Sen Rockefeller Goes After Murdoch, 27 Fox News Licenses

  Good luck with that Senator Rockefeller because the Republican Party will never allow their propaganda network to be shut off.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the committee that oversees the FCC, has asked for evidence relating to "questionable practices" of Rupert Murdoch's operations in the United States, The Guardian reported.

Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation, has written to Lord Justice Leveson, who leads the British judicial inquiry into media ethics, asking if he has uncovered any evidence relating questionable practices in the US.

The Senate committee has final say on the issuing of broadcast licences, including the 27 licences issued to the Fox TV network that is the jewel in Murdoch's crown.

The Guardian links to Sen. Rockefeller's letter (PDF), which

also asks for details emerging from the Leveson inquiry that indicated whether any News Corp executives based in New York were aware of illegal payments made by News of the World to British police and other public officials. "I would be very concerned if evidence emerged suggesting that News Corporation officials in New York were also aware of these illegal payments and did not act to stop them."

Very concerned, indeed, since Colin Myler, editor of the defunct and disgraced News of the World is now editor of Mort Zuckerman's New York Daily News. "misled Parliament", saying that only one rouge reporter was involved in phone-hacking at NOTW. Myler has been at the New York Post only four months.

Rockefeller's intervention was triggered by the final report of the British parliament's culture, media and sport select committee, which concluded that Murdoch was not fit to run a major international company. It comes two weeks after Mark Lewis, a British lawyer at the forefront of the phone-hacking investigations, opened investigations into four cases of alleged phone hacking that occurred in the US.

Although some of Lewis's US clients have chosen to remain unnamed, a new one emerged today: actress Koo Stark, who was told by the police she was hacked by NOTW. Lewis is working with NY attorney Norman Seigel, former head of the New York ACLU.

Just this morning Kossack joel jp posted a "Deep Doo-Doo" diary about Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asking that the Fox News licenses be revoked:

“Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski asking the FCC to revoke the 27 Fox broadcast licenses News Corp. holds in the United States. Under U.S. law, broadcast frequencies may be used only by people of good “character,” who will serve “the public interest,” and speak with “candor.”  Significant character deficiencies may warrant disqualification from holding a license.”

CREW

Sen. Rockefeller's involvement with the commerce committee will add to the FBI's ongoing investigation of Newscorp in the U.S.

Buh-bye, Fox?    Original Post by cotterperson  Wed May 02, 2012

Technorati Tags: Fox News Channal,Rupert Murdoch,The Media,FOTHOM,Current Events

 

Ronald Reagan: A tax & spend librul, socialist & open borders advocate?

Dave in AZ for Baja Arizona Kossacks  Mon Apr 30, 2012

I knew Ronald Reagan, I voted enthusiastically for him twice. That's probably not the best opening for a diary on the Dkos to get tipped & rec'd, but bear with me. In 1980 I felt the country was going horribly in the wrong direction and I joined the opposition to fight back. I voted a straight Democratic ticket for the first time in my life in 2004 and registered as a Democrat when I moved to Arizona in 2005 for exactly the same reason. I'm fighting harder than ever today to make sure we don't head back in the wrong direction, that we continue full speed ahead in the right direction by reelecting President Obama, kicking John Boehner out of the Speaker's chair, and increasing our majority in the Senate.

As a former Republican it particularly pains me to see how low former "Grand Old Party" has sunk. There has never in the history of our great country been such a group of pompous, lying, self serving bastards as there is now in the Republican Party. I highly recommend the April 27 article in the Washington Post by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, Let's Just say it: The Republicans ARE the problem.

Mann and Ornstein write:

We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.

Emphasis is mine. And brother, did they get it right. Back when The Gipper was President and the Democrats held large majorities in Congress, they played the political game and called each other liars & thieves by day. But in the evening Reagan and Speaker Tip O'Neil would share a glass of whiskey and plot how to get things done for the good of the country. Today, Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority Leader O'Connell don't give a rat's ass about the good of the country, they care only about power, their political power. But at the heart of the problem is a dweeb named Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform. As Mann and Ornstein note, 238 of the 242 House Republicans and 41 of the 47 GOP senators have signed Norquist's "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", which binds its signers to never support a tax increase. But the "pledge" goes far beyond what rational people would consider a tax increase, it even considers closing tax loopholes as "tax increases". Anything that increases a single dollar of income to the federal government is a "tax increase".  With such vast majorities of Republicans in Congress bound lockstep into this lunacy it's no wonder compromise is impossible and nothing gets done.

Let's revisit what actually happened during the Presidency of the great Republican hero, Ronald Reagan. While fondly remembered as an "anti-tax hero", Reagan actually raised taxes eleven times over the course of his presidency. That would include the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, which was the largest peacetime tax increase in American history. And the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984. In fact, from 1981 to 1987 Congress passed and Reagan signed into law tax increases of some nature in every single year. Why would Reagan do such a thing? He explained it in two simple words: Fiscal Responsibility. Choke on that Mr. Norquist.

While he was no champion of gay rights, it was actually Ronald Reagan who helped defeat the hideous Briggs Initiative in California that would have banned gays, lesbians, and even straight supporters of LGBT rights from working in public schools in California. Reagan's opposition to the initiative was instrumental in its landslide defeat by Californian voters. And of course it was President Reagan who signed the law requiring every hospital, including privately owned for profit hospitals, to treat every patient regardless of their ability to pay. And he signed the law granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. In short, any candidate promoting Reagan's policies would be labeled by today's Republican Party as a "tax & spend librul", a "socialist" who want's to take over free enterprise and healthcare, someone who doesn't share the values of "American families", and is an "open borders" advocate. The conservative icon would be too liberal by today's standards of the GOP. To be blunt, today's Republican Party has lost their fucking marbles.

Want to help the Republican Party? Vote the bastards out of office, maybe they'll finally get some sense into their thick heads. Want to help the American people? Get off your ass and get out there and work to reelect President Obama, elect a Democratic majority back in the House, keep our Senate seats in ND, OH, MT, etc., and take back GOP seats in MA, NV, IN, and even one right here in bat shit crazy Arizona!

Also republished by Community Spotlight.

