Seen on Facebook:
A unionized employee, a Tea Party member, and a corporate CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches for the plate and grabs 11 cookies, then turns to the Tea Party member and says, "Look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie."
President Obama speaks out for Wisconsin's public workers (and public workers all across America) again:
I don’t think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon. We need to attract the best and the brightest to public service. These times demand it. We’re not going to attract the best teachers for our kids, for example, if they only make a fraction of what other professionals make. We’re not going to convince the bravest Americans to put their lives on the line as police officers or firefighters if we don’t properly reward that bravery.
John Boehner (currently getting an orange woody over increasing gas prices - and the harm they could cause our economic recovery - constantly exulting about them in his tweets) apparently thinks that defending a bigoted law targeting gay people is part of the Republican Party's "laser-like focus on jobs."
The House of Representatives will likely issue its own defense of a federal law abandoned by the White House that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, House Speaker John Boehner said on Monday.
President Barack Obama decided his administration would no longer defend the 15-year-old Defense of Marriage Act in U.S. court, dropping its challenge to a federal judge's ruling in Boston that the statute was unconstitutional.
The decision last week angered Republicans in Congress who oppose same-sex marriage and opened Obama to charges that he was using the case to cater to gay rights activists and their supporters, who praised the reversal.
Wow. This is how afraid of “teh gay” they are.
A Tennessee bill seeks to forbid teachers from speaking about homosexuality in public elementary and middle schools, according to the local WVLT-TV news station.
The bill, HB 229 and SB 49, was introduced by Republican State Sen. Stacey Campfield and Rep. Bill Dunn, both of Knoxville. They say it's a parent's job to talk about homosexuality, not a teacher in a classroom where other kids may be present.
"No public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality," it reads.
With the Koch brothers bussing in teabaggers – who wave guns around and “joke” about shooting the president – I don't think it'd be a good idea security-wise for the president to get down into the middle of a vast, protesting crowd. That’d be a security nightmare far worse than Tucson. Actually, that goes for any president for any reason.
Yeah, Obama's promise sounded good, but I think that even if he wanted to, the Secret Service would throw a fit and do everything they could to talk him out of it. I think it’s enough for Obama to speak out in support of the protesters from the presidential podium.
On the other hand, the gun-waving teabaggers REALLY want to see Obama do it. They fantasize about getting a clean shot then.
Moammar Walker of Wisconsin says protests haven't swayed him. He doesn't care what people want, he only cares about carrying out his orders to eliminate the labor unions. You know, like Hitler did.
Right wingers are INCENSED that Governor Moammar Walker of Wisconsin is being compared to Hitler, Mubarak, Gadhafi and other dictators.
Well, of course they’re incensed. Because those innocent right wingers would NEVER have called Obama a dictator, or compared him to Hitler or anything like that.
That was sarcasm, by the way.
Pro-worker rallies were held all across America in support of the workers in Wisconsin, and the "liberal mainstream media" hardly took note at all. But CNN took time out to say happy birthday to the teabagger movement. How nice!
Rallies were held across the country Saturday to support thousands of protesters holding steady at the Wisconsin Capitol in their fight against Republican-backed legislation aimed at weakening unions.
Union supporters organized rallies from New York to Washington state in a show of solidarity as the demonstration in Madison entered its 12th straight day — and attracted its largest crowd of more than about 70,000 people.
The right wing warlords of the conservative movement have issued their marching orders: Take out the labor unions. Just like Hitler did.
The governor of Wisconsin likes to say he’s not out to bust unions, but a front group for his chief financiers has a different line.
At a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this year, Scott Hagerstrom, the executive director of Americans for Prosperity in Michigan, publicly advocated taking unions out “at the knees,” clearly contradicting the public facade of anti-union legislation hitting statehouses nation-wide.
Newt Gingrich and Glenn Beck, among many other right wing pundits parrotting them, are condemning President Obama for “not enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act.”
First of all, they’re wrong. Obama did not say he wasn’t going to enforce it. He said the opposite. He has to – it’s the law, and it’s his job to enforce the law. What Obama said was that he wasn’t going to defend the law in court.
But never mind. Gingrich and Beck aren’t going to let facts get in the way of their condemnations of Obama. They say that what Obama is allegedly doing (or not doing, as it were) is “unconstitutional,” it “makes Congress irrelevant,” it’s “replacing the rule of law with the rule of Obama.” They go on to say that it “sets a dangerous precedent.”
Um, guys… excuse me for just a second but… um… DO YOU REMEMBER BUSH’S SIGNING STATEMENTS WHERE HE ACTIVELY REFUSED TO ENFORCE LAWS CONGRESS PASSED THAT HE DIDN’T LIKE?
No? I guess not.
Newt Gingrich must think he’s got a time machine and can go back and fix mistakes he’s made in the past.
One would think he’d go back and fix one of the multiple marriages he screwed up.
But no.
One might also think he might try to convince his younger self to not pursue a government shutdown and impeachment of Bill Clinton, because in hindsight, both were disasters for him and for the Republican Party.
But no.
