The GOP War On Voting Is In Full Swing

News Corpse   Media Watch   Sat Sep 03, 2011

Rolling Stone just published an enlightening, albeit disturbing, article detailing the coordinated effort on the part of the Republican Party to roll back voting rights for millions of Americans. With the help of the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC], the billionaire Koch brothers, and other rightist allies, the GOP has already succeeded in passing legislation that inhibits and/or prohibits voting by students, seniors, minorities, and the poor.

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The article goes into great depth describing the GOP assault on democracy and the potential for disenfranchisement and electoral chaos. Some groups, including the ACLU, are challenging the new laws in court. But if these laws can't be overturned in time for 2012, citizens will need to more aggressively pursue registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns than ever before.

The movement to Block the Vote has become such a critical part of the Republican agenda that they are casting aside the pretense of voter fraud as a justification for their efforts. They were never able to provide evidence of that anyway. Now, Matthew Vadum, a conservative columnist associated with WorldNetDaily, American Spectator, and BigGovernment, wrote an article for the ultra-conservative American Thinker provocatively titled, "Registering the Poor to Vote is Un-American." Here's an excerpt:

"Registering [the poor] to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals.  It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country -- which is precisely why Barack Obama zealously supports registering welfare recipients to vote. [...] Encouraging those who burden society to participate in elections isn't about helping the poor.  It's about helping the poor to help themselves to others' money."

When the right is this comfortable openly expressing their hostility toward both democracy and working-class Americans, either the wheels are about to come off that wagon, or we have an epic battle on our hands. It's all out in the open now. The conservative view is one that would permit only landowners (and preferably just the male, white ones) to vote. Any American that does not represent the elite class is somehow invested in the nation's ruin and is only concerned with narrow, self-interests. And of course, the rich are never so selfish. They never vote for their own interests. All they want is what's best for everyone, even the little people who shouldn't be allowed to vote. Whatever would we do without these benevolent guardians of virtue watching over us and voting on our behalf?

It's hard to imagine a more repulsive philosophy. These are the same people that align themselves with the Founding Fathers and a return to Constitutional rule. These are the same people that have deceived a small, gullible segment of the electorate, that calls itself the Tea Party, and has manipulated theme into advocating policies that are harmful to themselves. And these are the same people who now want to take away the most fundamental right of every American - the right to vote.

Whatever we do, we cannot permit this cynical agenda to succeed. This is a fight that will determine the outcome of every other fight we undertake. It is imperative that real patriots commit themselves to ensuring that everyone who wants to vote has an opportunity to do so. The more people who participate in the electoral process, the more representative our political institutions will be. And it's about time that they represent the people and not corporations and wealthy special interests.

Some additional resources:
ThinkProgress
People for the American Way

 

Technorati Tags: ALEC,Republican Party,GOP,Koch Brothers,2012 Elections,Voters Rights,Rolling Stone,Current Events,Political News,American Taliban

What Obama Has Accomplished

  I am not as die hard of a supporter of President Obama as I was when he first ran office because I think that his administration has basically thrown many of us under the bus when it comes to helping us with a real jobs program, and for letting those crooks who run the banks and Wall Street get a free ride at the tax payers expense for ruining our economy and getting no jail/prison time. Hiring some of these crooks after winning the White House did not help to instill any confidence in Obama either.

   That being said, one has to give the man some credit for a few things that have been done to help some of the less fortunate in America, and the following is a list of those. I note that I believe that some of these were a waste of money and that the cash could have been spent better on other issues.

Crossposted from the PeoplesView

The accomplishments of the first two years of the Obama Administration:

On reducing and assisting people that have become victims of the increased poverty made worse by economic crisis

1) A $20 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps.
2) A $1 billion in funding for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) that is intended to revitalize low-income communities via "Job training and placement assistance", "Financial literacy programs", et al, to helping families become self-sufficient.
3) A $2 billion in new Neighborhood Stabilization Funds that will allow ailing neighborhoods be kept maintained.
4) A $1.5 billion in Homelessness Prevention Funds to keep people in their homes and prevent homelessness.
5) A $5 billion increase for the Weatherization Assistance Program to help low income families save on their residential energy expenditures by making their homes more energy efficient.
6) A $4 Billion program, The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,  "authorizes funding for federal school meal and child nutrition programs and increases access to healthy food for low-income children."
7) As part of the HCR bill, subsidies will be available to the uninsured and families with income between the 133 percent and 400 percent of poverty level($14,404 for individuals and $29,326 for a family of four).
8) Estabilished Open Doors to end the 640,000 men, women and children who are homeless in America by 2020.
9) Increased the amount of federal Pell Grant awards so that funds are available to those with less access to have opportunity.
10) Provided $510 Million for the rehabilitation of Native American housing.
11) Expanded eligibility for Medicaid to all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($14,400 per year for an individual).
12) Providing assistance to low-income workers through the Earned Income Tax Credit giving millions of working families the break they need.
13) Education being the way out of Poverty, kicked off the "Race to the Top", a $4.3 billion program, that rewards via grants to States that meet a few key benchmarks for reform, and states that outperform the rest.

On Health Care Reform:

1)  Coverage can’t be denied to children with pre-existing conditions.
2)  Adults up to age 26 can stay on their parents’ health plans.
3)  Free preventive care.
4)  Rescinding coverage is now illegal.
5)  Eliminating lifetime limits on insurance coverage.
6)  Restricting annual limits on insurance coverage.
7)  More options to appeal coverage decisions.
8)  $5 billion in immediate federal support to affordable Coverage for the Uninsured with Pre-existing Conditions.
9)  $10 billion investment in Community Health Centers.
10) Create immediate access to re-insurance for employer health plans providing coverage for early retirees.
11) Made an $80 billion dealwith the pharmaceutical industry to contribute to cut prescription drug costs for the nation’s seniors reduce the size of the "donut hole" in the Medicare (Part D) Drug Benefit.
12) Provides a $250 rebate to 750,000 Medicare Beneficiaries who reach the Part D coverage gap in 2010. As of March 22, 2011, 3.8 million beneficiaries had received a $250 check to close the coverage gap, according to an HHS report.
13) Businesses with fewer than 50 employees will get tax credits covering up to 35% of employee premiums effective 2011 and a 50% tax credit effective 2013.
14) Creates a state option to provide Medicaid coverage to childless adults with incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level. By 2014, States are required to provide this coverage.
15) Provides a 10% Medicare bonus payment for primary care services and also a 10% Medicare bonus payment to general surgeons practicing in health professional shortage areas.
16) Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) requires that insurance companies spend at least 80 to 85 percent of the proportion of the premium dollars on clinical services. As an example, WellPoint's Anthem Blue Cross unit in California has reduced its proposed rate increase.