Technorati Tags: Grover Norquist,Barack Obama,Ronald Reagan,Republican Party,Taxes,Current Events

Mitt Romney: Liar At Large

Is Mitt Romney Trying To Steal Obama's Auto Rescue Plan - Then Claim It As His Own?   By cc   On Mon Apr 30, 2012

  Perhaps Mitt Romney thinks that eating sliced up bananas on a sandwich is equal to eating banana bread?  Or, perhaps Mitt Romney is intentionally deceitful with his game of semantics during his Etch-A-Sketch Moments?

     Mitt's Political Adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom is 100% wrong when he falsely said, "Obama took Romney's advise on Auto Bailout" as Mitt Romney's "Advice" was to not give the Auto Industry a Federal Loan while Obama's did. And, Romney's "Advice" would have enabled a Foreign Corporation to take-over American Auto Companies and Obama's did not.  So why is Mitt Romney so confused about his own 2008 Auto Bankruptcy "Advice?" 

Is Mitt trying to "Steal" Obama's Auto Rescue Plan and now claim it as his own?

     To be clear: Other than simply having the word, "Bankruptcy" included in the Auto Rescue Plan, Mitt Romney's Definition of Bankruptcy Plan was not, I repeat, not anything even remotely like Obama's Auto Rescue Plan that the Auto Industry entered into which saved American jobs during the Great Recession.

2008 President-elect Obama Auto Rescue Plan:

- Federal Loan To Auto in order to operate while restructuring
- Federal Loan to Auto during Restructuring so no Foreign Corporation Could take over American Auto Companies.
- Restructure management,
- Retool engineering to manufacture fuel efficient cars
- To avoid Court-Bankruptcy procedures without Federal Loans During the Great Recession.
- If need-be, and since Auto would have Federal Loan, Broker pre-bankruptcy deals for both companies with the major stakeholders.

Mitt Romney's 2008 Bankruptcy Plan:

- NO Federal Loan to Auto Industry so Auto could continue operating during restructuring
- NO Federal Bailout Money to Auto Industry so Auto could continue operating during restructuring
- Let Foreign Auto Corporations buy up American Auto Companies, if need-be

Notice, two key differences between Obama's Plan and Romney's "advice":
First Key Difference: Obama's Plan always including making sure the Auto Industry had money in order to continue operations during Restructuring, while Mitt Romney's Plan did not.  And that, my friend, is a huge difference as Obama's Plan guarantee Americans would remain employed and Mitt Romney's did not.

Second Key Difference: Mitt Romney's Plan included a Foreign Corporation taking over and buying out American Auto Companies and Obama's Plan did not.  And again, that my friend, is also a huge difference as Obama's Plan guarantee Americans would remain employed and Mitt Romney's did not.

November 20, 2008 Mitt Romney told Neal Cavuto of Fox that Foreign Corporations may buy American Auto Companies

CAVUTO: On a day, Governor, we had this huge sell-off, do you think, partly on fears that Washington's out of control?

MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR: Well, I think it's mostly on fears that the economy is out of control. And — and there's real reason for that.

"CAVUTO: The history of companies that file for bankruptcy in a recession is not very good. Usually, most of them fail outright. Those that fail, or go into bankruptcy, and the cuts by the slowdown, can come out of it. Continental comes to mind, as an example ... Your dad ran American Motors, and we ultimately know that, company went into the arms of Chrysler, that later went into the arms of Daimler-Benz, and then on its own again. My point is that markets have, if not a cold, but a very efficient means in handling this sort of thing. Do they not?

ROMNEY: Oh, they sure do, and that's precisely why I am saying, no to a bailout, yes to work-out.

CAVUTO: OK.

ROMNEY: Work with the industry. There may be a merger in the future, perhaps. There may be a merger with a foreign company.

~ Romney Interview with Neal Cavuto

    It is no secret that Mitt Romney's Business Model has always included shipping American Jobs overseas and letting Foreign Corporations take over American Companies -- so Mitt's 2008 comment to Cavuto should come as no surprise.  But last week, did Mitt Romney and his campaign try to steal Obama's Auto Rescue Plan - then claim it as his own?

    Dates are important here in order to make my point that, suddenly, in General Election 2012, Mitt Romney is trying to "steal" President Obama's actual Auto Rescue Plan and claim it as his own. 

     Therefore, remember, before November 18, 2008 President-elect Obama's Auto Rescue Plan always included:

    Giving a Federal Loan to Auto so they may continue operations during Restructuring and Retooling so that Americans could continue to stay employed.  And, Obama's Plan, via the Federal Loan, always guaranteed American Auto Companies would not be taken over by a Foreign Corporation - which also guaranteed Americans would stay employed during the Great Recession.

    Conversely, and 180 degrees opposite from Obama's Plan, on November 18, 2008 and after Mitt Romney's plan only, only comprised of:

No Federal Loan to Auto Industry even if it meant they had to stop all operations during Restructure and thousands of Americans losing their jobs.  And, Mitt Romney's plan including the notion that a Foreign Corporation could buy American Auto Companies which would put Americas at risk of losing their jobs during the Great Recession.

Timeline of President-Elect Obama's Auto Rescue Plan:
November 10, 2008

"Obama Asks Bush to Provide Help for Automakers" By JACKIE CALMES

     Mr. Obama has signaled to the automakers and the unions that his support for
short-term aid now, and long-term assistance once he takes office, is contingent on their willingness to agree to transform their industry to make cleaner, more energy-efficient vehicles.

     Mr. Obama said he would instruct his economic team, once he chooses it, to devise a long-range plan for helping the auto industry recover in a way that is part of an energy and environmental policy to reduce reliance on foreign oil and address climate change.

Mr. Obama has called on the Bush administration to accelerate $25 billion in federal loans provided by a recent law specifically to help automakers retool.

~ New York Times

Keywords: "Retool," "long range plan," "transform their industry" which are all part of Managed Bankruptcy.

November 11, 2008

CANDY CROWLEY: Sources on the Obama transition team say the president-elect urged President Bush to take quick action to help the auto industry. Obama thinks the aid could be coupled with ... someone with the authority to push for industry reforms he has talked about recently.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I have made it a high priority for my transition team to work on additional policy options to help the auto industry adjust, weather the financial crisis, and succeed in producing fuel-efficient cars.
~ CNN Transcript

November 12, 2008

If Congress falls short on the auto industry loans during the lame-duck session next week, the Obama administration has promised there will be strings attached to a bailout for Detroit.