Newt is not only pushing for another government shutdown, now he’s pushing to try the whole impeachment game again, this time impeaching President Obama over his decision to no longer defend DOMA.
Well, Newt, as a progressive, here’s hoping you get the GOP to try them both again.
And it was a GOP-led investigation that cleared the scientists. Funny how I'm not hearing this reported at all on Fox News.
A Republican-led federal probe of climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found no evidence that they manipulated data, after leaked e-mails in 2009 sparked the "climategate" controversy.
The investigation was conducted by the inspector general of the Commerce Department. It reviewed the 1,073 leaked messages, particularly the 289 that were exchanged with NOAA scientists, and interviewed NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco and her staff about them.
"We did not find any evidence that NOAA inappropriately manipulated data," the inspector general concluded in a recent report. It also cleared Lucbhenco for testifying before Congress that the e-mails did not weaken the science of climate change.
The probe was requested by Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the environment committee, who has called global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
Their radical, back to the 19th century agenda is becoming more clear each passing day.
Republican Missouri State Senator Jane Cunningham wants to eliminate child labor laws, saying they prevent parents from teaching their kids good work ethics.
Looks like Republicans are turning on their messiah. But I have to laugh at "Michele Bachmann" and "smarter" being used in the same sentence. It would appear Republicans are still planning to march right off the cliff -- here's hoping they run Bachmann. Can you imagine Bachmann facing off with Obama in a real debate?
Republicans still like her, but now they openly question whether she could or should be nominated for president, let alone elected.
At a recent gathering in South Carolina, the site of a crucial early presidential primary next year, party activists said the former Alaska governor didn't have the experience, the knowledge of issues or the ability to get beyond folksy slang and bumper-sticker generalities that they think is needed to win and govern.
Many are shopping for someone else. They're looking at Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., for example, and seeing what they call a smarter, more experienced candidate who's equally as conservative.
"Sarah Palin with a brain," said Gail Moore, a Republican from Columbia.
Republican Paul Broun, who had a teabagger in one of his townhalls asked the question, "Who's going to shoot Obama?" (see blog post below), didn't condemn the question or put such talk in its place.
But the story is even worse. Some witnesses at the event say that Broun laughed at it, like shooting the president is some kind of joke.
These people are scum and vermin, deserving of no human dignity or respect.
Mark Farmer of Winterville, Georgia went to the meeting on Tuesday to ask a question about Social Security reform, and said in an e-mail to TPM he was "shocked by the first question and disgusted by the audience response."
"I was gravely disappointed in the response of a U.S. Congressman who also laughed and then made no effort to correct the questioner on what constitutes proper behavior or to in any way distance himself from such hate filled language," Farmer wrote.
Reporter Blake Aued, who was at the town hall and originally reported on the incident confirmed to TPM that Broun was "chuckling a little bit."
Aued described the person who asked the question as "some old man" who "apparently was a huge fan" and had driven 75 miles to get to the meeting.
But at least the Secret Service has talked to the teabagging asshole.
A Secret Service spokesman tells Greg Sargent that the agency was aware of the incident, had taken appropriate steps, and now consider it a closed matter. A law enforcement source told Sargent that the Secret Service interviewed the person who made the comments who now regrets making a bad joke.
"In this case this was poor taste," the source told Sargent. "The person realized that."
Republican representative Paul Broun is asked at a town hall meeting, “Who is going to shoot Obama?”
Does Broun condemn this question? Confront the questioner?
No, he does not. Representative Paul Broun is an asshole, a seditious IDIOT, and he can GO TO HELL.
These wannabe domestic terrorists like the questioner are deserving of no human respect whatsoever, and Republicans like Broun who refuse to confront this garbage share in their slime and are deserving of nothing but disdain and revulsion.
However, rather than confronting the questioner or condemning the question, Broun instead acknowledged "frustration" with Obama, according to the Banner-Herald. The paper reports that Broun responded to the stunning inquiry as follows:
"The thing is, I know there's a lot of frustration with this president. We're going to have an election next year. Hopefully, we'll elect somebody that's going to be a conservative, limited-government president that will take a smaller, who will sign a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare."
Read the full story from the Athens Banner-Herald.
Legislation introduced in Nebraska includes a "justifiable homicide" clause that could be used in defense of a fetus, potentially offering legal cover for the killing of abortion providers.
The bill, LB 232, was put forth by Nebraska state Sen. Mark Christensen, who fiercely opposes abortion even in cases of rape, as Mother Jones first reported. It would allow any third party the chance to use self-defense as a legal justification for killing someone believed to be threatening the life of a fetus.
ANOTHER one. You'd almost think there is a coordinated effort underway.
Republicans in Iowa want to make it legally permissible to use deadly force to stop an abortion provider from performing a legal medical procedure.
Obviously, these bills don't have a chance of passing. But it's starting to look like a grand plan, and the grand plan is to put the abortion question back before the Supreme Court.
Two bills sponsored by Iowa House Republicans could have significant public safety consequences, and perhaps the most unnerving of those potential outcomes would be the justifiable use of deadly force against abortion or family planning providers.