On Jobs and the Economy:

1)  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has worked. The Economy Has Been Growing - take a look at the graph of GDP growth between 2007 thru 2010.
2)  The $787 billion economic stimulus package has created or saved nearly 2 million jobs slowing the bleeding
3)  Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 that extended Unemployment benefits up to 20 weeks and more.
4)  Provided $14.7 billion in small business loans increasing minority access to capital.
5) The $26 billion aid to states package preventing large-scale layoffs of teachers and public employees.
6) As of March 31, 2011, created 1.8 million Private sector jobs since Jan 2010.
7) US auto industry rescue plan saved at least 1 million jobs
8) Helpedmake the Auto Industry start making huge profits again with Ford sales up 19% over last year. GM up 11%. Chrysler up a whopping 31%.
9) Jobs for Main Street Act (2010)injected $27.5 Billion for Highways, $8.4 Billion for Transit into the country’s transportation system to create jobs and spur economic activity.
10) A $33 Billion Jobs Packagethat will allow Small businesses to get $5,000 tax credit for new hires.
11) A $26 billion State Aid Package Jobs Bill saving 300,000 teachers and public workers jobs from unemployment.
12) As part of the 2010 tax extension, Unemployment Insurance was extended to 7 million Americans who would have been without income.

On Banking and Financial Reform

1)  Signed a sweeping bank-reform bill (the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act)into law
2)  Managed the $700 Billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that Banks have repaid more than 100% of TARP funds ($251 of the $245 banks owed) as of March 2011 exceeding the original investment by $6 billion.
3) Cuts Salaries of 65 Bailout Executives
4) Closed offshore tax safe havens, tax credit loopholes on companies that use the tax laws to ship American Jobs oversees. HR 4213.
5) Signed into law the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act to fight fraud in the use of TARP and recovery funds, and to increase accountability for corporate and mortgage frauds.
6) Signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act

On Education

1) Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 that increased the amount of federal Pell Grant awards and enabled the stripping of banks privileges as intermediaries for student loan servicing saving the US government about $68 billion dollars over 11 years.
2) Created the Race to the Top Fund, a $4.35 billion program to reward States that submit the best proposals for change.
3) As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, funded over$100 Billion for reforms to strengthen Elementary and Secondary education, early learning programs, college affordability and improve access to higher education, and to close the achievement gap.

On Energy

1) Implemented renewable fuels mandate of 36 billion gallons by 2022, four times what we currently consume.
2) Automakers will be required to meet a fleet-wide average of New Gas Mileage Standards at 35.5 MPH by 2016.
3) A $60 billion investment in renewable and clean energy.
4) developed a Biofuels Roadmap to determine the next steps in growing an advanced biofuels economy to meet the goal to use at least 36 billion gallons of bio-based transportation fuels by 2022 helping create more green energy jobs.
5) established EPA regulations which require large U.S. ships to cut soot emissions by 85 percent.
6) pledged via the Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future that in a decade from now to cut our oil dependency by one-third, and put America's energy future by producing more oil at home and reducing our dependence on oil by leveraging cleaner, alternative fuels and greater efficiency.

On Housing

1) $275 billion dollar housing plan - $75 billion dollars to prevent at-risk mortgage debtors already fallen victim to foreclosures and $200 billion to bring about confidence to offer affordable mortgages and to stability the housing market.
2) Established "Opening Doors" to end the homelessness of 640,000 men, women, and children in the United States in 10 years.
3) Provided $510 Million for the rehabilitation of Native American housing.
4) Provided $2 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization Program to rehab, resell, or demolish in order to stabilize neighborhoods.
5) Provided $5 billion for Weatherization Assistance Program for low income families to weatherize 1 million homes per year for the next decade.
6) Provided grants to encourage states and localities to take the first steps in implementing new building codes that prioritize energy efficiency.

On Medicaid/Medicare/Social Security

1) giving $250 economic stimulus check to 55 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients in 2009.
2) Cutting prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients by 50% and began eliminating the plan’s gap (“donut hole”) in coverage.
3) Passing as part of H.R.3962 (Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010) a $6.4 billion measurereversing a 21 percent cut in physician payments that would have started a flood of rejections by some doctors of seniors covered by Medicare.
4) Expanded eligibility for Medicaid to all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($14,400 per year for an individual).
5) Committed to ensuring that Social Security Budget Will Not Be Cut nor would change the retirement age.