~Politico By Patrick O'Connor & Ryan Grim

CNN Reported:

President-elect Obama is weighing in quietly. I mean, we do know that he was urging President Bush about the auto industry, that he talked to him about a car czar, sort of overlooking improvements in how the auto industry does business and what it produces. He's also talked to the leadership on Capitol Hill about what he'd like to see in some of these packages.

November 16, 2008

OBAMA: "my hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all the stakeholders coming together with a plan ... So that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere. And that's, I think, what you haven't yet seen."

~ CBS 60 Minute Interview

   In that same 60 Minute Interview, Mr Kroft asked Obama about Bankruptcy for Auto.

KROFT: Are there a lot of people that think that the country would probably be better off and General Motors might be better off if it was allowed to go into bankruptcy?

OBAMA: Well, you know, under normal circumstances that might be the case in the sense that you'd go to a restructuring like the airlines had to do in some cases. And then they come out and they're still a viable operation. And they're operating even during the course of bankruptcy. In this situation, you could see the spigot completely shut off so that it would not potentially permit GM to get back on its feet. And I think that what we have to do is to recognize."
~ CBS 60 Minute Interview

November 17, 2008

    When asked if a bankruptcy declaration by any of the auto companies would be acceptable to the White House, [Dana Perino] responded that would be "the companies' decision."

     President-elect Barack Obama supports direct aid for the Big Three, but he has said taxpayers should be protected too. The hangup is whether to insist that loans or loan guarantees be conditioned upon an assessment of "financial viability" over the next 10 years as under the Energy Department loan guarantee program or not, as under TARP.

November 18, 2008
Mitt Romney Writes: "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt"

"Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" By Mitt Romney

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

     [D]on’t ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.  A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs."

     Notice, Romney is adamant in 2008 when he pens do not give Auto Industry one penny during Bankruptcy even if it meant Americans lose their jobs during the Great Recession.

Fast-Forward to 2012 GOP Primary Election

February 13, 2008 - Another Mitt Romney Op-Ed

"Taxpayers Should Get GM Shares' Proceeds" - By: MITT ROMNEY

     This was crony capitalism on a grand scale. The President tells us that without his intervention things in Detroit would be worse. I believe that without his intervention things there would be better.

Before the companies were allowed to enter and exit bankruptcy, the U.S. government swept in with an $85 billion sweetheart deal disguised as a rescue plan. By the spring of 2009, instead of the free market doing what it does best, we got a major taste of crony capitalism, Obama-style.

Such a state of affairs is intolerable, and as president I would not tolerate it.

~ Excerpts from another Mitt Romney Op-Ed Dated 2/13/2012

February 14, 2012:

From Detroit News:
"Romney wrote that the government’s rescue of the American auto companies amounted to “crony capitalism on a grand scale” and argued that G.M. should have gone through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy without taxpayer assistance."

    Remember, in 2008, Mitt Romeny said "Yes" on $700 Billion [TARP] for white collar bankers.  But, in 2008 and still in 2012, Mitt Romney would "not tolerate" Loaning Auto Industry two percent of that ($17 Billion) for blue collar American workers to stay on assembly line during Restructuring.

     In fact, on March 20, 2012, Mitt Romney credited Bush/Cheney's TARP funding to Bankers as saving the US Economy:

    At a town hall in Arbutus, Maryland.
ROMNEY: "I keep hearing the president say he's responsible for keeping the country out of a Great Depression.  No, no, no, that was President George W. Bush and [then-Treasury Secretary] Hank Paulson."

     Even now, Mitt Romney thinks Bush/Cheney giving Bankers $700 Billion Taxpayer Dollars (TARP) saved America but loaning the Auto Industry funds so they may operate during Restructuring is "not to be tolerated."

     Mitt Romney is lying with the aid of his Etch-A-Sketch Lens, and falsely claiming that Obama used Mitt Romney's Bankruptcy "Advice" and that it was Mitt's Bankruptcy Plan that saved the Auto industry.

     Even worse than Mitt Romney lying is that Romney seems almost pathological with his lies as it appears that Mitt Romney is trying to "Steal" President Obama's Auto Rescue Plan and claim it as his own.

     ... because as we can see, facts clearly show President Obama's Auto Rescue Plan is not even remotely close to anything Mitt Romney "Advised" Congress to do in 2008 or 2012.

Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney,Barack Obama,Auto Bailout,Eric Fehrnstrom,Etch-A-Sketch,Romney's Auto Bailout Lie,Current Events

Get Sick. Can't Pay? Go to Jail!

By  Steven D  Sun Apr 29, 2012         Original

Indeed, you can go to jail even if you don't owe any money if the collection company for your medical provider thinks you do:

A breast cancer survivor who was sent to prison over a mistaken $280 medical bill has highlighted the return of debtor's prisons in the U.S.

Illinois resident Lisa Lindsay had received the medical bill in error and was told she did not have to pay up.

However, the bill was turned over to a collection agency and state troopers arrived at her home and took her away in handcuffs.

So, cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay eventually paid the bill she didn't owe + $600 for legal and court fees just to be sure this never happened to her again, or at least for this non-existent debt.  Better safe than sorry, right? 

At this point you might be saying to yourself, WTF?  I thought the US eliminated debtors' prisons in the early 19th century.  Silly rabbit. There's more than one way to trick the justice system to skin people in debt using the power of the state to put them in jail as a way to coerce payments from people like Lisa.

The case of Lindsay as well as others suggests that more people than ever before in the U.S are being thrown in 'debtor's prisons' for not being able to pay back loans. [...]

Debt collectors have become so aggressive claim some that poor people who are behind on payments of as little as $25 a month are being sent to jail.[...]

How is this done?  Well the collection company files a small claims lawsuit.  If you fail to appear, or file a responsive pleading, or make some other common legal mistake, or simply have the collection agency claim they served you by mail (allowed in many cases where the claims are not large) when they really didn't because you've moved, where in the hospital at the time, or they just flat out lied in their affidavit of service, the court can hold you in contempt of court.  And that's when the sheriff deputies or state troopers may show up at your door to place those handcuffs on you, sick, disabled or whatever.

Acting within the law, debtors aren't arrested  for nonpayment, rather for failing to arrive to court hearings thereby falling foul of contempt of court laws.

This results in a police arrest warrant being issued for 'failure to appear', the debtor is tracked down, packed off to jail and can only get out by paying the set bail bond which of course matches the amount owed.