When the two pieces of legislation are combined they create a situation where a fertilized egg would be considered a person, and allow for the public execution of those who would threaten such a person.
If passed into law, the two bills — House File 7 and House File 153 — would offer an unprecedented defense opportunity to individuals who stand accused of killing such providers, according to a former prosecutor and law professor at the University of Kansas, and are something that might have very well led to a different outcome in the Kansas trial of the man who shot Dr. George Tiller in a church foyer.
The chairman of Fox News may have committed a federal crime, according to legal documents filed by attorneys for a former News Corporation employee.
Affidavits filed in a lawsuit against a former News Corporation employee say that News Corp. executive Roger Ailes advised former publishing executive Judith Regan to lie to federal investigators about an affair she had with Bernard B. Kerik.
Kerik, a longtime ally of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, was at the time being vetted as the next possible Homeland Security secretary.
Ailes's goal in asking Regan to lie about the affair was meant to help protect Giuliani's presidential ambitions, The New York Times noted in its coverage of the allegations.
Better still, Regan taped their conversation, the affidavits claim.
If this story is true, it's absolutely shocking.
The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in "psychological operations" to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.
The orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops – the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war. Over a four-month period last year, a military cell devoted to what is known as "information operations" at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell. When the unit resisted the order, arguing that it violated U.S. laws prohibiting the use of propaganda against American citizens, it was subjected to a campaign of retaliation.
"My job in psy-ops is to play with people’s heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave," says Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, the leader of the IO unit, who received an official reprimand after bucking orders. "I’m prohibited from doing that to our own people. When you ask me to try to use these skills on senators and congressman, you’re crossing a line."
If I was president of the world, and an earth-killing asteroid was approaching, and the law required me to save one person from Fox News, the choice would be easy: Shep Smith.
On Wednesday's "Studio B," Shepard Smith said the battle over union rights in Wisconsin was all about busting unions and securing Republican political power, not about the state's budget deficit.
It was a take that placed Smith squarely in agreement with people such as Rachel Maddow, who has repeatedly argued essentially the same thing on her show.
Speaking to a mostly-in-agreement Juan Williams, Smith said the fight was "100 percent politics."
"There is no budget crisis in Wisconsin," he said, adding that the unions "[have] given concessions."
The real point of the fight, Smith said, could be found in the list of the top ten donors to political campaigns. Seven out of the ten donated to Republicans; the other three were unions donating to Democrats.
"Bust the unions, and it's over," Smith said.
In case you were wondering, yes, the election of a black man to the presidency has driven them crazy. Radical and violent anti-government extremist groups are on the rise in the US.
Membership in anti-government extremist groups continues to explode in the United States amid frustration over the lagging economy and the "mainstreaming of conspiracy theories," a study released Wednesday found.
After nearly tripling in 2009 in the wake of the election of the nation's first black president, anti-government 'patriot' groups and militias grew another 61 percent in 2010 to 824, the report by the Southern Poverty Law Center found.
Meanwhile, the number of active hate groups rose 7.5 percent to top 1,000 for the first time since the civil rights group first began tracking them in the early 1980s.
Combined with modest growth among anti-immigrant "nativist extremists," the number of radical right extremist groups rose 22 percent in 2010 to 2,145 after jumping 40 percent in 2009.
Gotta hand it to Georgia. When you want to show how backward and how hateful Republicans can be, Georgia is the can-do state.
A Georgia representative is proposing a law that not only outlaws abortion, it would criminalize miscarriages.
Oh, and it calls for the death penalty for miscarriages too.
It's only February, but this year has been a tough one for women's health and reproductive rights. There's a new bill on the block that may have reached the apex (I hope) of woman-hating craziness. Georgia State Rep. Bobby Franklin—who last year proposed making rape and domestic violence "victims" into "accusers"—has introduced a 10-page bill that would criminalize miscarriages and make abortion in Georgia completely illegal. Both miscarriages and abortions would be potentially punishable by death: any "prenatal murder" in the words of the bill, including "human involvement" in a miscarriage, would be a felony and carry a penalty of life in prison or death. Basically, it's everything an "pro-life" activist could want aside from making all women who've had abortions wear big red "A"s on their chests.
A restaurant near Seattle-Tacoma airport is so fed up with how TSA agents treat people they've decided to put agents on a "no-eat list."
KC McLawson, a worker at the restaurant, told journalist Christopher Elliott exactly how far her boss had taken the ban.
"We have posted signs on our doors basically saying that they aren’t allowed to come into our business," she said. "We have the right to refuse service to anyone."
"My boss flies quite a bit and he has an amazing ability to remember faces. If he sees a TSA agent come in we turn our backs and completely ignore them, and tell them to leave."
"Their kind aren't welcomed in our establishment," McLawson continued. "A large majority of our customers -- over 90 percent -- agree with our stance and stand by our decision."
"We even have the police on our side and they have helped us escort TSA agents out of our cafe. Until TSA agents start treating us with the respect and dignity that we deserve, then things will change for them in the private sector."
Elliot noted that he withheld the name of the cafe where McLawson worked due to her desire to remain anonymous.
