Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Once upon a time, back in the mythic “Wild Wild West,” we had epic battles between “Cowboys and Indians.” In today’s Lush Lush East — the East End of Long Island where a Hamptons summer rental can run $500,000 — we now have “Rich Boys and Indians” going at it.

The Rich Boys here, Wall Streeters who consider the Hamptons their own private getaway, don’t want the nearby Shinnecock Indian Nation — where annual incomes run around $15,000 — to build a proposed casino on the tribe's reservation. This battle, a new New Yorker profile details, has been going for some time. In the end, some observers feel, the Rich Boys might actually lose. [ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/13/101213fa_fact_levy ]

In Washington, meanwhile, the Rich Boys are winning big. Again. The tax deal the White House cut last week has delivered unto America’s wealthiest a set of tax breaks that Americans, by a two-to-one margin, don’t want the wealthy to get. [ http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-08/obama-s-deal-to-extend-high-earner-tax-cuts-unpopular.html ]

So who’s to blame? The President? Or does the tax cut deal reflect a rift far more fundamental? In this week’s Too Much, we go searching for an answer.

http://toomuchonline.org/tmweekly.html