Democracy Corps, the research organization formed by Democratic consultants James Carville and Stanley Greenberg, released a report on Friday called “The Very Separate World of Conservative Republicans.” This research was based on focus groups of “white, ‘strong’ or ‘weak’ Republicans who ideologically self-identify as conservative or moderate and who voted for John McCain AND the Republican congressional candidate in 2008.”

You can, of course, choose to take any research from an organization founded by two highly partisan political operatives such as Carville and Greenberg with a grain of salt. But what may be more interesting than the report itself is the online embrace of its conclusions by at least some in the political demographic the report claims to analyze.

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Here’s a little something to brighten your Monday. The employed will enjoy a “there but for the Grace of God” moment, and the jobless will get a little boost because they’re doing better, at least, than a Web cartoon.

So watch this laid-off dude stare at the wall, eat fudge dried cookies and Pringles, and take an impromptu three-hour nap. “Outside is kind of hard when you have no money.”

Laid Off: A Day in the Life

Our second Great Recession photo gallery. Click on each photo to see it full-size.

Last week’s photo gallery here.

In the process of researching yesterday’s post on the lack of Social Security cost of living increasing, we found Social Security News, maintained by a law firm that deals with Social Security Disability. Anyone interested in the minutiae of the giant bureaucracy that is the Social Security system will find oodles of information here, such as a leaked final report of Social Security’s Occupational Information Development Advisory Panel (OIDAP).

Not interested, you say? Well consider this blog post:

Although this may sound like a boring subject, it is, by far, the most important policy issue facing Social Security. An occupational information system is fundamental to Social Security disability determination. Millions of Social Security claims will be decided based upon any new occupational information system that comes out of OIDAP’s work. This is the most important policy issue that Social Security has faced in about thirty years.

Apparently, that pitch worked. When we tried to download the file we got this message: “The download limit has been reached. Please contact the sender and ask them to resend the file.”

So try again later and read it on your lunch hour.

For senior citizens, it’s going to be an UnCOLA year. From CNNMoney:

So what to senior citizens think about this? Let’s check in at the AARP message boards:

I am a senior and am just appalled that the president would even consider giving every senior (only) $250, which equals a little over $20 monthly. This does not begin to cover the increase in Medicare and the $41.42 increase in my Medicare supplement insurance, plus prescription drug increased premiums. I receive $779 from Medicare, not enough to live on.
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Are your food bills going down? Not mine, I just see all my bills getting higher. Can I use an extra $250? Yes I can. Do you think your Senator or Congressman will turn down their annual cost of living increase? It’s automatic $3000-4000 unless they vote it down. What do you think the chances of that are?
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Call or write your congressman or senator, ask if they will take the raise and not give a thing to seniors. Quit crying, do something, we seniors need the $250.
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$250 is not going to be much good if no COLA & they raise Medicare payments.

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What makes Obama think that we need no cost of living allowance? Does he want all of the disabled people and retired people to have to go back to work?

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Seen the New York Times’s Health Care Conversations page? They’ve taken all of their reader comments on health care and categorized them into a rectangular grid made up of 20 areas like The Public Option, Abortion, Illegal Immigrants, and Health Care Abroad. The amount of space each section takes up on the grid is commensurate with the number of comments posted on that particular topic. Scroll over the little shadow figures of people in each section and you’ll see the beginnings of different comments. Check it out; it’s a very nice design.

After reading countless articles and opinion pieces on the health care debate, and watching dozens of talking heads slug it out over individual mandates, insurance co-ops, and the public option, we remained thoroughly confused. So we decided the only thing left to do was to turn to the explanatory device of the napkin. This was worked up by leading visual thinker Dan Roam and Dr. C. Anthony Jones.

Click on the forward arrow to advance the slides, or choose Autoplay from the menu.

Much is being made of Sen. Olympia Snowe’s lone Republican vote in favor of the Senate Finance Committee health care bill. From the New York Times:

“Is this bill all that I would want?” Ms. Snowe said. “Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls. And I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time.”

Ms. Snowe’s remarks silenced the packed committee room, riveted colleagues and thrilled the White House. President Obama had sought her vote, hoping that she would break with Republican leaders and provide at least a veneer of bipartisanship to the bill, which he has declared his top domestic priority.

So what do those who are invested enough in the debate to write something about it think? Well, as usual, most of the posted opinion is negative. Out on the information superhighway, road rage reigns. Just a smattering:

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There’s a decent chance that some ill-fated PowerPoint presentations got us into this mess in the first place. Still, the last post whetted our appetite for that most maligned of media formats: the slide show. These recession-appropriate visual productions were found on SlideShare:

• Traditional resumes – just don’t cut it any more, according to this presentation. What you need is a pitch.
• He who sees true opportunities shall always prosper – an autobiographical tale of inspiration

• Run Your Career Based on Facts and Statistics, Not Opinions – “Opinions are not necessarily based on facts.”

• Laid off? Go solo. – how to do it
• Managing Changes in the Era of Current Crisis – includes a summary of last year’s financial meltdown
• Prosumer Banking – “a collection of thoughts for Banking 2.0″
• Postgrads and the job market – from England
• Don’t worry, be happy – provides visual stimulation for feelings of positivity

Michael Moore’s latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story, is perhaps his most radical. Aside from recounting Big Business’ recent Greatest Hits in terms of corruption and mercenary behavior, it also classifies our entire economic system as “evil,” antithetical to democracy, and in need of not just an overhaul but eradication.

So how have audiences responded? On the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, users give it a score of 68% out of 100%, while on Yahoo! Movies, the film receives an average grade of B.

Here are some audience comments that have been voted “most helpful” by the Yahoo! Movies community:

I feel like I just watched a snuff film

As I left the theater, I had the same knot in my stomach as when I see a brutal crime unfolding on a security cam: helpless, enraged, sickened but unable to turn away…This film documents a crime spree, one that threatens our nation and that was hatched and carried out by the very same people we expect to be responsible, accountable, patriotic and moral. Bankers, Wall Street investors, most of our politicians, the media, and ‘we the people’ are all to blame for this economic meltdown that has destroyed countless business, social gains, and the lives of millions of homeowners…

….It may not be his best film but perhaps is sufficient enough to accomplish Moore’s apparent goal; to shake the audience out of their sheeplike trance, and to tell us that we can only be SO entertained on the way to the slaughterhouse…

Grade: B

Movie could make super-wealthy nervous

After seeing this movie with a multi-racial audience in Texas, and seeing their reaction to the heart-breaking scenes of police sent by the banks to take (people’s) possessions and leave them with nothing, super rich people should feel a little nervous that the majority of Americans might see a revolution as a possibility to clean up capitalism that has mutated into an evil system that devours the middle class and poor…

Grade: A

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