This is BIG breaking news -- President Obama has ordered the Justice Department to STOP defending DOMA in court.
Moments ago, in a sharp reversal of policy, the Obama administration announced that it believes that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) — which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages — is unconstitutional and will ask the Justice Department to stop defending the law. In a press release announcing the change, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder also argues that laws regarding sexual orientation should be subject to a higher level of review:
Section 3 of DOMA has now been challenged in the Second Circuit, however, which has no established or binding standard for how laws concerning sexual orientation should be treated. In these cases, the Administration faces for the first time the question of whether laws regarding sexual orientation are subject to the more permissive standard of review or whether a more rigorous standard, under which laws targeting minority groups with a history of discrimination are viewed with suspicion by the courts, should apply.
After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny. The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the President’s determination.
There are thousands and thousands of demonstrators and protesters in Madison Wisconsin. Governor Hosni Walker will talk to none of them. But if a Koch brother is on the phone? Walker drops everything.
But in the end, the joke’s on him. It wasn’t really David Koch. But it does show us who Walker really listens to, and it ain’t the people.
An Indiana official has called on Wisconsin to use live ammunition and lethal force on pro-union protesters.
One official in Indiana suggested over the weekend that riot police should use deadly force on those protesting Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker's plan to strip unions of their rights.
A Saturday tweet from Mother Jones reported on the likelihood that police would soon be clearing the Wisconsin Capitol building of demonstrators. "Use live ammunition," a Twitter user named JCCentCom replied.
When confronted, the Twitter user stood by his words, insisting that the protesters were "political enemies" and "thugs." "[A]gainst thugs physically threatening legally-elected state legislators & governor? You're damn right I advocate deadly force," he wrote.
Mother Jones' Adam Weinstein later discovered that JCCentCom was a deputy attorney general at the Office of the Indiana Attorney General.
From the writings on his blog Pro Cynic, it seemed that this wasn't the first time Cox had used over-the-top rhetoric against those he disagreed with.
Democracy seems to be spreading all over America! Protests against Republican attacks on the working class (to pay for GOP giveaways to the rich) have spread to Montana.
More than a thousand Montanans gathered in front of the state Capitol of Helena on Monday to protest budgetary plans to cut health, educational, environmental and labor programs while pushing for corporate tax cuts.
Republicans in Montana are pushing legislation to gut the Montana Environmental Policy Act, reduce workers' compensation insurance, close the Montana Veterans Home in Columbia Falls, prevent the establishment of a state health insurance exchange, slash a number of health programs, and cut funding to higher education in the state.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have said they will eliminate the state’s business equipment tax. Eliminating the tax would amount to a loss of $90 million to local governments statewide, The Daily Inter Lake reported.
When progressives complain about CEOs making billions of dollars in profits as they cheat on their corporate taxes, fire thousands of workers, and ship American jobs overseas for slave labor, right wingers answer, "It's the free market! You're just envious of people who make money! Whaddya want, a commie redistribution of wealth?"
But then there's this.
Yeah, that's right. Conservatives and teabaggers complaining about "greedy teachers making too much money." Or complaining about union leaders making "six figures."
Sounds like they're the ones wanting redistribution of wealth.
Fat Rush Limbaugh is calling Michelle Obama fat.
Yes, you read that right.
The problem is -- and dare I say this -- it doesn't look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritionary, dietary advice. And then we hear that she's out eating ribs at 1,500 calories a serving with 141 grams of fat per serving, yeah it does -- what do you mean, what do I mean?
What is it - no, I'm trying to say that our First Lady does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you.
I keep hearing teabaggers complain that public sector workers allegedly make more money (they don't). But even if that were true, why are teabaggers opposed to that? I thought they hated the idea of redistribution of wealth? Why then do they want to take the extra money that public workers are allegedly making and give it to someone else?
An Egyptian man thanks the website for helping freedom in his country by naming his daughter "Facebook."
At least it's a better name than "Twitter."
According to Al-Ahram (one of the most popular newspapers in Egypt) a twenty-something Egyptian man has named his first born daughter “Facebook” in tribute to the role the social media service played in organizing the protests in Tahrir Square and beyond.
Helmed by now-famous Googler Wael Ghonim, the “We Are Khaled Said” Facebook page showed up within 5 days of Said’s death in June and served as a hub for dissidence against Egyptian police brutality as well as a way to disseminate logistical information about the escalating anti-government protests until Mubarak’s resignation. Other activist pages like one actually called “Tahrir Square” cropped up shortly afterward.
While Rush Limbaugh is blasting the protesting workers in Madison, and condemning labor unions, it should be noted that RUSH IS A UNION MEMBER. He's in AFTRA.
In fact, so are Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin.
They're all hypocrites for blasting unions.
Wow. They just come right out and say it now. If you're black and a Democrat, you can't be the leader of the country.
Jim DeMint, almost more than any other elected Republican, has such a blatant, naked, irrational hatred of Barack Obama it's a wonder he doesn't have a seizure any time he talks about the president.
And it's not just blacks DeMint hates (he had big problems with Michael Steele), he also has a hate hard-on for gays and unmarried women.
