Posts
I posted this back in 2006, while we where all under the reign of Bush.
![[wyourrights.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWO-gw2Ka3kmrNrKpS585RgzWhkltCltwMwO0fKryD_d7h8iIog50rNNJ2jpZ6WsMfcSaY5DOuELYNX_HeL-MElMe2hwQuAJRgiqjo985d1oEkZSP9RccGBa1TPwH58yAxSO_r/s1600/wyourrights.jpg)
Nothing has changed.
Be INFORMED
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Friday, June 03, 2011
Friday Funnies
"Congressman Weiner's Twitter account was hacked 'allegedly,' and someone texted a picture of his 'junior senator' to a college girl. Now this is good news for me because I can Google 'weiner photos' at work and not get fired." —Craig Ferguson
“Today in New York City, Sarah Palin had a meeting with Donald Trump. Now, experts say if those two joined forces on a Presidential ticket it would be the greatest gift ever given to comedy." –Craig Ferguson
“Somebody asked John McCain if Sarah Palin could win the presidency, and he said yes, especially if a meteor hits all the other Republican and Democratic candidates. Imagine how mad he’d be if she won." –Jimmy Kimmel
Copyright © 2011 Universal Press Syndicate
It’s Official: We’ve Lost The War On Drugs..
…and the Global Commission on Drug Policy says that it is now tine to stop locking up the individual user.
Global Commission on Drug Policy Report (English) (PDF)
The Global Commission on Drug Policy, which includes several former heads of state and UN officials, has released a report calling the global war on drugs a failure.
"The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," the report reads.
The report calls for an end to the "criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others," and for governments to experiment with ways to regulate drugs so as to undercut organized crime and improve public health.
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Chris Christie’s Plan to Pay for Those Helicopter Flights….
…seems to be cutting the income levels in order for the poor to be able to receive Medicaid in the state of New Jersey.
Adults in a family of three that makes as little as $103 a week would earn too much to qualify for health care provided by Medicaid under a sharply curtailed program Gov. Chris Christie wants the federal government to approve this year, according to state officials and advocates briefed on the proposal.[...]The Christie administration is expected to propose cutting the maximum income level of Medicaid from $24,645 to $5,317 a year for a family of three [...“That is about a third of the poverty level,” Castro said. “That means that an uninsured parent working full time at a minimum-wage job wouldn’t be eligible. … A parent who works half-time for minimum wage wouldn’t even qualify.
Those darned Republican family values. Can’t live with them.
Tea Party Plan To “ Take Our Country Back “…
…to the 1800"’s, that is.
Cut taxes on corporations and the rich. Repeal the estate tax. Cut taxes on capital gains and dividends. If it's a vote-getter to advocate tax cuts for even "the little people," as Leona Helmsley called them, then sure, why not? "Tax Cuts For All" will probably appeal to those voters who are struggling around the poverty line. But the truth is that the Republicans simply don't care about cutting taxes for waitresses and Wal-Mart clerks; the amount of money in question is not worth quibbling about. Corporations and the rich: That's where the billions are. And that's what they want to get their hands on for themselves and their greedy friends.
Cut government oversight and regulation of private industry. Eliminate agencies like the EPA that hamper corporate profits. Workplace safety enforced at places like mines, offshore oil rigs, and meatpacking plants? Inspection of food production facilities by the FDA? Child labor laws, which are being relaxed in Maine? Cuts to community development grants, food aid to low-income pregnant women and their children, and grants to community action agencies that serve the poor? Regulatory authorities are bloated bureaucracies whose reason for existence is to enforce oppressive rules by an intrusive nanny state. Their very existence is an affront to the principles of the free market: salaries for make-work government jobs for bureaucrats who throttle industrial competitiveness.
Cut social spending. Social spending, by definition, goes to people who can't afford to look after themselves (or even worse, to people who can afford it but who choose instead to freeload on the bushels of money the government shovels out to one and all). Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps for the poor, school lunch programs, Pell grants to help low-income youth attend college -- all of these are socialist handouts to the unproductive and therefore undeserving. Abolish FEMA and let people care for themselves, as they should in a free society. Starve K-12 public education while increasing funding to private, for-profit schools where the affluent can send their children, thus consolidating their privileged position in the world, while public schools sink ever lower into poverty and chaos and despair. Block funding to NPR and Planned Parenthood.