On Military Veterans and Families

1) A $112.8 billion VA budget, an increase of 15.5 percent over 2009, the largest percentage increase for VA requested by a president in more than 30 years.
2) Implemented a strategic planto increase the hiring of Veterans and Military spouses throughout the Federal civil service.
3) Provided for the expenses of families of to be at Dover AFB when fallen soldiers arrive.
4) Passed the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2009 increasing the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans.
5) Declared the end of the war in Iraqi bringing back nearly 100,000 U.S. troops home to their families.
6) Donated 250K of Nobel prize money to Fisher House, a group that helps provide housing for families of patients receiving medical care at military and Veterans Affairs medical centers
7) Ended media blackout on war casualties; giving access to the return home of a dead US soldier for the first time since an 18-year ban on coverage was lifted.
8) Create a 'Green Vet Initiative' to promote environmental jobs for veterans
9) Signed into law the 2009 Military Spouses Residency Relief Act, that will allow military spouses to claim residency in the same state as their sponsor and retain that residency as long as the service member is in the military, in the process avoiding the states where they currently reside from taxing their earned income.
10) Signed the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010

On LBGTQ issues

1) Extended  benefitsto same-sex partners of federal employees
2) Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
3) Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights.
4) Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation's largest employer)
5) Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act and while more funding is needed per the 2012 proposed budget, an increase of $80 million to domestic and global HIV/AIDS programs committed
6) Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover Gay employees taking unpaid leave to care for their children of same-sex partners
7) Lifted the HIV Entry Ban.
8) Implemented HUD Policies that Would Ban Discrimination Based On Gender Identity
9) Appointed the first ever transgender DNC member
10) Named open transgender appointees (the first President ever to do so)
11) Eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept LGBT relationships from being counted
12) Extended domestic violence protections to LGBT victims
13) Repealedthe Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) Discriminatory law.
14) Declared DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) unconstitutional and stopped Defending In Court
15) Endorsed a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of gays and lesbians around the world in an efforts to make it a worldwide policy.

Tax deal extending Bush's tax cut for two years which often gets criticized will do the following:

Damn it, the TAX DEAL is not PERMANENT

1) Keep $3,000 in tax savingsannually
2) Unemployment Benefit for 7,000,000 Americans worth $56 Billion.
3) $2,500 in tax savings to help pay for college tuition and other expenses
4) A $2,000 payroll tax savings to someone making $100,000 or a $1,000 payroll tax savings at a 2% employee-side payroll tax cut for over 155 million workers
5) Child tax credit of $1,000 per child with the $3,000 maximum credit threshold.
6) Earned Income Tax Credit that will give on an average $600 in additional assistance to families with 3 or more children
7) A 65 percent tax credit to help cover the cost of COBRA for those who lost their jobs in the recession  
8) forecast to creating approximately 1.6 million jobs  increasing the GDP for 2011
9) extended the credit for adoption-related expenses that reduces families tax bill up to $13,170 in 2011 through 2012 with a maximum of $12,170 in credit.

Other Notables

1) signed the Health Package For 9/11 Responders bill that puts $4.3 billion into a fund to assist folks that are suffering from problems caused by breathed-in dust and debris during the 9/11 clean up.
2) signed into law a sweeping Food Safety Act bill that contains 18 major changes to food safety laws.
3) made an excellent choice selecting a new Chief of Staff, William Daley, who Eric London has made a super case for why it was a smart choice.
4) made a $78 billion spending cut to the U.S. military and defense department budget, including reducing the size of the Army and Marine Corps.
5) signed in to law the START Treaty with Russia, a sweeping new arms reduction pact that will reduce the stockpile nuclear weapons in both countries adding new verification plan.
6) The passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act enabling the rights of workers to sue employers over wage discrimination claims.
7) The expansion of SCHIP health-care program for children worth $33 Billion.
8) The declaration of two million more acres of wilderness in one of the most omnibus Public Lands bill.
9) Government Transparency as noted by Common Cause, Democracy 21, League of Women Voters and U.S. PIRG-- "The cumulative effect of the Administration's actions has been to adopt the strongest and most comprehensive lobbying, ethics and transparency rules and policies ever established by an Administration to govern its own activities". You can read full report in all of the seven areas the report is graded.
10) signed the Tribal Law and Order Act -- an important step to help the Federal Government better address the unique public safety challenges that confront tribal communities.

Originally posted here.

Originally posted to ThisIsMyTime on Fri Sep 02, 2011

Also republished by The Yes We Can Pragmatists and Progressive Messaging.

 

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,2012 Elections,White House,Healthcare,Jobs Stimulus,Education,Current Events,Politics

Friday Funnies: WTF Edition

   This has been a better week for me than most of the past ones have been thus far this summer. Naturally, things would begin looking up after the season has pretty much passed me by. I love the summer, but, I am more than happy that this one is almost over as it has been no vacation and not at all productive in any manner. That goes not only for myself, but many other Americans who are either losing ground in this economy or are already just getting by. If you live in the state of Florida, then you know what scraping the bottom of the barrel really is, and your criminal Governor Rick Scott and the his band of merry men up in the state capitol are doing nothing to help you because you do not make enough money to pay them off. Our congresscritters up in D.C. are doing nothing other than sucking up to Wall Street and the big corporate criminals to amass more cash for their re-election in 2012.  That hood in the White House is doing the same exact thing, while the rest of us are still hoping for some change that we can believe in. Unfortunately, that change is not going to happen this election cycle be cause you and I are both down to choosing between the lesser of 2 evils in the 2012 run for the White House.

Jay Leno: "How sad is it for the uncle? He got thrown in jail and the only relative he could call for bail money is $14 trillion in debt."

"Dick Cheney's new memoir contains some startling surprises. For example, he is still alive.

 

 

Technorati Tags: Politics,Political Humor,Jokes,Jay Leno,Current Events

Pelosi NAILS the Class War: Low wages are designed to keep you in debt to the banksters

By  MinistryOfTruth   Tue Aug 30, 2011  

I apologize for using a video from Glenn Beck's website "The Blaze", but this short video featuring Nancy Pelosi is packed with so much truth that its' no wonder Beck and his army of flying monkeys took offense to it.