The situation in Wisconsin is deteriorating rapidly. I fully expect the governor to order the National Guard to fire on protesters. Will they do it? That's the question.
Aha! Karl Rove says the whole birther conspiracy theory may itself by a conspiracy by the Obama administration to set a "trap" for right wingers to embarrass them.
Logic your way out of that one, Batman!
Actually, this shows us how Rove thinks, and maybe even some of the tactics he's used in the past. The whole Bush military records fiasco comes to mind. Did Rove plant fake records for the liberals to discover, and then embarrass them by proving they were "fakes," thereby covering up Bush's actual lack of military service?
The First Lady's campaign to encourage kids to eat healthier and get more exercise has caused the right wing to go even crazier than they were before. They're accusing her of wanting a "nanny state." Tucker Carlson says that Michelle Obama will "raise your kids at gunpoint." (Stay classy, Tucker.)
Funny, but I don't remember anyone stoking fears of a "nanny state" when Laura Bush encouraged kids to read. I don't remember any liberals saying that Mrs. Bush would "force kids to read at gunpoint."
Sorry to give in to the temptation to spew obscenities, but WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH CONSERVATIVES?
I think they've all lost their minds. The black man winning the White House has driven them around the bend.
Republicans in South Dakota are proposing to make the killing of abortion providers “justifiable homicide.” Is this anything other than a continuing campaign of domestic terrorism?
One of the ways that the anti-choice activists ply their trade it to intimidate doctors who provide abortions. They put out wanted posters, they show up at their houses, they even make up rhymes like “Tiller the baby killer” and repeat them again and again and again. Then some of their whacked out number actually attack and in cases like Dr. Tiller kill them.
The defense from these people is often that they are trying to prevent the “killing of unborn children”. This has been rejected by all courts who have had it presented to them but if South Dakota has its way, that will no longer be true in that state. The Republican backed bill House Bill 1171 would make it legal to offer an affirmative defense killing someone if they are attempting to harm the unborn child of any person.
Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person in the lawful defense of such person, or of his or her husband, wife, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant, or the unborn child of any such enumerated person, if there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony, or to do some great personal injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished.
Rachel Maddow’s opening segment tonight was a frightening and chilling story about how anti-choice activists are actually boasting about the killing of Dr. Tiller and applauding the use of violence and assassination to get their way.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The Dr Pepper Snapple company is doing quite well. In 2009 they made $555 million in profit and in 2010 was in better shape than ever.
How do they share their good fortune with the employees that made the company successful?
Ohio governor John Kasich is sounding just like a little dictator . And like the infamous dictator of Nazi Germany, he's vowing to crack down on those evil labor unions, even to the point of using military force against them. Like Hitler, he does not believe employees have the right to strike or to collectively bargain.
Last month, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) said that if employees strike, “they should be fired,” and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) wrote in an op-ed that the moral case for unions “does not apply to public employment.” Now, facing a $137 million budget deficit, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has proposed a “budget repair bill” that would severely limit collective bargaining, eliminate the right of unions to negotiate pensions, retirement and benefits.
Walker is facing fierce criticism for this all-out assault against state workers, especially after he insisted that the “National Guard” will be used against a walkout:
When asked by a reporter what will happen if workers resist, Walker replied that he would call out the National Guard. He said that the National Guard is “prepared…for whatever the governor, their commander-in-chief, might call for. … I am fully prepared for whatever may happen.”
Traditionally, the National Guard is called to assist Americans in times of crisis; so Walker’s attempt to use the National Guard as a tool to suppress dissent is particularly deplorable.
President Obama has sent his new budget to Congress. It’s got lots of cuts that mainly target the poor, the middle class and students.
Why does it always seem the poor and middle class have to pay for our deficits only AFTER we’ve given the ultra-wealthy a boatload of big breaks? To quote the bounty hunter from the “Objects In Space” episode of Firefly, “Does that seem right to you?”
You know who else used state military to crack down on unions? The Nazis. Just sayin’.
Gov. Scott Walker says the Wisconsin National Guard is prepared to respond wherever is necessary in the wake of his announcement that he wants to take away nearly all collective bargaining rights from state employees.
Dennis Kucinich says that President Obama should face a challenger in the primaries for 2012. The primary challenge worked like a charm for the Democrats in 1984.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich will not challenge President Obama for in the 2012 Democratic primaries—“I’m focusing on being re-elected to the House of Representatives”—but he thinks Obama should face a foe for the presidential nomination.
"I think primaries can have the opportunity of raising the issues and make the Democratic candidate a stronger candidate," Kucinich, who sought the party nod in 2004 and 2008, said Thursday. “I think it’s safe to predict that President Obama will continue to be the nominee of the Democratic primary, but he can be a stronger nominee if he receives a strong challenge in a primary.”
Why does Kucinich (and the author of the article) seem to forget what happened the last time a sitting Democratic president faced a serious primary challenger?
--Novovox
It’s messy, like freedom.
After witnessing a mostly peaceful revolution in Egypt ignited by a Facebook page, now comes a story of the other side of the Facebook coin.