Break the unions. End regulation of overtime pay and conditions. Abolish the minimum wage. Let people truly compete for work in a truly free market; a man who has a job and doesn't like the pay or conditions can leave, and those who have no job at all will be lining up to take his place. There are 112,000 teachers and 212,000 millionaires in New Jersey, but it's those greedy teachers with their $50,000 a year salaries and gold-plated pension plans who are bankrupting the state. Boeing's record profits are not enough: They must punish their recalcitrant workers in Washington, who had the temerity to demand decent wages and working conditions, and violate their contractual agreement with those workers by moving a major Dreamliner production line to South Carolina where they can pay non-union wages and -- surprise! -- receive big subsidies from the state government.
Subsidize big industry. While government subsidies to the poor and struggling are out of the question, subsidies to the obscenely rich and powerful are another matter entirely. Billions in subsidies to oil companies, King Coal, huge factory farms and ethanol producers, Big Pharma patents to keep cheap generics and imported drugs off the market, and of course the biggest of all -- the War Machine -- well, subsidizing the rich so they can remain rich and get richer is taken for granted; cuts in these areas are unthinkable.
Support Wall Street and the mega-banks to the hilt.
Yes, their greed and irresponsibility plunged us into this situation where the taxpayers had to put the country in hock for decades to bail them out; and yes, the Frank-Dodd legislation, designed to prevent such situations in the future, was so watered down it achieves very little; and yes, they are in a position even stronger and more dominant than ever; and yes, exotic derivatives remain unregulated; and yes, they are paying record bonuses while Main Street is struggling to tread water -- and yes, they are our biggest campaign donors, but no, we will not accept any significant limitation on the overwhelming financial clout they wield and which can help us continue to be re-elected. A pox on Elizabeth Warren and her new agency! We are unalterably opposed to a bureau that protects financial consumers, because that would protect them (at least to some extent) from the depredations of Wall Street and the mega-banks.What economic legislation has the Republican House passed or proposed that has not sought to achieve those ends I've mentioned?
Then there's their cultural and social policy:
- Repression of women's rights to reproductive freedom;
- Denial of science, to be replaced with good old-fashioned Christian faith;
- Indoctrination of children by manipulation of school text-book material to reflect a Christian, conservative slant;
- Infiltration of higher education by such as the Koch brothers, who donate millions to universities in return for vetting professors and setting curricula;
- Demonization of illegal immigrants, yet looking away when those same hardworking decent people care for their kids, clean their swimming pools, tend their gardens, and perform exhausting, soul-destroying labor in their fields and factories in unregulated conditions for less than minimum wage with no workplace rights or protections;
- Denial of basic human rights to those they deem to be "other" -- that is, anyone who is not white, Christian, and heterosexual."Take our country back" indeed: back to a time when White was Right and the rich ruled without restriction.
The May Cable News Ratings: Fox Declines Again
The Fox News Channel ratings continue to slide in the month of May. Does this mean that the seniors and the stupid citizens in America are slowly coming to their senses and are seeing that FNC is not a real news organization? There is always hope.
Way to go Roger and Rupert
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
The Palin Publicity Bus Tour…
….rolls on today, as if we really care. I think that Mrs. Palin is an idiot, but you have to give credit to her managers for finding a new way to keep her in the public spotlight with a family bus tour to various historical locations around America. Maybe Mrs. Palin will learn some real historical facts and then pass them on to Michelle Bachman, if she can remember them that long.
Jon Stewart: Driving Miss Crazy Part 1
Part 2
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The Cost Of Education: New York City
A quick little study for you concerning the price of education in New York City.
A new analysis shows New York's Department of Education is spending $1 billion on "consultants" - including one who made $374,000 to help mid-level managers "adapt to change" from his home in Nova Scotia. DOE spending on outside consultants has soared 455%. Meanwhile, they are now laying off 4,100 teachers. Source
You tax dollars at work.