Transcript:

Pelosi:    "Imagine. Imagine that they are protecting tax cuts for the top 2%, but it's really more, higher than that, lower than that, I mean, a higher percentage of people excluded from who they are looking out for, and it's a stunning thing, because it's a few people amassing money that doesn't really make a difference in their quality of life. I decided what it was about them is this, this is my theory, what more do they want? They have a number of homes, the bigger the yacht, da da da da da, the taller the mast, the whole thing, they have museum quality art, and I decided, if in fact they are advocating for this, which I'm not sure they are, I think Republicans just like to have that position. They want immortality. They want so much money that their names are all, for prestige they could never get any other way, they could buy with endless money. Because what else could you possibly want? That you would say 'I want this at the expense of the middle class, of our democracy, of fairness, of clean air, clean water, food safety, public education and the rest of it, clean air, clean water, food safety, reform on Wall Street, protection for citizens, you name it, forget about it. They are de-funding every initiative in that regard, you wonder, do their children breathe air, do they drink water, why do they not care? But they don't. But they don't.

~snip~

     When we won the election in 06', and we came in, the first day, in the first 100 hours we raised the minimum wage. It was the first time the minimum wage was raised in eleven years. I bring that up for this reason, it wasn't kept down because people just, you know, small businesses said 'I can't afford", it was kept down for a purpose, it was kept down for the purpose that people would not be able to live on that, they'd have to borrow, against home equity loans, against their mortgages, there this and that, they'd have to live on credit cards, and what are they doing when they do that, their paying fees to the banks, their paying fees to them, so it's a contrived dependence on private credit for millions, tens of millions of working people in our country, and who they are is who they bring to that table, protect the tax breaks for the wealthiest people in our country, do not allow wages to rise with productivity, keep people dependent on paying fees to banks for the use of their own money, for the use of their own money. So this is as progressive a fight as we have ever been in."

    Corporate profits are at record highs, and so is poverty. There is a reason for that. Your poverty is their profit. Keeping you poor means keeping you dependent on the loan sharks on Wall Street. As you get poorer, they get richer. It isn't a coincidence. It is on purpose.

    Republicans like to cry that the government is enslaving us, but the reality is that Wall Street is enslaving us, the rich are enslaving us and starving us so they can charge us a fee to lend us money so that we may have our daily bread, which will keep you mired in near poverty since you will never be able to pay that debt back, just ask anybody with a student loan who can't find a job in this shit plutonomy. Ask anyone who went bankrupt paying their medical bills in this crooked for profit health care rationing private death panel system. Ask anyone who doesn't earn enough to keep up with all these bills at once and has to max out their credit card each month to survive.

   Of course, merely mentioning that the rich are starving us and using our starvation as a shock doctrine means to exploit working class people is enough to send right wing propagandists and their foolish followers a sad, and, by judging from the comments posted to Beck's "The Blaze" video, we can all see just why Republicans hate Nancy Pelosi.

This bitch needs to be run out of office. What a left wing/socialist/Communist rat bastard.

Where does she get off with this shit? What kind of foul, immoral, brain dead left wing twits would ever vote for such a foul, repugnant, abhorant piece of shit.

To hell with her.
GutpileCharlie 1 hour ago

Foul c---, SHE represents the rich how much does SHE give? Did she pay her taxes or like Tom Daschle, Charles Rangel, Timothy F. Geithner and Obama’s handler General Electric FAILED TO PAY ANY TAXES! Screw these fraudulent collectivist elite. Throw them all out!
espada9 1 hour ago

Off with her bat-shit-crazy head !!!
dweber66 3 hours ago

Skeletor's mother right here. Kill her.
tangledweb79 3 hours ago

    Way to keep it classy, teabagging Republicans. When someone warns you the GOP is keeping you poor so they can make themselves rich and let the banksters push you into poverty so they can exploit you, calling that person a "b----", a "c---", and threatening to cut her head off and kill her sure makes you look like you have a sane and rational point of view.

   A few months ago I read an article by Matt Stoller titled "A debtcropper society". In that article, Stoller states . . .

Today, we are in the midst of creating a second sharecropper society. I first heard the term “slaves to the bank” from a constituent fighting a fraudulent foreclosure. The details aren’t so important — this couple had been illegally placed in a predatory loan — but at one point, the wife explained that she and her husband were so scared they would have “given their first born to the bank to keep their home”. That was fear speaking, total unadulterated panic. And as we watch debt-holders use the ornaments of fear, such a loan sharking company that set up fake courts to convince debtors they were losing cases, we should recognize that what the creditor class wants is what they’ve always wanted: total dominance of our culture.

Today, the debts do not involve liens against crops. People in modern America carry student loans, credit card debt, and mortgages. All of these are hard to pay back, often bringing with them impenetrable contracts and illegal fees. Credit card debt is difficult to discharge in bankruptcy and a default on a home loan can leave you homeless. A student loan debt is literally a claim against a life — you cannot discharge it in bankruptcy, and if you die, your parents are obligated to pay it. If the banks have their way, mortgages and deficiency judgments will follow you around forever, as they do in Spain.

Young people and what only cynics might call ‘homeowners’ have no choice but to jump on the treadmill of debt, as debtcroppers. The goal is not to have them pay off their debts, but to owe forever. Whatever a debtcropper owes, a wealthy creditor owns. And as a bonus, the heavier the debt burden of American citizenry, the less able we are able to organize and claim our democratic rights as citizens.

Debtcroppers don’t start companies and innovate, they don’t take chances, and they don’t claim their political rights.

Think about this when you hear the calls from ex-Morgan Stanley banker and current World Bank President Robert Zoellick and his nebulous mutterings pining for the gold standard. Or when you hear Warren Buffett partner Charlie Munger talk about how the bailouts of the wealthy were patriotic, but we mustn’t bail out homeowners for fear of ‘moral hazard’. Or when you hear Pete Peterson Foundation President and former Comptroller General David Walker yearn nostalgically for debtor’s prisons.

   This point resonates with Nancy's words above.

"The goal is not to have them pay off their debts, but to owe forever. Whatever a debtcropper owes, a wealthy creditor owns. And as a bonus, the heavier the debt burden of American citizenry, the less able we are able to organize and claim our democratic rights as citizens."

   And this is why these wingnuts hate Pelosi so much. Because she speaks the truth, and they can't handle the truth.

