Author: Marc Jampole

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It was okay for Facebook to hire PR pros to go after Google until they started to lie and conceal the client’s name

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Don’t be shocked by the news that Facebook hired public-relations agency Burson-Marsteller to plant negative stories about Google ‘s social-networking feature, Social Circle.  Companies, governments and politicians try to plant stories and create Internet buzz all the time in an effort to shape public opinion or influence elected officials and regulators.  They also establish support […]

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Who cares what politicians do in their private lives as long as they don’t condemn the same in others

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One of the major themes in the news lately has been the sex life of Republican candidates for President.  Will Newt Gingrich’s standing with “values” voters suffer because he was “dating” his current wife while his then-wife was recovering from an illness in the hospital, or will his current wife be an asset to him?   […]

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The only people who benefit from House Republican axe to Medicaid are those with insurance and without hearts

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The Kaiser Foundation and Urban Institute today released their analysis of what happens if the Republic House budget is passed, and it’s real bad: 44 million more Americans will lose Medicaid health insurance coverage. Who could possibly benefit from 44 million poor and indigent people suddenly not having protection against illness and medical bills? Let’s […]

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I’m sure someone is going to believe the big lie about torture producing the evidence that found bin Laden.

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Sometime this past Monday, the head of the House home land security committee, Republican Peter King of New York, made the claim on Fox TV that waterboarding and other torture led to the information that identified Osama bin Laden’s location.  (Readers may remember King for his support of Irish Republican terrorists or for his special […]

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Bin Laden dies, and where ignorance meets deviousness, you’re sure to find Tom Corbett

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First, my reaction to the breaking news:  I’m delighted that we caught Osama bin Laden, but dismayed that our troops killed him.  He should have lived to stand trial and after conviction, been sentenced to rot away his years in solitary confinement.  The images of people celebrating his death were quite disturbing to me.  No […]

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You can ignore the royal wedding, but not the overwhelming presence of celebrity culture

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It all seems so trivial, the growing focus of our mass culture on the upcoming wedding of a young man of fairly middling accomplishments who represents one of the most odious ideas ever invented by humans-that some people are inherently better than others.  Yet so far, it’s been relatively easy to ignore the royal hubbub.    […]

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Let’s change tax policy to favor only those capital gains going to productive ends.

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A capital gain, according to Investopedia, is “an increase in the value of a capital asset (investment or real estate) that gives it a higher worth than the purchase price. The gain is not realized until the asset is sold.”  Investments in this context include stocks, bonds, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETF). Capital gains […]

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The idea that tax breaks for wealthy create jobs is hooey; in fact it’s taxing the wealthy that creates jobs.

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I’m a little late to mention it, but the usually estimable Charles M. Blow added to the massive evidence that lowering taxes on the wealthy does not create jobs, nor build additional wealth, but in fact destroys jobs and wealth. In his “charticle” (chart plus short article) titled “The Pirates of Capitol Hill,” first published […]

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More from the speech I gave connecting the attack on public unions to 30 years of taking from everyone to give to the wealthy

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More from the speech I gave two nights ago at the monthly meeting of the Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee (PAJC): To belabor what is probably obvious, shrinking the percentage of the workforce covered by unions shifts money up the economic ladder because the non-unionized workers make less for the same or comparable jobs, leaving the […]

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The speech I gave last night connected the attack on public unions to 30 years of taking from everyone to give to wealthy

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I gave the following remarks yesterday evening at the monthly meeting of the Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee (PAJC). My topic was “putting the Attack on Public Unions in Perspective.”  I spoke after Sam Williamson, Associate Manager of the Pennsylvania Joint Board of Workers United, SEIU, spoke on the significance of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire […]

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