'm glad you brought this up, speaking of "talking points." In economics, no one ever uses percentages that corporations pay as relevant data. Ever :-) Percentage-wise, we're second right behind Japan. But, that's irrelivant! What ALL economists use is the tax rate compared to GDP. Did you know that? If not, you shouldn't be flouting opinions, because they're based on just what you don't like: talking points.

Did you know that corporate taxes raised only 1.3% of G.D.P. in revenue this year, about a third of what it was in the 1950s? I bet not. Or that the United States actually has the lowest corporate tax burden of any of the member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development? No? Even heard of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development? You should if you haven't. It's important. It's the 34 poster countries for the free Western world. And, as economists ALL understand as a very basic truth, by the statistics that ALL ECONOMISTS use, the U.S. has one of the TOP business climates based on corporate tax rates of ALL of them. Right behind Germany and Iceland (1.9%) and tied with Turkey at 1.8%. You can argue with this, but you'd be doing so at the risk of your credibility, going off an irrelevant talking point. You wouldn't do that, I know.

Thing is, the definition that ALL ECONOMISTS use to define “tax rate” is the average or effective tax rate. If that's confusing, consider it "taxes as a share of income." The most basic and general way to measure a country's tax rate is to take the total federal revenues and divide it by the gross domestic product.

OK, we got that. Now, by this measure, our personal federal taxes are at their lowest level in more than 60 years too. The CBO (that's the Republican Congressional Budget Office) figured that federal taxes consumed just 14.8 percent of G.D.P. this year. Hard to tell if that's high or low unless you have history to guide you. The last year revenues were lower was 1950! That means that our corporate business rate makes our business climate tied for the best in the Western World and our personal income taxes lower than they've been in 60 years!

You keep talking about how income disparity isn't the problem and pointing it out is Marxist? You don't have much of a grasp of economics, and you don't know much about political philosophy either. It's not Marxism. Just using that word as a blind insult doesn't give it balls, Eric. And again, there is NOT always "such a huge disparity between rich and poor." You know better. The disparity between the super-rich and what's left of the middle class has exploded.
http://assets.motherjones.com/politics/2011/inequ...

Last, I have to correct you. First of all, the GOP gave up conservatism when they let Neoconservatives infiltrate the party. Not conservative anymore. I was once a real conservative. YR through the 80's. I truly lamented the Neocons taking over the party and using Reagan to do it. I'm really nothing anymore. Just American. I'm here, but I'm not involved in politics. But, I know two things: The Republican party is not "conservative" anymore, and the founding fathers of our country? They were liberals. The shoulders we're standing upon? They're liberal ones. Was Thomas Paine conservative? Have you read his work “Agrarian Justice?“ He wrote it in 1797. It was a universal plan that this "conservative," as you say, held up the rights of man, needing protection from "priestly imposture" and the "insolence of oppressions too long established."

A VERY liberal concept then, and still so now. That's what our founding fathers stood for. Republicans don't get to claim that this republic was founded on advocating for Economic Darwinism and individualism. You are speaking in the talking points you tell me to avoid.

Sorry, absolutely over-educated. I'd be happy to discuss specifics that really lay out just how not conservative the founding fathers you're libeling by claiming they were something they were not. Respects, but you're just dead wrong on these points. And, cut with the anti-capitalist rhetoric. None of what either Democrats or Republicans espouse is anti-capitalist. Protecting the health of the republic from unhinged capitalism by regulating what corporations can not be trusted to self-regulate has nothing to do with an opinion of capitalism. Capitalism mixed with social protections for our citizens is what we should all shoot for. We just have to agree that the balance is our goal and work together as a people to find the most profitable path there . . . for EVERYONE.

I hear you, but corporate tax rates have been 35% since '93, and through Reagan's tenure, they were 46%.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/Content/P...

And, regulation is just what it is. We MUST be protected from corporations cutting corners for profit by dumping chemicals into our water supply, our air, and into our food. You can't say that we either bend to the unquenchable thirst of a corporation's profit -- especially when they are making record profits right now, giving out such obscene CEO bonuses while America is in such dire straits. And, there is NOT always "such a huge disparity between rich and poor." You know better. The disparity between the super-rich and what's left of the middle class has exploded.
http://assets.motherjones.com/politics/2011/inequ...