   As the GOP sells us further into corporate serfdom the people who are the most blind to it because they blame "Socialism" and "The Government" for all their problems do not understand that things are getting worse because of unfettered lawless capitalism. Giving them facts that prove that they are wrong just makes them madder, it just makes them hate you more.

   But calling Pelosi a b** doesn't make her wrong. The banks are ROBBING YOU, and voting Republican is like leaving cookies and milk out for the guy who is going to rob your house while you are away from home.

   The reality is that our economy is a rigged game where you can't win unless you are in on the crime. When Republicans cry "It's class warfare" my answer is "you are damn right, and you are rooting for the bad guys"

   The banksters and the super rich are laying siege on the working class. They are trying to starve us out so that they can push us deeper into poverty and deeper in debt to them, and anyone who tells the truth about that is a "Socialist." Well, then fuck it, I guess I am a socialist. I'd rather fight for the working class then lick the fingers of the rich.

 

The rent is due tomorrow and I'm screwed. If you'd like to support my writing and help me out, please make a contribution via Paypal. . .

You can purchase your copy of "Americana: By Jesse LaGreca" by making a contribution of your choice to me with Paypal

Peace and love to all

You can follow me on Twitter @JesseLaGreca

Originally posted to MinistryOfTruth on Tue Aug 30, 2011

Also republished by Income Inequality Kos and Class Warfare Newsletter: The Plutocracy VS the Working Class.

 

Technorati Tags: Class War,Employment,Jobs,Nancy Pelosi,Republicans,Politics,Teabaggers,Tax Cuts,Current Events,Wages,Minimum Wage,Middle Class,The Poor,Banking

Emails from Right-Wingers?

   I am sure that I am not the only one in this country who gets an almost daily allotment of emails from many of my GOP friends telling me how much Obama has increased the deficit and that his stimulus plan did not do any good for the country’s job creation. Oh yes, let us not forget the one email telling us how much Obama has been spending.

   The cure for these kinds of emails, other than listing them as spam?  Hit these misinformed lunatics with the facts, even though it seems that right-wingers are allergic to the truth.

  There are 3 charts with some facts that you can reply to your in-laws and friends with. See how ell they handle the  “ reality based “  information.

   Keep in mind that when you send these to your ignorant friends that they are probably addicted Fox News viewers who cannot stand the fact that a black man is your President.

Spending

Government spending increased dramatically under Bush.  It has not increased much under Obama.  Note that this chart does not reflect any spending cuts resulting from deficit-cutting deals.

Deficits

Notes, this chart includes Clinton's last budget year for comparison.  

The numbers in these two charts come from Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2012.  They are just the amounts that the government spent and borrowed, period,  Anyone can go look then up.  People who claim that Obama "tripled the deficit" are either misled or are trying to mislead.

The Stimulus and Jobs

In this chart, the RED lines on the left side -- the ones that keep doing DOWN -- show what happened to jobs under the policies of Bush and the Republicans. We were losing lots and lots of jobs every month, and it was getting worse and worse.  The BLUE lines -- the ones that just go UP -- show what happened to jobs when the stimulus was in effect. We stopped losing jobs and started gaining jobs, and it was getting better and better.  The leveling off on the right side of the chart  shows what happened as the stimulus started to wind down: job creation leveled off at too low a level.

It looks a lot like the stimulus reversed what was going on before the stimulus.

Conclusion: THE STIMULUS WORKED BUT WAS NOT ENOUGH!

    Thanks go to davej for these charts.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,George Bush,Stimilus,Deficits,Spending,Right-Wingers,Republicans,Employment,Jobs Stimulus,Current Events,Politics

 

Gov. Perry’s Texas Sized Lies

  Since this GOP conservative Christian ( no such thing ) has entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination, we have been battered with tales of how great the state of Texas has been doing with its job growth and such other bullshit. It never ceases to amaze me with just how much that those conservative Christians will lie to those who they wish to steal money from for a political campaign.

  Perry ( Gov. for sale ) is no exception, and yet, many of the less fortunate citizens will stop and seriously consider supporting this creep because he claims, falsely, to be Christian. Perry, Bachmann, Romney and the rest are about as Christian as Satan is.

   

Rick Perry's Tall Tales of Texas

by Michael Winship

Although born and raised and raised in a small town in the Finger Lakes region of New York, I'm the hybrid child of an upstate NY father and a mother from Texas -- they met at Fort Hood (then Camp Hood) during World War II. And you thought different species couldn't mate.

As a result, we were the only kids on the block who said, "Y'all," or had relatives named Bubba, Vade, Hoyt and Cleburne. My mother's father was known in our family as Granddaddy Lloyd. CARE packages of unshelled pecans and Frito-Lay products (then largely unknown above the Mason-Dixon Line) would arrive at Christmastime. And among the books in our house was a buff-covered, dog-eared paperback titled Tall Tales of Texas.

I flipped through it over and over. Inside were wild and woolly stories of the outlaw Sam Bass, frontiersman and Texas Ranger Bigfoot Wallace, Davy Crockett at the Alamo. Even taller were tales of Pecos Bill, with his lasso made from a live rattlesnake, the toughest cowboy in the world; and his wife Slue-Foot Sue, riding down the Rio Grande on the back of a giant catfish.

So, courtesy of some Lone Star DNA and basic reading comprehension skills, I think I know a Texas tall tale when I hear one, and presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry's tales of "the Texas miracle" are as tall as they come.

Between December 2000 and December 2010, the state did have a net gain of 907,000 jobs, more than half the 1.6 million new jobs nationwide during that same period. But a lot of the state's success in job creation looks more like dumb luck than evidence of ole Pecos Perry's political prowess or expertise in governance. "It's not that the emperor has no clothes," Dan Hamermesh, an economics professor at the University of Texas, told the website AOL Jobs. "But he's got little more than a fig leaf over his crotch. It is a true fact, but he had nothing to do with it."