Of course not every state allows such practices, but many do.  And while it has been employed against many people who have fallen behind on paying their bills in this economy, the arrest of people who can't pay their medical bills because they lost health insurance or their jobs, or simply they have student debt. they cannot repay because they can't find a job, is particularly egregious.

And people wonder why privatization of prisons is increasing.  Well, when you can toss people in jail for almost anything, including the inability to pay their debts, prisons become an even bigger profit center.  Last year alone, thousands of individuals were jailed as a result of unscrupulous practices by collection companies like the one that sent Lisa Lindsay to jail for a $280 debt she didn't even owe:

NPR reports that it’s becoming increasingly common for people to serve jail time as a result of their debt. Because of “sloppy, incomplete or even false documentation,” many borrowers facing jail time don’t even know they’re being sued by creditors ...

Sean Matthews, a homeless New Orleans construction worker, was incarcerated for five months for $498 of legal debt, while his jail time cost the city six times that much. Some debtors are even forced to pay for their jail time themselves, adding to their financial troubles.

Stories of surprise arrests for unpaid debt have been reported in states including Indiana, Tennessee and Washington. In Kansas City, one man ended up in jail after missing only a furniture payment. The Federal Trade Commission received more than 140,000 complaints related to debt collection in 2010, and they’ve taken 10 debt collection agencies to court for their practices in the past three years.

Since the start of 2010, judges have signed off on more than 5,000 arrest warrants since in nine counties alone. Beverly Yang, a legal aid attorney, says many debtor’s — and judges — don’t know debtor’s rights, which results in the accused being intimidated into a pay agreement. She’s seen judges interrogate debtors about why they can’t pay more and whether they are trying hard enough to find a job.

From the NPR report:

Take, for example, what happened to Robin Sanders in Illinois.

She was driving home when an officer pulled her over for having a loud muffler. But instead of sending her off with a warning, the officer arrested Sanders, and she was taken right to jail.

"That's when I found out [that] I had a warrant for failure to appear in Macoupin County. And I didn't know what it was about."

Sanders owed $730 on a medical bill. She says she didn't even know a collection agency had filed a lawsuit against her.

"They say they send out these court notices, and nobody gets them," Sanders says.

We are talking about collection companies, after all.  The scum of the earth.  They buy the debts for pennies on the dollar.  Then they file lawsuits.  They don't care if they have to lie or present false paperwork to the courts, because in most cases they are never going to be found out.  They file their affidavits and the justice system believes them, because they do not have the time or personnel to verify the accuracy of those affidavits, and the people they target do not have the money to fight the illegal practices by hiring a lawyer.  And it is difficult to prove a negative, i.e., that you didn't receive notice of the court date as we all know:

Washington state's House of Representatives passed [in 2011] by a 98-0 vote a bill that would require companies to provide proof a borrower has been notified about lawsuits against them before a judge could issue an arrest warrant. All 42 Republicans voted for the legislation, which is expected to pass the state's Senate and be signed into law by the governor. A trade group representing debt collectors supports the bill and says the changes are needed because some companies are abusing Washington's existing law by improperly arresting borrowers.

Look for more of these abuses in the future, particularly in states where the legislature is controlled by Republicans and the governor is a Scott Walker (ALEC Model 2.0) clone.

Technorati Tags: Health Care,Debtor's Prison,Disabilities,99%,Collection Agencies,Current Events,Student Loans

Personal Data Protection: Coordination Needs to Transcend State Boundaries

Asahi, Japan
  23 April 2012           Edited by Lydia Dallett

With the spread of social networking services on smartphones, and the expansion of cloud businesses centrally handling bulks of user data, the rapid change of telecommunications calls for a new approach toward the protection of personal information.
The U.S. and EU have released a joint statement on the protection of privacy and the promotion of Internet businesses. Japan is lagging behind. We cannot protect personal information without cross-border cooperation and we need to develop conditions that are appropriate for this day and age.
Internet enterprises are competing ruthlessly to develop techniques that will allow them to gain higher advertising rates. In recent years, there has been remarkable progress in the development of technologies that analyze the preferences and life patterns of Internet users, in order to display advertisements tailored to the lifestyle of the individual consumer.
These data collection systems target anything from purchase histories with online mail orders to movement patterns gathered in the form of GPS-tracked location information, or personal connections and relationships stored in email address books. The types of data collected are multiplying ad infinitum.
If we analyze the collective data gathered over an extended period of time, the information accumulated by Internet businesses far exceeds what the individual user is aware of. The private life of the end user is brought into the open and virtual profiles may be created. Furthermore, the data is sometimes managed abroad.
Google U.S. has begun to unify and manage the personal information gathered by around 60 different services and it was this kind of information that caused simultaneous opposition in many countries. Many countries have been collecting data in even more opaque ways.
There has also been controversy about the social network Facebook retaining private information even after users leave the network. In response to this, the EU has proposed the “right to be forgotten online,” which forces social networking sites to delete such data. The Obama administration introduced a “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights” that includes the right not to be tracked online.
Western third-party organizations, which have a high degree of independence from their national governments, are addressing this issue from a technical point of view and are responsible for international discussions.
Japan established the Personal Information Protection Law in 2003, but its implementation is divided vertically across the ministries. It is flawed in terms of specialization and mobility. If we do not have any independent protection mechanisms, we will be left behind by globalization and technical progress. This is liable to gravely disadvantage the international expansion of Japanese businesses.
“My Number,” the personal identification number system devised by the National Diet, incorporates the establishment of third-party organizations. Its main target, however, are government offices and businesses dealing with ID numbers.
It is necessary to take discussions to the next level, so that we can expand into common European and American security mechanisms, while maintaining compatibility with basic rights such as freedom of speech or freedom of the press.

   Sourced from Watching America

Translated By Sylvie Martlew   

CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL VERSION

 

Technorati Tags: Privacy,The Internet,Google,Facebook,Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights,Barack Obama,Current Events

Saturday Satire: Mitt Romney,Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich Political Cartoons Edition

 

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Politics,2012 Elections,Political Humor,Mitt Romney,Newt Gingrich,Rick Santorum,Political Cartoons,Current Events

Mitt Romney doesn't want to talk about his record as governor

by  Jed Lewison   

There was something missing from Mitt Romney's nomination-clinching speech on Tuesday night: any reference whatsoever to his track record as governor of Massachusetts. In fact, he didn't even mention that he had been governor.