A Chester County teenager faces 11 to 22 years in prison after agreeing to a plea agreement on charges he used Facebook to try to hire a hit man to kill a woman who had accused him of rape.
Nineteen-year-old West Chester, Pa., resident Corey Christian Adams accepted the plea agreement Friday on charges of rape, criminal solicitation of murder and other counts.
In July, a 20-year-old woman who had accused Adams of raping her after a party called police to point out a posting on his Facebook page offering $500 for "a girls head." In a later posting, police say Adams said "he needed this girl knocked off right now."
Some of my friends from Delphi Forums were really pissed at me when I decided to leave that platform and spend more time building brands on Twitter and Facebook. But in light of current events, you can't deny the power of Twitter and Facebook -- just look at your TV and see what's happening in Egypt. A revolution never got started on Delphi.
Ashley Payne, a 24-year-old high school teacher in Barrow County, Georgia has lost her job because a parent complained to the school about a picture on her Facebook page that was taken while she was outside the country on vacation.
Is this fair? Should a teacher lose her job for being pictured on Facebook holding a drink?
There's more.
But here's the really troubling part: Payne had used the privacy settings on Facebook. She thought that only her closest friends could see her vacation photos or her use of the "B" word.
"I wouldn't use it in a classroom, no," she said. "But Facebook is not the classroom. And it's not open to the students of my classroom. They are not supposed to see it. I have privacy in place so they don't see it."
--Novovox
There are some states that CAN help the unemployed... but choose not to. Is it out of spite? Is the hatred of Obama some politicians have so deep, so entrenched they would let people starve rather than accept help from "the Kenyan's" federal government?
Despite record levels of long-term unemployment, some states are choosing to walk away from a total of almost $1 billion in federal jobless benefits, according to a new report (pdf).
The 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, better known as the stimulus law, extends unemployment benefits to the fast-growing number of Americans who have been without work for six months or more. In addition to helping the jobless, the federal funds offer a much-needed economic stimulus for states.
[...] Some economists argue that the stimulative effects alone make accessing the federal money a no-brainer. "States that don't do it are weakening their economy if they're leaving people without any income," Iris Lav of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities told The Lookout. "It's a good deal for the states."
Christine Riordan of NELP likewise told The Lookout that the nine states still abstaining from the program "don't really have an excuse not to get this done." But it's still far from clear whether the states that have resisted taking federal benefits this far into the jobs crisis intend to start doing so now.
A recent poll shows President Obama handily beating Sarah Palin... in Tennessee!
The survey, conducted by Vanderbilt University's Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, concluded that President Barack Obama would beat Palin in Tennessee in a hypothetical campaign matchup, despite the president's approval rating of just 44 percent in the state.
Forty-two percent of respondents said they'd vote for Obama, while 37 percent said they'd pick the former Alaska governor, the Tennessean reported on Monday. This, in a state that hasn't gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1996.
ThinkProgress has compiled a list of the top 10 things conservatives rarely mention when talking about President Reagan:
1. Reagan was a serial tax raiser. As governor of California, Reagan “signed into law the largest tax increase in the history of any state up till then.” Meanwhile, state spending nearly doubled. As president, Reagan “raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office,” including four times in just two years. As former GOP Senator Alan Simpson, who called Reagan “a dear friend,” told NPR, “Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times in his administration — I was there.” “Reagan was never afraid to raise taxes,” said historian Douglas Brinkley, who edited Reagan’s memoir. Reagan the anti-tax zealot is “false mythology,” Brinkley said.
2. Reagan nearly tripled the federal budget deficit. During the Reagan years, the debt increased to nearly $3 trillion, “roughly three times as much as the first 80 years of the century had done altogether.” Reagan enacted a major tax cut his first year in office and government revenue dropped off precipitously. Despite the conservative myth that tax cuts somehow increase revenue, the government went deeper into debt and Reagan had to raise taxes just a year after he enacted his tax cut. Despite ten more tax hikes on everything from gasoline to corporate income, Reagan was never able to get the deficit under control.
3. Unemployment soared after Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts. Unemployment jumped to 10.8 percent after Reagan enacted his much-touted tax cut, and it took years for the rate to get back down to its previous level. Meanwhile, income inequality exploded. Despite the myth that Reagan presided over an era of unmatched economic boom for all Americans, Reagan disproportionately taxed the poor and middle class, but the economic growth of the 1980′s did little help them. “Since 1980, median household income has risen only 30 percent, adjusted for inflation, while average incomes at the top have tripled or quadrupled,” the New York Times’ David Leonhardt noted.
4. Reagan grew the size of the federal government tremendously. Reagan promised “to move boldly, decisively, and quickly to control the runaway growth of federal spending,” but federal spending “ballooned” under Reagan. He bailed out Social Security in 1983 after attempting to privatize it, and set up a progressive taxation system to keep it funded into the future. He promised to cut government agencies like the Department of Energy and Education but ended up adding one of the largest — the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which today has a budget of nearly $90 billion and close to 300,000 employees. He also hiked defense spending by over $100 billion a year to a level not seen since the height of the Vietnam war.