Perry points to deregulation and low taxes, including an incentive program called the Texas Enterprise Fund, said to have created 58,000 jobs, but there were many factors largely beyond his control, including increased trade between the United States and Mexico and the high price of gasoline that pumped revenue into the state, accompanied by new technologies for oil and gas extraction. In the August 15 New York Times, Clifford Krauss reported, "The oil and gas industry now delivers roughly $325 billion a year to the state, directly and indirectly. It brings in $13 billion in state tax receipts, or roughly 40 percent of the total, financing up to 20 percent of the state budget."

What's more, a lot of the increase has been funded -- say it ain't so, Pecos! -- by federal largesse, including President Obama's economic stimulus. In the last ten years, federal spending in the state has more than doubled to over $200 billion a year (thanks in large part to NASA and the many military installations in the state, including the aforementioned Fort Hood, one of the world's largest military bases and the biggest single employer in Texas).

Of all the US government jobs added in this country between 2007 and 2010, 47 percent of them were in Texas. According to Jared Bernstein, former economic adviser to Joe Biden, "Texas employment wasn't down much at all in these years, as the state lost only 53,000 jobs. But looming behind that number are large losses in the private sector (down 178,000) and large gains (up 125,000) in government jobs." Which shows, Bernstein goes on, that Texas has followed "a traditional Keynesian game plan: as the private sector contracts, turn to the public sector to temporarily make up part of the difference."

In 2009, Governor Perry made a show of rejecting $556 million in federal funds for unemployment, saying there were too many strings attached. In fact, that money was equal to only two percent of the more than $20 billion in stimulus money Texas did accept, including cash used to cover 97 percent of the state budget's shortfall for 2010, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

This, in spite of GOP attacks on the public sector, Perry's claim that the stimulus was failed and misguided and the pledge in the announcement of his presidential candidacy that he would "work every day to make Washington, DC, as inconsequential in your lives as I can." As the August 20 Washington Post noted, "The significant role of government in Texas' relative prosperity stands in stark contrast to the 'go-it-alone' image cultivated by Perry, who credits a lack of government interference for fostering a business-friendly environment in Texas."

For those like Governor Perry who brag about being no-nonsense, freedom-loving cowpokes, it's a delusion that goes all the way back to the early settlement of the American West. As Patricia Nelson Limerick writes in her seminal history The Legacy of Conquest, "At any period in Western history, the rhetoric of Western independence was best taken with many grains of salt." Whether it was fighting Indians or gaining access to public grazing lands, the federal government has always been integral. "Nothing so undermines the Western claim to a tradition of independence," she writes, "as this matter of federal support to Western development...

"And yet humans have a well-established capacity to meet facts of life with disbelief. In a region where human interdependence has been self-evident, Westerners have woven a net of denial." Sounds familiar.

Accompanying Governor Perry's denial is cronyism and patronage, both good ole boy-style and corporate (of the $102 million in campaign contributions raised for his gubernatorial races, Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote, half came "from just 204 sources," and the Los Angeles Times reports, "Nearly half of those mega-donors received hefty business contracts, tax breaks or appointments under Perry.")

So, too, with greed comes hubris and shortsightedness. The Times' Krauss reported, "Critics, among them Democrats... have long complained that the state's economic health came at a steep price: a long-term hollowing out of its prospects because of deep cuts to education spending, low rates of investment in research and development, and a disparity in the job market that confines many blacks and Hispanics to minimum-wage jobs without health insurance."

A report from the policy research and advocacy group Demos and the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities notes "27 percent of Texas workers lack health insurance compared to 17 percent nationally. The ranks of the uninsured have grown steadily as access to employer-sponsored health insurance has declined... Fewer than half (48 percent) of the state's workers have access to a retirement plan at work, a figure that has plummeted since reaching a high of 61 percent in 2000."

Over the past twenty years, college costs in Texas have quadrupled, with the steepest jump occurring since tuition was deregulated by the state in 2003. Former first lady Barbara Bush observed in a February op-ed that the state ranks 49th in verbal SAT scores, 47th in literacy and 46th in average math SAT scores: "We rank 36th in the nation in high school graduation rates. An estimated 3.8 million Texans do not have a high school diploma... the United Way estimates that the price tag for dropouts to Texas taxpayers in $9.6 billion every year.” But the state's latest budget cut $4 billion from public schools.

A recent, four part series on Perry's Texas from a team at the Houston Chronicle reports, "After a decade of Perry-style frugality the Texas welcome mat is growing increasingly threadbare as the state struggles to accommodate a booming, young populace hoping to travel its roads, get educated in its schools, drink its water and access its health care system. During Perry's tenure the state has postponed investment or turned to debt to finance crucial infrastructure needs, experts say."

The average urban Texan loses a week a year to traffic delays on the state's "overburdened" highway system. While Perry boasts of luring thousands of doctors to the state, "lawmakers this year cut $805 million from doctors serving Medicaid patients" and "postponed $4 billion in Medicaid costs for payment in the next payment cycle." Texas is 48th out of 50 states in the number of physicians per 100,000 residents.

Perry doubts climate change is real, yet, "As Texas endures its most severe one-year drought in its history, state leaders have identified $53 billion in state investments needed to expand water capacity by 2060 but have not resolved how to pay for it. Unless Texas increases its water resources, experts say 83 percent of Texans will not have an adequate supply of water in times of drought." Perry issued a proclamation urging Texans to pray for rain.

With more bad news ahead, stagnant wages and an explosion in population and the labor force that now has unemployment advancing much faster that Perry's touted job growth, "the Texas miracle" is heading into a ditch.

Which brings to mind another tall tale, the old joke about the Texan who says to an Eastern visitor, "Yessir, I can drive across my ranch all day and all night and still not get to the other end." To which the visitor replies, "I know what you mean. I have a car like that, too."

Michael Winship, senior writing fellow at Demos and president of the Writers Guild of America, East, is former senior writer of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.