Not even once.

During the most important speech Romney's given so far, he didn't say a single word about the one time in his life that he's ever been elected to anything. That's rather extraordinary admission by omission that he doesn't see his record as something that he can run on.

It's not hard to see why Romney feels that way. Massachusetts ranked 47th in the nation in job creation under his leadership and he left the state with a massive debt. If he'd run for a second term, he would have been defeated, with good reason.

Romney's biggest legitimate accomplishment was Romneycare, which President Obama took national. But now Romney is against Obamacare, so he can't talk about Romneycare.

Romney's failure to mention his gubernatorial experience really was a telling moment in his campaign, a vivid illustration of the fact that he believes his campaign depends entirely on convincing voters that President Obama has been a failure. As Greg Sargent has been arguing, Romney's approach to that task has been to blame Obama for the failures of the Bush years—to make the public forget that President Obama inherited an economy in freefall.

As depressing as it would be if Romney were able to pull off such an argument, I don't see it happening. His argument is transparently false, and neither the Obama campaign nor grassroots progressives are going to let him get away with making it. As tiring and annoying as it can be to constantly battle back Romney's lies, it's not particularly difficult—because the truth is not on his side.

I suspect that deep down, Mitt Romney knows just how tenuous his position really is. If he were really confident in his own claim to the presidency, he wouldn't be trying to blame Obama for Bush. He'd be out there selling his own achievements. The fact that he's not tells us everything.

Originally posted to The Jed Report on Thu Apr 26, 2012

Also republished by Massachusetts Kosmopolitans and Daily Kos.

 

Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney,Governor,Politics,Current Events

CISPA UPDATE: House Makes Changes To The Bill

House making changes to CISPA, but it's still too dangerous

WED APR 25, 2012 By Joan McCarter

EFF

Growing opposition to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) has forced sponsor Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) to make some amendments that he says will secure 218 votes. The vote on the legislation has also been postponed a day, and is expected to be held Friday—unless we stop it, like we stopped SOPA, because the proposed changes aren't enough to answer privacy concerns.

"A lot of them aren't substantive," Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel for the ACLU, told CNET. "They just put the veneer of privacy protections on the bill, and will garner more support for the bill even without making substantial changes."

There are amendments from Democrats that would make the bill less onerous, but still aren't adequate. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), has an amendment that would prohibit monitoring of protestors, but not other Americans. Rep. Janice Hahn (D-CA) has one that would make Homeland Security destroy personally identifiable data after a year has elapsed, but doesn't at all restrict the collection of that data in the first place. These amendments aren't bad, but they aren't good enough.

None of the amendments strike out the most dangerous part of the bill, where it says "notwithstanding any other provision of law," government agencies can collect our private data. That "notwithstanding" means this law trumps every other privacy law, federal and state, on wiretaps, educational records, medical privacy and more. That's unacceptable. And, of course, the bill still doesn't allow for the kind of regulation that could actually matter to national security: protecting key infrastructure like electrical grids and water systems from cyber threats.

Please, tell your representative to vote no on CISPA.

Technorati Tags: CISPA,House Intelligence Committee,The Internet,Privacy Rights,SOPA,CyberSecurity,Current Events

Scott Walker’s Job Creation Statistics In Wisconsin

    Oh, and it is not a very pretty picture in the state as Wisconsin is actually losing jobs. It is the only state in the nation to do so.

This chart from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says it all. It also tells you that Walker’s tax-cuts for his wealthy friends and for big business created no new jobs.

   Walker did promise Wisconsin voters that he would create something like 250,000 private sector jobs by 2015 if they would elect him as their Governor. He still has time, but it will not happen because of anything Walker has done.

  About the chart:

It counts jobs in the state, not the number of people working. It is an estimate based mostly on surveys that measure non-farm payroll.  Every instance of someone on somebody’s payroll in that month is counted as a job. If someone in Milwaukee works at a Milwaukee McDonalds during the day and a Milwaukee Burger King at night, two jobs are counted for Wisconsin. If a person lives in Racine, Wisconsin but commutes to Chicago to work, that is not counted as a Wisconsin job. Again, the report measures jobs, not people.

There is another report put out monthly by the BLS at the same time that estimates the unemployment rate by state. It is based on different surveys from the ones described above. It is a ratio of the number of residents in a state who are working compared to the size of the state’s workforce. Those numbers are not related one to one. If the number of people working stays the same in a month but the size of the labor force goes down because people moved, died, or retired, the unemployment rate can go down even though the same number of people are working. If our imaginary worker from the previous paragraph is laid off from his night job at Burger King, he is not considered unemployed because he still works at McDonalds during the day. If the Racine worker loses her job in Chicago, she counts as one of Wisconsin’s unemployed because she lives in Wisconsin. The report measures people, not jobs.

In summary, the two reports are significantly different. Among other differences, one report is based on where the jobs are, the other is based on where the person resides. Neither is inherently better than the other, but they are not two ways of measuring the same thing, which is the way many lazy journalists describe them.    Source

Technorati Tags: Scott Walker,Wisconsin,Jobs,Unemployment,Bureau Of Labor Statistics,BLS,The Economy,Recall Walker,Current Events

Help Stop CISPA

  Do you remember the big blowup over SOPA ( Stop Online Piracy Act ) and PIPA ( PROTECT IP Act ) just a few months ago? As you are aware, many companies with a heavy internet presence went blank for a day in protest of these two seriously flawed bills, and they were tabled.

   Well, now we have a new menace coming up on Thursday, April 26, which is basically the evil cousin of the first two defeated bills.

That would be the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act ( CISPA ), which allows the intelligence community and private businesses an open path to snoop into any citizen’s internet activity on any given day. This we can do without.  This is just another government and big business tool to mine our browsing activities'  and to keep records on you and I, which they have no business possessing in the first place. THIS BILL MUST BE STOPPED!

  CISPA allows companies and the government to bypass existing laws in order to monitor our communications, filter content, or potentially even shut down access to online services for undefined “cybersecurity" purposes. But what it doesn't do is provide any new protections for critical infrastructure systems, like electrical grids and water supplies. Some security that is!   Source

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the bill this Thursday, April 26. Send an email to your member of Congress telling him or her to vote no. (email can be edited)

  Go Here in order to do so.