5. Reagan did little to fight a woman’s right to chose. As governor of California in 1967, Reagan signed a bill to liberalize the state’s abortion laws that “resulted in more than a million abortions.” When Reagan ran for president, he advocated a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited all abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother, but once in office, he “never seriously pursued” curbing choice.
6. Reagan was a “bellicose peacenik.” He wrote in his memoirs that “[m]y dream…became a world free of nuclear weapons.” “This vision stemmed from the president’s belief that the biblical account of Armageddon prophesied nuclear war — and that apocalypse could be averted if everyone, especially the Soviets, eliminated nuclear weapons,” the Washington Monthly noted. And Reagan’s military buildup was meant to crush the Soviet Union, but “also to put the United States in a stronger position from which to establish effective arms control” for the the entire world — a vision acted out by Regean’s vice president, George H.W. Bush, when he became president.
7. Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants. Reagan signed into law a bill that made any immigrant who had entered the country before 1982 eligible for amnesty. The bill was sold as a crackdown, but its tough sanctions on employers who hired undocumented immigrants were removed before final passage. The bill helped 3 million people and millions more family members gain American residency. It has since become a source of major embarrassment for conservatives.
8. Reagan illegally funneled weapons to Iran. Reagan and other senior U.S. officials secretly sold arms to officials in Iran, which was subject to a an arms embargo at the time, in exchange for American hostages. Some funds from the illegal arms sales also went to fund anti-Communist rebels in Nicaragua — something Congress had already prohibited the administration from doing. When the deals went public, the Iran-Contra Affair, as it came to be know, was an enormous political scandal that forced several senior administration officials to resign.
9. Reagan vetoed a comprehensive anti-Apartheid act. which placed sanctions on South Africa and cut off all American trade with the country. Reagan’s veto was overridden by the Republican-controlled Senate. Reagan responded by saying “I deeply regret that Congress has seen fit to override my veto,” saying that the law “will not solve the serious problems that plague that country.”
10. Reagan helped create the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. Reagan fought a proxy war with the Soviet Union by training, arming, equipping, and funding Islamist mujahidin fighters in Afghanistan. Reagan funneled billions of dollars, along with top-secret intelligence and sophisticated weaponry to these fighters through the Pakistani intelligence service. The Talbian and Osama Bin Laden — a prominent mujahidin commander — emerged from these mujahidin groups Reagan helped create, and U.S. policy towards Pakistan remains strained because of the intelligence services’ close relations to these fighters. In fact, Reagan’s decision to continue the proxy war after the Soviets were willing to retreat played a direct role in Bin Laden’s ascendency.
Following up on my earlier blog post, I haven’t found a transcript of the show in question yet, but there is a discussion thread about it on Democratic Underground.
They might want to check that the next time they concoct a smear about Obama. Wait, what am I saying? The facts don’t matter. All that’s important is the smear itself, whether it’s true or false.
Conservatives have spent the last several years trying to cast doubt on President Obama's Christianity, often by suggesting he is a secret Muslim or claiming that he is a non-believer pretending to be Christian for political benefit. Sadly, their smear campaign has been effective - Pew reported last year that only 34 percent of Americans believe Obama is Christian (compared to nearly 18 percent who think he is Muslim.)
You might think it would be difficult for conservative smear merchants to continue to cast doubt on Obama's faith when he calls Jesus Christ "my lord and Savior," like he did at yesterday's annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC.. But, as "news" outlets like Fox Nation have shown time and again, they have absolutely no standards and are willing to manufacture scandals out of thin air when reality doesn't coincide with their chosen narrative.
If you visit Fox Nation right now, you are greeted by the following story on their front page:
If you follow the link, you are taken to a page on Fox Nation that claims Obama "misquoted a familiar Bible verse" during his address yesterday:
President Obama misquoted a familiar Bible verse during a faith-based address at the National Prayer Breakfast.
"Those who wait on the Lord will soar on wings like eagles, and they will run and not be weary, and they will walk and not faint," the president said during a speech to several thousand people at the breakfast.
But the actual passage, from Isaiah 40:31, states: "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
Somewhat ironically, while Fox Nation appears to be positioning themselves as the arbiters of authentic Christianity, they seem unfamiliar with the fact that there is more than one version of the Bible.
Obama was quoting from the New International Version, while Fox Nation was pointing to the King James Version to "debunk" him.
From the February 3 edition of MSNBC's The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell:
I used to love Randi Rhodes.
But that love has dried up, never to live again.
I caught part of a conversation she had with an atheist caller this afternoon. I joined in just as she was yelling at him about how atheists want to “outlaw religion” and “force their atheism on everyone else.”
(Not exact quotes, but when I find a transcript, I’ll correct what needs to be corrected.)
The young man tried to explain that what atheists oppose is government-sanctioned religion, but Randi was having none of that. She just kept yelling at him “Atheists want to outlaw religion! Atheists want to eradicate believers!”
She sounded as crazy and conspiracy-addled as Glenn Beck.