“ Sick and Poor “ In America
I’m slowly still winding my way back home after the holiday, so it makes blogging while driving a little complicated. I’m posting this at a rest stop in South Carolina, with no time for any sort of research.
So, check this out from McCamy Taylor on jiust how out of whack our health care is in America.
Mon May 30, 2011
We all know that "sick" and "poor" go hand in hand in the US of A. Some of us get sick and then land into medical debt. Illness is still the biggest cause of personal bankruptcy in this country. That's why Congress made it impossible to walk away from medical debt.
Others are so poor, they can not get necessary preventive health care, and so they develop (preventable) medical problems. Like metastatic breast cancer that started as a pea sized lump that could have been removed and treated before it spread. Families get plunged into poverty, as a bread winner becomes too ill to work. This puts the kids at risk for preventable health problems, too.
And then, there are those who can not afford to take advantage of the crumbs which we toss to those who are both "sick" and "poor". This diary is for them.
Real stories from the frontline, May, 2011.
"There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning."
— Warren BuffettThere’s poor. And then there’s poor. The members of the second group know what I’m talking about. You are Too Poor to be “Sick and Poor” in America, when you qualify for government funded insurance, but you only have two dollars in your pocket and the co-payments for the three asthma drugs you need will cost you thirty dollars--- make that twelve, if you take your prescription to Wall-mart, which is still ten dollars more than you have right now. Monday through Friday, a social worker can get you a voucher so you don’t have to pay that thirty dollar fee, but today is Saturday. And there is a holiday weekend coming up. Too bad the poor are not allowed to take a holiday from being poor in celebration of Memorial Day. Did I mention that the woman with only two dollars and the bad lungs is a veteran?
You are Too Poor to be “Sick and Poor” in America, when you find out your co-payment to see your doctor will now be twenty-five dollars. That extra fifteen dollars was supposed to be your gas money---your city, which is one of the largest in the state, still does not have a bus, even though it has helped pay for two stadiums. So, now you have a choice. Drive to your doctor’s clinic, but do not get seen because you can not pay your part of the bill. Or, stay at home and use the twenty-five dollars to make a payment on your $20,000 “burial” insurance policy. Too bad you live in a community property state in which your spouse will be forced to hand over that $20,000 to your creditors when you die---creditors in this case, being the credit card company which you had to use to pay for all the extras that your health insurance did not cover. You, my friend, are too poor to get buried in America. More Here
Technorati Tags: The Poor,Poor,Healthcare,Health Care,America,Class Warfare,Working Class,Current Events
Monday, May 30, 2011
Memorial Day
A friend sent me the following poem, so I decided to post it here for the holiday. She did not know who the author is, so I can not give due credit to the writer.
How kind of you to remember my friend
And lay flowers by his grave to commend
Past deeds he’d done to save comrades lives
Posthumous honors appreciated by them and their wives
You annually commemorate and on him bestow
Many accolades but only we his comrades know
Every path he crossed leaving cover behind
Moved by the thick of dark that he might find
Our enemies’ locations and returned before light
Risked it all to give us a better chance to fight
I was there that night he said he’ll be back
All was dismal; we were retreating from an attack
Lives had been lost and ours were sure to be gone
Death was a certainty by the break of dawn
And though he never returned he led the enemy astray
You’re kind to remember him and make this a Happy Memorial Day
Tea Party Idiot Palin’s “ It’s All About Me “ Tour…
….kicked off on Sunday when she arrived by bus at the Rolling Thunder Memorial Weekend bikers rally in Washington,DC. only to get more publicity to generate more book sales and speaking fees.
This circus clown is out only for all of the cash that she can possibly make for herself and her family, which should be the poster-child for abortion. It does not help that she was not invited to Rolling Thunder in the first place. In fact, she pissed off Allen West, which is a hard thing to do considering that he is an idiot in a group by himself.