Technorati Tags: CISPA,Privacy,Internet,Data Mining,Current Events

Nugent Is Finally Getting Dixie Chick'd–By The Army

By Vyan  Sun Apr 22, 2012            Original

It's been quite a while, but there was a point in time where if you were an American Musician, especially a Country musician, and you said you disagreed with, didn't like, or gulp were "embarrassed the President was from (insert your home state here)"...

If you did that, and that President was George W. Bush, you'd have a full-on Shit Storm land on your career and your life.

Fans turned on them. Destroying their CDs. Country Music Black-Listed the Band. They received numerous Death Threats.  They were ruined, destroyed. Still, they persevered even when everything verbal (and sometimes physically) was thrown against them, it was practically a miracle they were able to remain in the entertainment industry at all.  But they did.

Now Ted Nugent has finally tasted his first little bit of what the Chicks went through after his comments that if the current President is re-elected he will either be "Dead or In Jail", because he claims the President, Vice President and Attorney General are "Criminals" who need to have their "Heads Chopped Off".  Oh, and that Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz are "varmint, cockroach, scoundrels" too.

Ted's been dis-invited from performing before the Army at Fort Knox. 

(CNN) -- It's lights out on Ted Nugent's scheduled performance at an Army base in Kentucky.

Commanders at Fort Knox have decided against allowing the "Motor City Madman" to take the stage at the base in June, the latest fallout over Nugent's comments that he would be "dead or in jail" if President Barack Obama were re-elected.

"After learning of opening act Ted Nugent's recent public comments about the president of the United States, Fort Knox leadership decided to cancel his performance on the installation," according to an announcement posted Saturday on the base's Facebook page

This is just one show, just one event - where Nugent was to be the opening act with fellow aging self-coverband rockers REO Speedwagon and Styx.

I personally don't want Ted to go through what the Chicks went through.  Being the blowhard wimp bullshit spigot that he is, it would probably crush him into powder to be massively shunned and humiliated the way they were and that's too cruel a fate even for him.  Besides, technically he can't suffer the way they did because he doesn't really have a freaking career. All he can do is play his one or two hits over and over for 30-40 mins and call it a "Show". That's already pretty pathetic.

Other than Classic Rock, he's already off the radio. What is there to Boycott? "Wang Dang Sweet Poon Tang?"  According to AllMusic.com his last charting Bill Board Single "Little Miss Dangerous" (#22 on Mainstream Rock) was in 1986  - 26 years ago. (If you include the last charting Damn Yankee single which features Styx's Tommy Shaw - that was in 1993, 19 years ago) Nobody is playing that shit on the air anymore. Please.

You can't stomp MP3's into the ground, you'd just wind up fucking up your player and what's the point of that? iPods aren't that cheap.

You really can't embarrass Ted Nugent much more than the fact that he's already Fracking Ted Nugent. A draft dodger,  a big bad hunter who apparently can't count to TWO as he just recently pleaded guilty to violating the Alaska Bear hunting Limit, an admitted pedophile and misogynist who actually thinks this is a nifty album cover.

Spinal Tap is actually a step upward from Nugent. Several steps, and they weren't even a "Real" band.  I'd still take Derek David St.Hubbins over Theodore any day. David is smarter. 

Ted is already his own worst enemy, whose greatest claim to actual fame is being a mediocre guitarist, terrible singer and unrepentant asshole.  You can't really go much further down from there, that's rock bottom.

At least though, he doesn't get another chance to spew his Anti-Democrat Hate Speech before the Troops who have to follow that Democrat as their Commander and Chief.  Even the Army realizes that's one bridge that is simply too far to cross.

Oh, and despite his big story about crapping his pants for a week so that he'd be rejected by the draft board - Nugent actually had a student deferment from attending Oakland Community College.

This is from his Wiki.

In 2006, an interviewer from the British newspaper The Independent questioned Nugent about a 1977 interview in High Times magazine in which Nugent allegedly detailed elaborate steps taken to avoid the Vietnam draft.[51] In the interview Nugent says, contrary to the story in High Times, that "I had a 1Y [student deferment]. I enrolled at Oakland Community College.". However, the Selective Service classification for student deferment is actually 2-S, and medical deferment is 1-Y. A copy of Nugent's Selective Service record shows that he had at separate times both a 1-Y medical deferment and 2-S student deferment.

Wiki being Wiki, I dug up some more.

via Newshounds.

His draft document shows he had a succession of deferments 1-S (High School), 1A (Available), 2-S (School), 1A (Available), 1-Y (Available, but only qualified in the event or National Emergency) & what looks like "WF", but could be "4-F" (Not suitable for service).  It does say that the date of his physical examination was 8-22-69 and the results were "REJ" (Rejected).

It seems that now, he's been rejected again and is no longer suitable for even Playing in front of the Military.

Vyan

Technorati Tags: Ted Nugent,U.S.Army,Draft Dodger,Dixie Chicks,Current Events

Sunday Satire: Secret Service And Mitt Romney Edition

  

Copyright © 2012 Universal Press Syndicate

Copyright © 2012 Universal Press Syndicate

Copyright © 2012 Creators Syndicate

 

Copyright © 2012 Creators Syndicate

Copyright © 2012 Universal Press Syndicate

Cagle Cartoons

Copyright © 2012 Universal Press Syndicate

Technorati Tags: Secret Service Scandal,Mitt Romney,2012 Elections,Current Events,Political Cartoons

Scott Walker Gives 218 State Workers $765,000 In Bonuses and Raises After Public Workers Took Cuts

Laura Clawson on Fri Apr 20, 2012

Wisconsin's budget crisis was so severe that, according to Gov. Scott Walker, pay cuts for public workers across the state were an absolute must. Pay cuts for rank-and-file public workers, that is. For teachers and librarians and snowplow drivers and custodians. The state's managers and lawyers, though, are a different story:

An analysis of data The Associated Press obtained through an open records request showed Wisconsin agencies have handed out more than $765,000 in bonuses and merit raises this year to nearly 220 employees.

The money was awarded under a program former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle suspended but Walker reinstated last year.

That includes nearly $300,000 in raises and bonuses to staff at the Department of Justice, which had previously tried to cut its Sexual Assault Victim Services program's grants by 42.5 percent for budgetary reasons. Assistant Attorney General Maria Lazar and Deputy Attorney General Kevin St. John got raises of $3,000 and $5,000.

The Republican governor's top aide, Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch, said Walker brought the program back because he felt it was important to mirror the private sector and provide rewards for outstanding work.

