Forget the tea party rowdies, this is the champagne party! - Executive Excess by Jim Hightower

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.truth-out.org/jim-hightower-executive-excess63946

Look out, they're angry. Foaming-at-the-mouth angry. And they're lashing out, saying they won't take it anymore. As one of their leaders angrily cried, "It's a war." Indeed -- they're on the move to take their country back.

Yes, some of the richest, most pampered people on the planet -- people who literally wallow in luxury every day, with never a concern about losing a job, a home or health care, or getting their kids into college -- these people are wailing in self-pity. They are Wall Street hedge-fund operators, which essentially means they are high-flying financial flimflammers. What has stoked them into an elitist fury is a Barack Obama proposal to close off a ridiculous tax loophole that has let them pay only 15 percent of their lavish income in taxes, rather than the 35 percent rate that us commoners pay.

One of the richest of the ragers, Steve Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group, sees Obama's proposal as an outrageous intrusion into the suites of the elite, comparing it to "when Hitler invaded Poland." This over-the-top-tantrum comes from a multibillionaire -- a guy who spent $3 million in 2007 just to throw himself a birthday party! Come on, Steve, you're filthy rich. Stop hyperventilating, and pay your taxes!

Pathetically, the real root of this sad Hedge Fund Rebellion is a feeling by these powerful, super-privileged megalomaniacs that they are being picked on. One even whined that asking hedge-funders to pay taxes at the same rate as everyone else amounts to the "persecution of the minority."

[Cal33]

1. Behind all that in their minds is the belief that they are entitled to

these privileges that the average American does not have.
That's the way a sicko thinks. And they are willing to
fight for this belief, and seem to be mostly winning so
far. And if the average American just sits back and takes
it, of course, he'll continue to lose more and more.

It's the average American who is paying for the privileges
mentioned above, and he'll continue to pay more and more.