Also, from Talking Points Memo
Palin's arrival kicked off the Tea Party favorite's bus tour up the northeastern coast. It also overwhelmed Rolling Thunder's security capabilities and strained organizers' patience as photographers, journalists and admirers swarmed the former Alaska governor after she hopped off the back of a black bike in the parking lot of the Pentagon.
"I don't think any talk about Palin coming here is right here, the talk is about Memorial Day, the talk is about like I said those people who have given that ultimate sacrifice," West said.
This is a sad country when there are citizens in it who actually support that Palin piece of gutter garbage.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
ALEC & Koch's Agenda becomes clearer - as do connections to them...
By Bob Sloan for DailyKos Tue May 17, 2011
More privatization in the news and no matter what is being privatized one or more of ALEC's "special friend" corporate members stand to profit from such efforts. In addition we have the Koch's now discovered influencing education provided in our public universities. My my, them folks are certainly working overtime on their agenda, now aren't they?
Last week there was a report from Florida that Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation had "endowed" $1.5 million to a public university - Florida State University. Of course this endowment had a purpose. Charles and David Koch always have a purpose when offering up their money is concerned. One of their many interests is Conservative economics and that is where their efforts are centered regarding the money given to USF. They provided that small sum to the University in exchange for being allowed to approve those applying to teach economics at the college.
So far, the article reports, Koch has declined to approve 60% of those selected by University officials for positions in the Economics Department.
"A foundation bankrolled by Libertarian businessman Charles G. Koch has pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University's economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new program promoting "political economy and free enterprise."
"Koch wasted little time in asserting his influence. In 2009, he denied 60 percent of the faculty’s suggestions to fill the positions in the new programs, called the Study of Political Economy and Free Enterprise (SPEFE) and Excellence in Economics Education (EEE). The hires that were made were agreed upon by Koch and the department’s faculty."
reports this article from the St. Petersburg Times.
The above article no sooner hit the newsstands and another came out exposing additional "endowments" provided to Universities and Colleges from Koch's coffers. Alternet reported: "6 Universities With Far-Right Academic Centers Funded by Koch Industries" in this article dated May 12th. They report the following universities with ties to Koch money:
1 - West Virginia University - $480,000
2 - Brown University - $419,254
3 - Troy University - $3.6 million
4 - Utah State University - $700,000
Additionally it mentions George Mason University and the Koch ties to it through the Mercatus Center. Charles Koch is a Mercatus Center Board member.
Now a less informed person might think this kind of philanthropy on behalf of the Koch brothers or their family foundations is a good thing. However, as the articles I've linked to warn us, the Koch's only fund those activities that benefit them. In the case of the endowments to the Universities they are funding activities that have to do with economics, global warming and other EPA related issues. Their purpose is obviously intended to influence educational programs referencing these important issues. They hope by such influence to assist in "teaching" today's students about economics and environmental issues from the conservative far right POV.
Some might also question: what all of this Koch funding of colleges and public Universities has in common with prison privatization and prison industries? Believe it or not - some will and some won't - the same set of characters, players and legislators are also involved in profiting from prison privatization and associated industries using inmate labor. It's bad enough that the corporations and ALEC are involved in expanding criminal laws to increase arrests and thus incarceration, but the fact that they have a willing partner in the U.S. Department of Justice is despicable. Yes, the DOJ is involved in furthering the goals, profits and agendas of ALEC, Koch Industries, Corrections Corporation of America and Geo Group - in regards to imprisonment and profiting from that imprisonment.
Here is a piece of the 7 minute NCIA/DOJ video I've finally managed to record and include in a diary for readers to watch so they can fully understand the seriousness of this profiteering. The full video including the credits linking to the NCIA/BJA/DOJ is found here.
If you noticed early in the full video, a woman describes the work as that "which American workers no longer want to do" and throughout this propaganda film, there is little mention of "training" or actual benefits to the inmate - rather the focus is on reducing costs and increasing profits for the targeted companies shown this film. This is simply more of the agenda put forth by ALEC in their Public Safety "Model Legislations" Privatization and Prison Industries Acts.