Scott Walker is literally, explicitly promoting two different systems for public workers: If you're already high up the food chain, you should be eligible for more, regardless of the state's budget situation. If you're just another worker making sure kids are educated or streets are safe, you should face cuts and be blamed for budget problems.

Make a $5 donation to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to help defeat Scott Walker.

^{Originally posted to Daily Kos Labor}

Technorati Tags: Scott Walker,Wisconsin,Labor,Budget Cuts,Current Events

Friday Funnies: Early Edition

  Another week of only the best stand-up comedy from the Republican Comedy Club.

Conan O'Brien: "Did you hear how they caught those Secret Service agents with prostitutes in Colombia? Apparently the men were walking around wearing nothing but their sunglasses and those earpieces."

"Mitt Romney has already begun the process of choosing a running mate. Romney wants someone with a different ethnicity who appeals to women, so his first choice is President Obama."

"Today Newt Gingrich is blaming the failure of his presidential campaign on Fox News. Newt's also blaming the failure of his diet on Cinnabon.”

–Stephen Colbert: "The Democrats accuse the Republicans of launching a war on women. Then the Republicans accuse the Democrats of the same thing. At this point, who can remember who enacted reproductive health restrictions in 36 states including mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds?"

Jimmy Kim

mel: "At the St. Louis Zoo, Newt Gingrich got too close to one of the animals and was bit on the hand by a penguin. If you're named after a lizard, you have to assume birds are going to try to eat you."

"There's certainly nothing fun about paying taxes, but you have to remember... all the money goes to a good cause, like paying the salaries of the meter maids who give you our parking tickets, and keeping welfare checks going to the Octomom, and important things like that."

Bill Maher: "New Jersey Mayor Corey Booker last night personally rescued a woman from a burning building. Or as Fox News reported it, ‘black man loots house, steals white woman.’"

"It's that time of year again, April 15, taxes. I know it's depressing, but just remember, you're paying for roads, bridges, hospitals, and an army to keep the nation free. Unfortunately that nation is Afghanistan."

"Speaking of problems taking care of itself, Rick Santorum dropped out of the race. Rick dropped out, but said he was going to keep fighting against liberalism, against secularism, and against the urge to blow Jon Hamm."

Jay Leno: "President Obama released his tax returns. It turns out he made $900,000 less in 2011 then he did in 2010. You know what that means? Even Obama is doing worse under President Obama."

Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney,Republicans,Newt Gingrich,Rick Santorum,Late Night Talk,Political Humor,Conan O'Brian,Bill Maher,Current Events

Ted Nugent; Poster Boy For Republican “ Stupid “

  With the rants and ravings as of late from this aging piece of shit, one has to wonder if all of that alcohol and drugs that he didn’t do really fucked up his mind. But wait! He’s a Republican. He has no mind.

Thu Apr 19, 2012

Ted Nugent himself is a cowardly pseudo-macho poser incapable of doing any real physical damage on his own. This disgusting pervert would rather sit around in his own feces than join the army and his sexual proclivities run to young girls rather than real women for whom he has no appeal. Nugent compares himself to a 'Black Jew At A Nazi-Klan Rally'and it seems clear he does not think the NRA is a Nazi-Klan.

We are all aware of the dangers posed when a person yells "FIRE" in a crowded theater. So when members of Wayne LaPierre's NRA gather together for a convention to hear Ted Nugent, we have a full crowd of heavily armed individuals conditioned by that organization to view liberals as mortal enemies seeking to take away their guns, their freedom and their country. Here in Knoxville Tennessee we've already seen one clear tragic example of the damage that can be done by such talk.

Nugent began his career with The Amboy Dukes and an album called Journey to the Center of the Mind. This was obviously a very abbreviated trip for Ted for which there was no return ticket. His philosophical musings went only so deep as the question Why is a Carrot More Orange than an Orange. The costumes and go-go girls in the video give us a glimpse of Ted's early affectations and his efforts as a guitarist whose musical style was "restricted to the Key of A and as melodic as a dial tone". The rather obvious limited musical talent is what eventually led Ted to his current shtick of gaining publicity for inflammatory rants on stage. As he has become increasingly irrelevant as a musician he has tried to become relevant as an outrageous wingnut firebrand.

So what's the harm in having this insufferable idiot spouting his violent rhetoric? He is such an obvious nut job it's difficult to believe anyone would take him seriously. But then most of us cannot fathom any rational person taking Glen Beck, The Limbaughtomy, Nitwitty or Annthrax Coulter seriously. Regretably one man we know took Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Bernard Goldberg far too seriously.

Back in July of 2008 here in Knoxville, Tennessee a Sunday morning Unitarian Church service was interrupted by Jim David Adkisson, an indigent food stamp recipient, with a shotgun. Adkisson shot and killed two people including the hero who stopped him and wounded 7 more during a youth musical performance. Adkisson had his shotgun and a pouch filled with ample ammunition along with a keen desire to kill the people who voted liberals into office.

Of course there are no liberals in office who were voted there by any of the people in the Second Congressional District of Tennessee. This is a staunchly Republican area that has never had a Democrat in Congress. But that did not register with Mr. Adkisson. He was inspired by talk radio personalities like Limbaugh and Fox television pundits like Coulter and Glenn Beck. He was particularly fond of Goldberg's 100 People Who Were Screwing Up America Adkisson took seriously the idea that liberals are traitors responsible for ruining America.

During his police interview Adkisson stated that he had targeted the church because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of major liberal media outlets. Adkisson made statements that because he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them into office. This according to the affidavit of an interrogating officer.

So back to this NRA gathering with Mr Nugent on the stage with his AK 47 props

Nugent took the stage in front of NRA gun owners using the rhetoric of war and battlefields to speak of death or jail. His words fell on the ears of 100s of liberal-hating armed zealots conditioned by the NRA President to believe that liberals and President Obama wanted to take their guns as LaPierre had ranted in this speech before CPAC.

  Nevermind that the President has not proposed any legislation or even mentioned gun control in over three years in office. The NRA has convinced the membership of a conspiracy that will somehow ram a law through Congress despite their well-paid members with the effect of removing guns from the entire population. So why shouldn't we be seriously worried about the effect of Nugent's and LaPierre's rhetoric on minds deluded enough to believe what the NRA suggests they should. The NRA is powerful enough to own most of Congress. Should we believe they lack the power to inspire violence in their well armed membership? 