Technorati Tags: Rick Perry,Texas,Texas Miracle,Jobs,Stimulus,Debt,Federal Government,Current Events,DeficitsRepublicans,Conservative Christians

REALITY: GOP to shutdown Gov during a natural disaster so they can call this "Obama's Katrina"

by MinistryOfTruth  Fri Aug 26, 2011    Original

    My title says it all. I believe the entire purpose of Eric Cantor's demand that America must behave like a 3rd world nation and do NOTHING to help it's citizens during a natural disaster unless we enact budget cuts that will make us more like a 3rd world nation is twofold, it helps him use terrorist hostage taking tactics to achieve his political goals, and when people become outraged after the disaster Republicans will get to blame everything on Obama and say this is "his Katrina".

Mark my words, if Hurricane Irene is bad, Republicans will run with the talking point that this is Obama's Katrina. You can bank on it.

Because denying Americans aid during a natural disaster amounts to a government shut down. If sabotaging America in every way they can during Obama's Presidency is wrong, Republicans don't want to be right.

Republicans are banking on people suffering, and they intend to blame Obama and the Government as the cause of that suffering. It's all part of the GOP plan to make sure Obama and America FAILS so that they can "take their country back." Republicans have every reason to make people suffer more, the more the better, since they are going to blame the black Democratic President anyway. Republican policies make people suffer so the rich can feast anyway. When they are in power, Republicans ignore that suffering so they can keep feeding corporate welfare to the crooks who bribe them, when they are out of power they blame all of the suffering they created while in power on their successors. This is the mindfuck of running on voter outrage, as the GOP did successfully in 2010, it gives Republicans an incentive to rob you and make your life worse and stop a recovery from taking place while Obama is President so they can blame it all on him.

Eric Cantor, speaking on behalf of the millionaires he represents, has stated that he does not give a fuck about America or the people who live in his district. Cantor says America can't afford disaster relief for America unless we cut something else out of the budget. What he is really saying, on behalf of millionaires like him, is that the millionaires and super rich don't give a shit about America or Americans and they refuse to pay ONE CENT more to keep Americans from drowning in the streets.

With Republicans like this, who needs Hurricanes? To Republicans who are hell bent on fucking up America as much as possible so they can blame Obama, Hurricane Irene is like having Christmas early. The Hurricane will fuck things up, Republicans will make sure the Government is a useless as possible, and then they will blame Obama, and you can guarantee that the talking point for next week will be "Is this Obama's Katrina?"

The GOP vision of America is a fucked up 3rd world shithole with tax shelters for the rich. The rich can afford nice mansions away from Hurricanes. To quote President Dick Cheney, the rest of you peasants can, "Go fuck yourself."

I hope I am wrong on this. I hope this Hurricane isn't bad and that no one gets hurt and there is no major damage. I consider it massively unpatriotic to tell Americans NO ONE IS COMING TO HELP YOU during a national disaster. God forbid we raise taxes on millionaires by one cent so that millions of Americans can enjoy a higher standard of living, or even survive a national disaster.

I'm sure the free markets will save us all from Hurricanes.

By the way, thanks to everyone for letting me vent yesterday. I needed it. My sorrow has been replaced by outrage and anger, anger that the entire Republican party is hell bent on making Americans suffer so they can continue robbing the poor to give to the rich.

A hurricane is coming. The millionaires are safe on high ground and they have pulled up the ladder behind them. On behalf of the millions of Americans who live on the east coast, including New York City which I love, let me say to Eric Cantor and the rest of the Republican party what Clark Griswold once said

Only a criminal makes you choose between your money or your life. Once again, Republicans have proven that they don't give a shit about your life, they only care about your money and how much of it they can steal. And if they can blame it on Obama, well, even better.

Republicans are to patriotism what cannibals are to a culinary school.

If you'd like to support my writing and help me out, please make a contribution via Paypal. . .

You can purchase your copy of "Americana: By Jesse LaGreca" by making a contribution of your choice to me with Paypal

Peace and love to all, and more for those who need it the most.

Technorati Tags: Eric Cantor,Republicans,American Taliban,FEMA,Barack Obama,Current Events,Politics,Hurricane Irene,GOP

Friday Funnies: Earthquake Edition

    Unfortunately,  the earthquake in Washington did not shake our elected idiots into action on jobs.

  Earthquake Tweets:

@JenKirkman Michele Bachmann is readying her speech to ease the fears of everyone regarding today's earthquake in Washington State.
@TheTweetOfGod There was just a 5.8 earthquake in Washington. Obama wanted it to be 3.4, but the Republicans wanted 5.8, so he compromised.
@ApocalypseHow Holy Crap - something moved in Washington DC?!?!?

@ModeledBehavior: "More and more scientists are questioning whether that was a real quake. It is a theory that's out there."

David Letterman: The earthquake was so strong that the Tea Party shifted to the center."

"President Obama is enjoying the fun and sun in Martha’s Vineyard. It’s really sad when your SPF factor is higher than your approval rating."
"On the bright side, I didn’t have to shake my morning martini."

"Today Mitt Romney announced he’s building a $12-million beach house in California. There’s a man who can read the mood of the country."

David Letterman's "Top Ten Things Overheard During The East Coast Earthquake"
10. "That was the scariest two seconds of my life!"
9. "It's lootin' time"
8. "Hey, you forgot your champagne"
7. "5.9 earthquake, it would have been a 6.2 if it had a better lead-in"
6. "These new Taco Bell chalupas are rockin' my world"
5. "My hiccups are gone"
4. "Wheeeeee"
3. "Call FEMEMA, the Federal Extremely Minor Emergency Management Agency"
2. "Darn, right in the middle of laser eye surgery"
1. "Kirstie, stop with the jumping jacks!"

 

Technorati Tags: Political Humor,Politics,David Letterman,Michele Bachmann,Current Events,Barack Obama,Washington,DC,Jokes

Ben Stein utterly CLOBBERS Bill O'Reilly on the idea that taxing the rich hurts the economy

Original Article  by  MinistryOfTruth on Tue Aug 23, 2011

Since when the hell did Ben Stein come out as a bleeding heart liberal who thinks the Billionaires can easily afford higher taxes?