The pursuit of profits for ALEC member's CCA and Geo, from imprisonment drove ALEC to conspire on the writing and presenting SB 1070 legislation first in Arizona and now in more than 20 other states. Since the 2010 election cycle they have worked to expand prison privatization in Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, Maine, Michigan and several other Republican held states. This is similar to the initiatives of ALEC and Koch Industries discrediting global warming and other important EPA claims. They believe if they say it often enough, people will begin to believe their rhetoric...or if not that, the arguments will become so complex and confusing to the public they'll lose interest in the discussion.
This has been their goal and modus operandi since the 1980's and took the form of the Eric Heubeck "Treatise" I have written about over the past couple of months now. Here are just a couple of excerpts from this document:
"New Traditionalists Must Concentrate on Students and Young Adults
"The new movement will inevitably be geared toward children and young adults, especially their education. We will accomplish the goal of retaking our country only when large numbers of young people are educated outside of the indoctrinating environment of many public and private schools, universities, and of course, the popular culture. At this point in their lives, many of their ideas are still in the formative stage, the more so the younger they are. Furthermore, young adults (of college age and above) should be given a large role in the organization of the New Traditionalist movement, as many older people, because of work and family life, simply do not have the time to devote to reading, discussion, and action (and all three are equally important). They also often lack the necessary energy, enthusiasm, and idealism that is prevalent in youth. However, retirees could also make a valuable contribution to the movement.
"College students must be a key audience for our movement, since they are free of excessive time commitments and they find themselves in an environment that (theoretically) encourages activism and exposure to new ideas. We should consider creating alternative fraternities where traditionalists can live, interact with each other, learn from each other, socialize with each other. New Traditionalist fraternities can help replicate lifestyles from the past--emulate "civilized" behavior from the past--by discussing traditionalist ideas, literature, and art, and then acting based on what has been learned. Members of the fraternities and collegiate study groups should build each other up in every possible way: in terms of public speaking skills, debating skills, physical fitness, intellect, manners, aesthetic sense. It is imperative that our ideas be lived and not merely discussed.
"A basic problem is that most bright, creative, dynamic, energetic young people with leadership skills become leftists, and this is why most student leaders--who eventually become the leaders of society--tend to be leftists. New Traditionalist fraternities and collegiate study groups can help reverse that tendency."
Does anyone else see the comparison between this indoctrination and what occurred in Europe in the 30's? I get a sense of "Youth Corp" when reading this. Of course from the philosophical plan, we can readily understand the goal of "investing" money in our public universities by the Koch's many foundations. We are clearly shown that it has nothing to do with philanthropy, rather it has everything to do with furthering their collective Conservative agenda through indoctrinating our youth from their earliest exposure to education through the collegiate level.
It is no longer sufficient for those espousing their personal views that are divergent from the mainstream's through private educational programs. In those instances ALEC and Koch would be preaching to the choir, so to speak. No, they have decided it's time to infect our public education with their rhetoric and agenda to recruit more of our youth to their cause.
Here is more from the "Treatise":
"There will be three main stages in the unfolding of this movement. The first stage will be devoted to the development of a highly motivated elite able to coordinate future activities. The second stage will be devoted to the development of institutions designed to make an impact on the wider elite and a relatively small minority of the masses. The third stage will involve changing the overall character of American popular culture.
"It must be emphasized that this new movement will not be "disengaged" from the wider society, only "differently engaged." We are, quite simply, replacing political activism with cultural activism as the center of our focus. And while the visibility of the new movement will be less pronounced than the existing (political) conservative movement in the short term, the seeds that we now sow will have dramatic repercussions over the long term. We have the capacity to fundamentally transform the face of American culture in the 21st century by following a different path, one built on the aggressive dissemination of our cultural values, rather than the idle hope that enough of our cultural values still remain in the body of the American people to carry us on to a few more isolated electoral victories.
"Our movement will be entirely destructive, and entirely constructive. We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them. We will endeavor to knock our opponents off-balance and unsettle them at every opportunity. All of our constructive energies will be dedicated to the creation of our own institutions.