These people believe Obama has raised their taxes even though he lowered them. They believe he is a Muslim. They believe he was born in Kenya or Malaysia. They believe he and we are Socialists and that 80 members of Congress are Communists. They believe we are unAmerican Godless soulless traitors. Why wouldn't they believe Ted Nugent is serious when he incites them to chop off the heads of liberals? Why wouldn't they consider it their patriotic duty to rid the country of us?

Now we've learned that Mitt Romney went out of his way to court the support of Mr. Nugent by spending the time to have a long conversation assuring him that he will save the country from the gun hating liberals with his help. Nugent is the same madman who shared a stage with Sarah Palin and John McCain during the Game Change election of 2008. He is a Republican rock star of weight - or so believes Romney through his son   

And what of Romney's response to those who suggested that he repudiate Nugent's call for violence? Nugent called President Obama a criminal and denounced his “vile, evil America-hating administration” which is “wiping its ass with the Constitution.” So Romney suggested that “Divisive language is offensive no matter what side of the political aisle it comes from, Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil.” That's as far as the leader of the Republican party is willing to go in moderating Ted Nugent. He was far harder on Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich of his 'mild by comparison' opposition. 

We all remember what happened to the Dixie Chicks for simply saying that they were "ashamed that President Bush is from Texas". Some wingnuts suggest that what Natalie Maines said was worse than Nugent's remarks. The Chicks were certainly punished more for their mild remark. And the website Politico suggest that Nugent is the Hillary Rosen of the Romney campaign. These people think Rosen speaking the truth "Ann Romney never worked a day in her life" is the same thing as Nugent saying "We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November. Any questions?" "Any Questions" indeed. This obvious false equivalency raises all kinds of questions about Politico's mental stability, reason, and logic even though all those thoughts about Nugent have been completely settled.

There is evidently no answer to the clear and Nugent danger to liberals in America. The Republicans have no interest in toning down the rhetoric of right wing hate. They prefer to wage a war of false equivalencies trying to equate Bill Maher or Keith Olbermann with Limbaugh, Coulter, Beck, Hannity, Nugent, Murdock, Ailes, The Koch Brothers, Goldberg, Kristol, Savage, Michelle Malkin and a plethora of similar liars and distorters that ruin any chance of rational dialogue. Of course that's all Republican's can do when the truth and reason would have at least 80% of Americans voting for their own best health, wage, tax, job, education, freedom and economic interests with the Democrats. They simply cannot sell their elitist pro wealth anti-woman agenda with the truth. Thus they prefer to put all of us at risk for our lives from the seriously unhinged who could easily take the words of Ted Nugent and other flame throwing Republican pundits as a call to violent action against imaginary traitors.

If this does not cause some alarm it should. Just ask the members of Knoxville's Unitarian Church or the people targeted by a Sarah Palin website in Arizona. These being two of the most reactionary states in the country by virtue of recent laws passed in their state legislatures. They should be the least susceptible to attacks on their marginalized and ineffective liberals. We are increasingly being targeted by rightwing hate-mongers using violent rhetoric and we know from experience the potentially dire consequences involved. Be safe out there and watch your back. Romney and his friends aren't going to waste a word to calm the situation and put a stop to the Ted Nugents of their party. They depend on them help fool their woefully misguided base into voting for the party that will do them real harm.

Originally posted to aurabass on Thu Apr 19, 2012

 

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,Mitt Romney,Ted Nugent,2012 Elections,Republican Bigots,Current Events,Politics,Racist Party

Catholic Bishops To House Republicans: Your Budget Makes Jesus Cry. John Boehner To Bishops: STFU.

  Then again, I’m pretty sure that anything that a Republican does, and many democrats, makes Jesus cry.

Wed Apr 18, 2012

You know how Republicans in Congress believe all of our laws should be Catholic Church-approved, right? Well, all of our laws regarding lady parts, anyway. Other stuff, like, say, the federal budget ... meh, not so much.

Seems like only yesterday, Republicans couldn't stop shoving bishops in front of cameras to explain why women's health care is immoral. But now that the bishops have some strong words for Republicans on their immoral budget to screw the poor, Republicans are sticking their fingers in their ears and saying, "Lalalalalala, we can't hear you." In fact, House Republicans would prefer the bishops shut up and stop talking about morality:

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) chastised Catholic bishops at a Wednesday news conference on Capitol Hill, saying they needed to look at the bigger picture after they complained that the GOP budget plan fails to meet "moral criteria."

Gosh, it's not so fun when the Catholic bishops call you out for being immoral, is it?

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is criticizing the House Republican budget authored by Rep. Paul Ryan for cutting food stamps and other assistance programs for the poor.

In a letter sent to the House Agriculture Committee on Monday, the bishops say the budget fails to meet certain “moral criteria” by disproportionately cutting programs that “serve poor and vulnerable people.”

The bishops sent this letter after Rep. Paul Ryan gave a rather bizarre interview, in which he claimed that he's "using [his] Catholic faith" to justify cutting, for example, food stamps. Because, he says, that's how to "help people get out of poverty out onto life of independence."

The bishops disagreed:

[T]he bishops urged lawmakers to reject "unacceptable cuts to hunger and nutrition" programs for "moral and human reasons." [...] Lawmakers should "protect essential programs that serve poor and hungry people over subsidies that assist large and relatively well-off agricultural enterprises," said the letter, signed by Bishop Stephen E. Blaire.

"Cuts to nutrition programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will hurt hungry children, poor families, vulnerable seniors and workers who cannot find employment. These cuts are unjustified and wrong."

SNAP happens to be one of the programs Republicans plan to cut in order to pay for tax breaks for millionaires and to give the Pentagon more money than it even wants. If Paul Ryan, John Boehner, and their fellow Republican Catholics in Congress think we should be following the moral dictates of the Church, they might want to reconsider those Church-endorsed programs that bishops say address "the needs of the hungry, the homeless and the unemployed first" and "reflect the shared responsibility of government and other institutions to promote the common good of all, especially 'workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in difficult economic times.'"

After all, it's what Jesus would want.

Originally posted to Kaili Joy Gray on Wed Apr 18, 2012

 

Technorati Tags: The Budget,Catholic Bishops,John Boehner,Paul Ryan,Republicans,Politics,Current Events