And apparently, today wasn’t the first day she went after atheists. Yesterday, she jumped down the throat of a young man who dared to say that he did not believe in God. That set Randi off. Apparently, one thing tolerant Randi can’t tolerate is someone not believing in God.
So that’s enough for me. I know that Randi is a liberal radio darling, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster knows we need more of them. But I won’t be listening to her anymore. At least, not until she comes to her senses and apologizes for spewing some very old, very tired lies about atheists.
Greg Sargent writes about a conservative law professor making a very good case for why the individual insurance mandate in President Obama’s health care reform is constitutional.
In an interview with me just now, a conservative law professor made an interesting case for the individual mandate: In multiple cases, he said, the federal government has already regulated "inactivity," and it has passed muster with the Constitution.
The cases this professor cited: Jury duty, and the draft.
New York University law professor Rick Hills describes himself as a "registered Republican and outspoken conservative," but he maintains that the primary argument conservatives use against the mandate -- that it's unconstitutional to regulate economic inactivity by forcing people to buy insurance, as Judge Vinson ruled -- is bunk.
Hills frames the question this way: If the federal government can't tell people they don't have the right to refuse to buy insurance, then why was it okay for the federal government to regulate people's "pacifism," i.e., their refusal to fight in wars? Why is it okay for the government to regulate people's refusal to serve on juries?
"If you can regulate inaction to raise juries, and you can regulate inaction to raise an army, then why isn't there equally an implied power to conscript people to buy insurance, to serve the goal of regulating the interstate insurance market?" Hill asks.
The draft was held up as constitutional by the Supreme Court, but not under the "commerce clause" or the "necessary and proper clause," which are being used to defend the individual mandate. But Hills said the larger point stands: Congress has the power to ban inaction.
"If the draft is constitutional, it's constitutional to ban inaction," he said. "Congress can ban inaction, assuming that it's necessary and proper to regulate interstate commerce."
Hills took the comparison a step further, in order to debunk the claim by some conservatives that economic inactivity is too removed from commerce -- or economic activity -- to regulate.
"If economic inactivity is too far from commerce to regulate, then why isn't defense inactivity -- also known as pacifism -- too far from defense to regulate?"
"We can forbid pacifism in order to raise an army," he concluded. "So why can't we forbid economic inaction in order to regulate interstate commerce?"
--Novovox
President Obama scored a legal victory on health care reform today, as a federal judge in Mississippi tossed out a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.
Funny how when there's a court decision in favor of health care, it hardly gets any coverage at all, compared to when a conservative judge rules against it.
The judge, Keith Starret, who serves on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, ruled that plaintiffs suing over the coming implementation of the individual mandate did not demonstrate sufficient standing for him to take the case. He "granted in part" the administrations motion to dismiss the case, but gave the plaintiffs 30 days to amend their complaint.
"The Court finds that the allegations of Plaintiffs' First Amended Petition, as stated therein, are insufficient to show that they have standing to challenge the minimum essential coverage provision of the PPACA [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act]. Therefore, the Court dismisses Plaintiffs' First Amended Petition without prejudice."
--Novovox
If you oppose marriage rights for gays, you need to watch this.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was on MSNBC a little while ago talking about why they have to repeal ALL of the health care reform law or it was the end of the world. But in order to not like he’s merely lost in the throes of Obama Derangement Syndrome, he added, “But there are parts of it I like.”
The clueless MSNBC reporter moved right along, not asking the most obvious question: “So, Senator, can you tell us which parts you like?” and “If there are parts of it you like, why are you so insanely hell-bent on repealing ALL of it?”
I’d love to hear these Republican anti-healthcare nuts explain just which parts of it they’re okay with. Then we’d know that it’s not really about health care reform, it’s not really about fixing what’s broken in our health insurance system… it’s only about, and has always been only about, “getting” Obama.
One of the ways to spike gun sales is to make people afraid that someone is going to take away their guns. That's why the NRA and gun manufacturers are always ginning up fear that Obama is coming after their guns. Sarah Palin at a recent speech talked about "President Obama's attempts to perhaps infringe further upon our Second Amendment rights," when Obama has made absolutely no such move to do anything of the sort.
She also said, "Just think if we had even stricter gun control laws!" Some pundits correctly answered, "Yes, less people would have been killed in Tucson."
-Novovox
Hi, Lordrag here. I've recently turned over my Delphi discussion forums to Novovox. He can handle all the headaches associated with it -- good luck with that!
Consequently I'm also giving my friends GreyHawk and Novovox a platform on this blog, and since they're both better writers than me by far, I'll be doing a little less here, too.
Whether or not I return to Delphi forums, I don't know. I'm not planning a return any time soon. Frankly, having lost groups of people I thought were my friends, the whole experience is a sour one.
But I'll still post here and on Facebook from time to time, and GreyHawk and Novovox will take up the blogging slack. Enjoy!
-NovovoxState lawmakers in South Dakota have introduced legislation that would require all residents aged 21 and over to purchase a firearm beginning in 2012.
The bill is reportedly meant as a quixotic attempt to protest the reach of the health insurance mandate set to be implemented by President Obama's health care reform, ruled unconstitutional by a Florida judge on Monday.
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