Usually Ben Stein is on the side of the super rich when it comes to the last, oh, I don't know, 40 something years, but this time he decided to understand facts and recent history. Stein roundly delivered a thorough whooping to Bill O'Reilly's utter nonsense that if we make the rich pay tax rates that were fine under Reagan all hell will break loose today. Ben Stein delivers a scalding rebuke that would make a hard core liberal jump for joy, because it is full of facts and stuff.

Watch:

Remember, raising taxes on the rich is class warfare, but raising taxes on the poor is making sure that everyone pays their fair share, and corporations are people too my friend but you can't raise their taxes either. With ideologically consistency like this, who needs pathological liars?

Transcript and more:

Hat tip to John Amato at CrooksandLiars.com for the transcript and apt commentary.

    Bill O'Reilly started his program off with his Talking Points Memo attacking Obama's vacation. See, Liberals were upset that George Bush took over 1000 vacation days were just as wrong headed as conservatives who say that Obama's 26 days off are more than Bush's downtime. He's the king of keeping it real.

     Bill did his usual propaganda, blaming all our deficit problems on Obama and says he's glad the President is on vacation. His real point of TPM (and mission in life) is to cut our social safety nets and to spread his anti-tax increase on the rich dogma. He's outraged at the idea we should raise taxes on the right-wing job producers because that's a job killer in every economic time and Warren Buffett is out of his mind in Margaritaville for saying we need to raise taxes on the wealthy. (He really said Margaritaville) Anyway, Fox News stock "market gurus" Ben Stein (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and Wayne Rogers (M.A.S.H) joined him to discuss Bill's brilliance. However, Stein didn't play the game and he's usually on board with the whole taxing thing.

   O'Reilly: Alright Mr. Stein, you know, you know that everything I said in the memo was true, correct?

    Stein: Absolutely not, I would say that almost every part of it is wrong except for the fact that it's better he's on vacation because he works terribly hard and he deserves a vacation...

   Not only are you dead wrong, BillO, but Obama deserves his vacation because he's been working his ass off cleaning up the mess Republicans made when the economy crashed and the deficit soared under Bush. Whatever Ben Stein is drinking, I'll have one of those.

   As a note, I love how Bill assumes you totally agree with his narrative, and if you don't he takes it as a sin, as if not agreeing entirely that every word Bill speaks is truth makes you a bad guy, because he loves a no spin conversation where it's Obama's fault and taxing millionaires like Bill O'Reilly is crazy talk. Right.
   And what kind of debate is this? Where are the differing opinions, other than Ben, who usually wouldn't come to his senses like this and mention inconvenient truths that screw up Bill O'Reilly's narrative. Seriously, it's an economic debate between a movie star, a corporate CEO, and a tv pundit, which gives you a wide array of opinions between millionaires and millionaires, only one of whom has any record of actually being educated in any way on economics, and even then that record is usually wrong, not withstanding this instance. We might as well discuss how to slaughter cattle with three men who know nothing more on the subject other than how to cook a steak, but I digress.

More from the transcript . . .

   O'Reilly: You get more money the better the economy is

    Stein: Absolutely.

    O'Reilly: If you take (meaning taxes from millionaires) then you're helping the recession. You're feeding the flames of it.

    Stein: That's not true.

    O'Reilly: Sure it is

    Stein: There's no correlation, I'm going to call you Mr. O'Reilly. There's no correlation Mr. O'Reilly, between tax rates on millionaires and people above that level (billionaires) and the growth of the economy... We had the highest growth in capitol and productivity and in the economy in general in the 40's, 50's and 60's when we had much higher taxes then..(Bill: yea, but they were inaudible ) Higher taxes don't correlate with inaudible growth...

    I don't know what happened to Ben Stein this morning, though I surmise that The Ghost of Christmas past visited him a few months too early, but he is dead right, for once. Taxing the rich does not make a recession worse, anyone who understands American history can point to the 50's and show that is not true. Rather, I am coming to the point of view that the only thing that tax cuts for the rich creates is higher income inequality between the rich and the poor, budget deficits due to lost revenue, and excess capital for the rich which they will use to bribe politicians and speculate on Wall Street. Remember when Reagan raised taxes? I don't remember ever meeting a Republican that would admit that Reagan raised taxes, but he did. I am coming to the opinion that the ONLY way to bring jobs back, based on the last decade of evidence, is to raise taxes on the rich.

    And Bill O'Reilly's idea that there are only 237,000 millionaires left in America, and boo hoo for them, well cry me a fucking river for the millionaires, and Bill O's claim that the economy under Obama has been unfair to the super rich and "battered them around", well, I don't want to hear from millionaires about how bad they suffer.

   This weekend I had a conversation with a teabagger who overheard me bad mouthing Fox News. He proceeded to blame Obama for his taxes going up and the deficit and high unemployment while saying Bush did a good job. He hated socialism, "that bitch Pelosi" and the Big Lie of "Global Warming", and it was like listening to Fox News being broadcasted out of a human skull. Honestly, it creeped me the hell out, and it reinforced my opinion that watching Fox News is like long term subliminal messages, a sort of hypnotoad that makes you believe whatever stupid shit the billionaires want you to think, and then, when you blame the poor, the government and every minority including women for all the problems of the world, that is when Republicans Fox told you to elect will rob you blind and blame someone else. Simply put, if I wanted to destroy America's political system by rendering a large portion of it's population delusional with lies and propaganda, I don't think I could do it without an organization like Fox News.

   So cheers to Ben Stein, for standing up to Bill O'Reilly and offering some truth. I am not sure if I will ever get the chance to offer cheers to Ben Stein, but this time, he deserves it.

Technorati Tags: Ben Stein,Bill O'Reilly,Fox News,Tax Cuts,Current Events,Politics