"We must create a countervailing force that is just as adept as the Left at intimidating people and institutions that are used as tools of left-wing activism but are not ideologically committed, such as Hollywood celebrities, multinational corporations, and university administrators. We must be feared, so that they will think twice before opening their mouths. They must understand that there is some sort of cost involved in taking a "controversial" stand--although positions cannot honestly be labeled "controversial" if conservatives are unable to mount a meaningful opposition. Perhaps once we are able to mount such an opposition, we will be able to take some of the trendiness out of leftist cultural activism, because lukewarm advocates of leftist causes will be forced to actually get their hands dirty. Support of leftist causes will no longer be the path of least resistance."
Now we can begin to understand that our current events are driven and coordinated by this cabal with ALEC at it's core. Collective bargaining, Union-Busting, Right to Work legislation, school voucher programs, expanding of privatized prisons and prison industries. This collective has sought to downplay global warming, carbon emissions and fought against election reforms, social programs, Medicare, Social Security and also importantly, abortion.
By legislating the slashing of public funding for education - nationwide - they have made it necessary for school authorities to seek funding elsewhere to make up the loss in state appropriations. When University officials go looking for funding...there stands David and Charles Koch and their huge conglomerate of think tanks, PAC's and foundations, holding out their checkbooks and flashing crooked and sinister grins. Collectively they should be seen as the Potter character in "It's A Wonderful Life ."
I think it's time the U.S. Department of Education begins to take a hard look at the funding being provided to our public colleges and universities. At their site they provide information on "improper payments" and provide a form to fill out for reporting fraud, abuse or waste involving funding and have an Office of Inspector General. I would think this is something that should be followed up with the DOE looking into the payments/endowments made to collegiate institutions by the likes of Charles and David Koch, their foundations or affiliated think tanks. The strings attached to such "endowments" allowing them to influence the hiring or retention of instructors and further requiring the reading of controversial material should be investigated and found too controlling:
"A separate grant from BB&T funds a course on ethics and economics in which Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is required reading. The novel, which depicts society's collapse in the wake of government encroachment on free enterprise, was recently made into a movie marketed to tea party members."
As the article on this reported, BB&T has joined with Koch to help raise $6.6 million for graduate "fellowships." I truly believe that in instances where private companies, corporations or individuals are shown to be providing money to public educational institutions in exchange for the hiring of personnel that will advance a particular personal and "theoretical" belief over what is generally held by the mainstream public, there should be a thorough investigation. Any attempt to introduce a minority opinion "theory" as fact by controlling the dissemination of materials and educational training of college students, is a dangerous and troubling act.
We see similar activities - involving the Kochs and other Conservatives - regarding global warming and other topics that today present a danger to industrial companies. They are always looking for ways to lessen that danger by making it appear that the danger is somehow fabricated and thus not a danger at all. They do this to keep their profits flowing the way they like, without having to be made to install expensive equipment and use recommended technologies to lessen the impact upon our planet and our health. At the center of these pursuits are billions of $'s. These people are willing to endanger our entire world population to keep more and more money coming their way - at our expense. Creating an atmosphere in higher education facilities to nurture views in opposition to those held by the majority, helps Koch and their comrades to keep the argument alive and forestall forcing them to accept responsibility for their manufacturing and refining that is endangering us all.
THE TIES -
It isn't just CCA and Geo Group and their profiting from incarceration. No, there are millions of investors realizing some form or amount of profit from privatization and prison industries. Here is a link to an article identifying the top "shareholders" in both CCA and Geo. (Note: Vanguard is still listed in the top 10 investors in Geo Group). In addition those invested in Aramark, Keefe Commissary and the hundreds of other corporations involved in prison services, are profiting - I've named them several times in previous diaries.
When you now hear Conservatives talking the talk and walking the walk, you know it is scripted and they are parroting everything they hear from Fox News outlets. Leading Conservatives now use FOX to disseminate their initiatives and instructions from the "elite" mentioned in the treatise to the "masses" identified in the same document.
