Group’s Study Finds Income Gap Widening – WSJ.com
The U.S. has the highest inequality and poverty rates in the OECD after Mexico and Turkey, and the gap has increased rapidly since 2000, the report said. 

Wealthy households are not only widening the gap with the poor, but in countries such as the U.S., Canada and Germany they are leaving middle-income earners farther behind.

None of my previous agitation has matched the fury I felt during Wednesday night’s debatewhen John McCain snidely responded to Obama’s health care plan, “If you like that, you’ll love Canada and England”. I became so enraged that I thought I was going to burst a blood vessel.

Jean Hannah Edelstein: John McCain says national healthcare is too British for America |

In her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention,  Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said,

We must act now–together–to get quality, affordable health care for everyone.

Click here to join the Health Care for America Now campaign

Campaign for America’s Future has joined with other groups to forge a new coalition effort to solve the health care crisis in America. Health Care for America Now, a massive national grassroots campaign launching today, will organize millions of people to win a guarantee of quality, affordable health care we all can count on.

Health Care for America NOW

Just How Much Is the Iraq War Costing Us Each Minute? The War in Iraq costs $720 Million a day. That’s $500,000 a minute. That’s $8333 a second. This video, brought to you by American Friends Service Committee, , and Antiwar.com, puts the obscene costs of war into perspective.

Recent research has highlighted the important role of teachers in fostering student achievement. However, the United States lags significantly behind other countries in teacher compensation, which adversely impacts efforts to recruit high-quality teachers. In South Korea and Germany, starting salaries for teachers are about 141% of per capita GDP, while the figure for the United States is only 81%. In fact, all countries in this sample pay their teachers a significantly higher relative wage as a starting salary compared to the United States. Compared to other countries, U.S. flunks in teacher pay

Unemployment is climbing. The stock market is dropping. The housing boom is bust. Corporate earnings are tanking. The nation’s economy is in the worst shape it’s been in years. Maybe even headedtoward recession. Working families are worried. [Last week] the Bush administration proposed a growth package of as much as $150 billion, which insiders familiar with the details say may include $800 tax rebates for individuals and $1,600 for households, along with business incentives. Bush’s plan does not address crucial problems facing working families or target tax benefits to those families who need them the most and will spend them the fastest. AlterNet: Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Stop Bush’s Stimulus Package; It’s a Give-Away to the Wealthiest