And, regulation? My God, Eric, the GOP has been slashing regulation for years, and banking deregulation? It's a huge part of the problem! We're never going to be able to allow enough poisoning and slave-like labor deregulation to compete with 3rd world countries, and we don't want a country where the wealthy live in mansions on the hill while the rest of us are starving in the streets below. That's not America, that banana republic! And, as far as the current Democratic party not being "your daddy's" Democratic party, I think this may be projection on your part. The GOP is so different than it was pre-Reagan and pre-neoconservative revolution, let alone pre-Tea Party. I'm not really anything but a filmmaker now, but truth be told, my dad is an active member of the GOP (energy industry family) and I was a Reagan-era YR. What it was then is so far removed from what it's become it's unrecognizable. Just saying.

No one is trying to equalize all income. Hell no. I'm a good writer and damned if lower-caliber writers will make what I do just because. This is America and the creme should and do rise to the top. But, the tip top should be treating their workers like humans. I remember reading something about how at one point (in the 70's), CEO's made around 30 times more than their lowest paid employees. That now averages something like 300 times. Forget not fair. It's not healthy. And, it's definitely not American. That's not capitalism, either. It's where oligarchy meets plutocracy. We just have to be our brothers' keepers, all of us.

Ugh, sorry Eileen, about Saul heading up Gingrich's media wing, I was given what I thought was good source. I got on the phone and inquired, finding out it was info from 2009 and not up to date. My apologies on that one! He was with Newt on the "Save American Jobs Project" though. Always like to get facts straight!

I suppose that even the obscure musicians are worthy of being included in a civil rights movement, right? What about Radiohead? They make the grade?
http://www.pitchfork.com/news/44859-watch-thom-yo...

Self-seeking? Why would you say that? Should they seek for yet greater income disparity so corporate boards can continue to expand the endless profit from their own backs? They're organizing to curtail this. To bring some fairness back to our system. C'mon. No one wants communism. That's so cold war in mentality. Fearmongering. No one wants that. We ALL -- Republican and Democrat -- want a fair capitalist system that includes safety nets for our weak and our elderly. Without capitalism, there is no American Dream. The rhetoric needs to stop. We're all on the same side here. Unless you're shilling for the super-wealthy. Newt is calling for an end to child labor laws, for crying out loud. That's not American! And, it's NOT what the Republican party wants to be known for!

That's not true. There's no plan for some "communist revolution" outside cold war fantasies. You freely try and paint groups of people banding together to work for workplace safety. None of these people want to rid our country of capitalism. That's ridiculous. Without capitalism, there is no American Dream, and that's something we all hope for, Republican and Democrat alike. It's the fact that it's unregulated and unrestrained and that the disparity between the wealthy and the working class has ballooned to such a disproportional degree. Fair wages? Making sure there is workplace safety? Stopping corporate boards from sending our jobs overseas? This isn't anti-capitalism. It's as American as it gets!

I don't understand that video. It doesn't really bother to mention (among many other things) is there was a VOTE to unionize, and providers chose overwhelmingly to unionize. Also, there is an opt-out option for any provider who does not want to be part of the Union. And to say that what Anuzis (former head of the Michigan GOP and now the chair of Newt Gingrich's media arm of his Presidential campaign, the “Save American Jobs Project” isn't anti-union and pro-child labor is about as transparently disingenuous a statement as I've read on here today. It's OK to hate unions. I understand how corporate boards despise paying people fairly. How worker safety is expensive and how child labor laws make it difficult to profit without constraint. I get that. But, when you have a guy who wants to crush people who organize to fight for these rights, it's way more than wrong to disguise it as not being anti-union. Unions are political. Of course. They fight for legislation that protects workers -- that protect the union members and their families. Union dues do that. This whole anti-union argument is so partisan. But, I don't understand how it can be. Republican working class folk and Democratic working class folk are in the same boat. I feel bad for the people led into supporting things that actually work against them. The rhetoric needs to stop.