There are a couple of prestigious law firms involved in all this crap. I know you've read my diaries about Greenberg Traurig. This law firm is in the midst of all this prison privatization, economic “endowments” to universities and other manipulations. In the article about the universities linked to above, notice the involvement of BB&T bank. That is the banking firm that ATL Industry's owner in Atlanta, Ga. Used to finance his properties and equipment used in the prison industry at PRIDE’s food processing plant in Florida. When PRIDE and ATL began litigation, Greenberg Traurig was found to also represent BB&T Bank, and used their relationship with both PRIDE and BB&T jointly to take all property and assets from the ATL owner, in order to deny him funding to litigate against PRIDE. So in this one article we have further proof that Koch, BB&T, Greenberg and the other players are all affiliated – on U.S. prison privatization, prison industry operations and economic issues.
Assisting them on the issues of economics are ALEC's Board of Scholars Laffer and Moore with their twisted economic research (funded by Koch money) attempting to provide legitimacy to the Conservative agenda using such tools as the "Laffer Curve":
"The Laffer curve and supply-side economics inspired Reaganomics and the Kemp-Roth Tax Cut of 1981. Supply-side advocates of tax cuts claimed that lower tax rates would generate more tax revenue because the United States government's marginal income tax rates prior to the legislation were on the right-hand side of the curve. As a successful actor, Reagan himself had been subject to marginal tax rates as high as 90% during World War II. During the Reagan presidency, the top marginal rate of tax in the US fell from 70% to 31%, while revenue continued to increase during his tenure.[11] However tax cuts compounded by increases in government spending caused the national debt to rise, obscuring the effects of the Laffer curve. According to the CBO historical tables, income taxes as a percentage of GDP declined from 9.4% in 1981 to a range of 7.8% to 8.4% through 1989."
This "Curve" is touted by the Koch's Heritage Foundation.
And all of this started with the founding of ALEC in the mid 1970's. For more than 40 years now, Koch, Laffer and other "scholars" serving Koch and ALEC's interests have pushed us in the direction they want us to go as a society. We see the continued pursuits of their philosophy and intent with the current political events attacking labor, supporting more privatization and imprisonment in many states today - keep the "Treatise" in mind...
Obviously Snyder, Walker, Kasich, Daniels, LePage and Scott in Florida are all influenced by corporate interests through ALEC. In Florida Governor Scott pickedHayden Dempsey from Greenberg Traurig to serve as his Special Counsel. Greenberg lobbied for Koch Industries, and assisted Sarah Palin since she came upon the political scene, and Greenberg Traurig represents PRIDE Enterprises (FL. Prison Industry Corporation) – you get the picture. Is Greenberg Traurig connected to CCA and represent their interests in private prison operations - immigrations - juveniles? Sure. How about a connection between Greenberg Traurig and Geo Group? Again, yep! And they were involved in the Cornell Corrections and Geo Group merger.
Guess that's enough for now. I am trying to keep the names and issues before the DK Readers so they have an opportunity to understand exactly how ALEC and their satellite corporate and legislative members operate, what the agenda is and how that agenda impacts upon each of us as taxpayers.
The students at the Rally against ALEC in Cincinnati last month got it. They know their education is on the line - as is the funding for that college education. They represent the best hope left to us as a society combating this Conservative war waged against us by such a devious and formidable cabal. Let's hope their efforts - combined with ours - will prevail.
Technorati Tags: ALEC,BJA,Florida,Rick Scott,Koch Brothers,Koch Industries,Prison Labor,American Taliban,Labor,Republicans,Sarah Palin
Republicans - Regulate Vaginas - De-Regulate Wall Street And Corporate America!
By Rural Progressive at DailyKos Sat May 28, 2011
When it comes to Republicans, vaginas and regulations it appears that size really matters (BIG GOVERNMENT) and it's for that reason we're suggesting maybe Republicans should consider renaming their Party. We're open for suggestions here but we're going to throw out a few just to get things started:
The Vagina Party
Dicks Come First Party
The Wombublican Party (From Stuart Ray over at Facebook)
repudendacan party (From jhande over at BuzzFlash)
OK, that's just four. Like I said we're looking for input here.
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