President Obama spoke today on the need for economic mobility not only for the top one percent, but also for the middle class and those Americans trying to get into the middle class.
Category: Politics
This is what Jon Stewart, host of the Jon Stewart Show on Comedy Central, said in a recently: “I have one source for news that I turn to more than any other: Twitter.”
I agree with Stewart on that point. Twitter and other social media networks have revolutionized how news and other information is distributed. But Stewart said something else I have to disagree with. “Cos I likes my news like I likes my ladies,” he said, “short and punchy and delivered second-hand by anonymous sociopaths.”
We’re not all sociopaths.
But my disagreement with Stewart was short-lived. Especially when he made the point to congratulate “old white men” in the Republican party for their role in ending racism. Stewart of course, was basing his remarks on a tweet made by the Republican National Committee earlier this week, in which they came to the conclusion that racism in America, was over.
“It’s OVER!” Stewart exclaimed, “It’s official! Stick a fork in racism, it’s done!”
But Stewart’s excitement was also short-lived. Moments after the Republicans declared that racism was over, they issued another tweet stating that their proclamation was in fact, incorrect. Stewart took note of that too.
“You declare an end to racism and then three hours later, you start it again?” Stewart then equate the GOP’s back and forth on whether or not racism had ended to being “an Indian giver.”
Watch it below.
The Daily Show
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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s (R) awkward attempt to link Vice President Joe Biden to the GOP’s policies against womens’ reproductive health was smacked down hard by Democratic National Committee chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) on Tuesday.
“Democrats like to complain about a Republican ‘war on women,’” Gingrich said on Crossfire, before mentioning Biden’s visit to a Japanese e-commerce company, DeNA, in which Biden asked a group of women working there if their husbands “like them working full-time,” if they were married, and if they were allowed to work from home.
“How do you explain Biden’s inability to stay in touch with reality?” Gingrich asked Wasserman Schultz, who expressed amazement that Gingrich would link the “war on women” term with Biden, the author of the Violence Against Women Act, which was been staunchly opposed by Republicans even after passing in the House in February 2013.
“Your party spent two years holding back on bringing the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act to the floor,” Wasserman Schultz responded. “Your party has nominated, consistently, the likes of [Pennsylvania Gov. Tom] Corbett in Pennsylvania, who famously said, ‘Well, if women don’t want to have an ultrasound when they have an abortion, they can just close their eyes.’”
Schultz also pointed out that another Republican, Virginia Attorney General nominee Mark Obenshain, introduced legislation four years ago that would have required pregnant women to report a miscarriage to authorities.
“If you want to talk about the war on women — and that’s just a couple of examples –” Schultz said, before getting cut off by Gingrich.
“I understand your version of reality,” Gingrich shot back, before being interrupted himself by co-host Stephanie Cutter.
“That’s not a version of reality, Newt,” Cutter chimed in. “Those are facts.”
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The Pope has been getting on Republicans’ nerves lately. He recently let his feelings about capitalism and trickle down economics be known, saying that the theory of trickle down “has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power…”
This proclamation by the Pope caused the right wing to practically blow their tops. Rush Limbaugh, the author of much of the Republican’s talking points took to his radio show and denounced the Pope and all that he stands for. Said Rush;
“Pope Francis attacked unfettered capitalism as ‘a new tyranny.’ He beseeched global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality, in a document on Tuesday setting out a platform for his papacy and calling for a renewal of the Catholic Church. In it, Pope Francis went further than previous comments criticizing the global economic system, attacking the ‘idolatry of money.’ ”
I’ve gotta be very caref– I have been numerous times to the Vatican. It wouldn’t exist without tons of money. But, regardless, what this is — somebody has either written this for him or gotten to him. This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope. There’s no such — “unfettered capitalism”? That doesn’t exist anywhere.
And a Fox Host Stuart Varney also lashed out at the Pope for him suggesting that we should be helping the less fortunate among us.
And now this news. A recent interview with Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, the “Almoner of His Holiness,” raised speculation that the Pope joins him on his nightly trips into Rome to give alms to the poor, and it turns out that the rumors are probably true.
A knowledgable source in Rome told The Huffington Post that “Swiss guards confirmed that the pope has ventured out at night, dressed as a regular priest, to meet with homeless men and women.”
Krajewski earlier said, “When I say to him ‘I’m going out into the city this evening’, there’s the constant risk that he will come with me,” and he merely smiled and ducked the question when reporters asked him point-blank whether the Pope accompanied him into the city.
What will these Republicans do now? Oh the calamity!
Remember Trayon Christian, the 19-year old engineering student who was handcuffed and arrested by the NYPD after he bought a $349 Salvatore Ferragamo belt at Barneys New York? And Kayla Phillips, who bought a $2300 orange suede Céline bag from Barneys with her debit card — only to be accused of credit card fraud by cops just blocks away from the upscale store? Or “Treme” actor Rob Brown, who is now suing Macy’s and the NYPD after being handcuffed for “shopping while Black”?
October’s racial profiling stories that turned into a series of “shopping while Black” exposés highlighted the ugly racism that still runs rampant in New York City. Two NYC-based retailers, Barneys and Macy’s, were at the center of the storm. Shortly after the news that African-Americans were seemingly often accused of credit card fraud by New York City police, including repeated accusations of “how did you afford to buy that?”, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman began an investigation.
Schneiderman demanded statistics on how many customers — detailed by race and national origin — the stores had detained, what their policies for detaining customers are, what contracts or relationships they have with external security firms — including the NYPD — and what anti-discrimination policies are currently in effect.
In what appears to be a separate investigation by the NYC Human Rights Commission, Barneys apparently has complied, but Macy’s, and higher-end Bloomingdale’s, owned by Macy’s, have not, according to Women’s Wear Daily. WWD adds that the NYC Human Rights Commission is investigating 17 retailers in total.
The New York City Commission on Human Rights has issued a subpoena to Macy’s Law Department, ordering them to provide the commission with documents by Dec. 10 for all Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s locations in New York City, regarding information that pertains to their policies on loss prevention and approaching and detaining individuals suspected of theft.
Patricia L. Gatling, NYC Human Rights Commissioner, said Monday, “It is disappointing that they have not fully cooperated in the commission’s investigation into recent allegations of racial profiling at some of the city’s larger retail stores and instead sought to dictate the terms and scope of our investigation. The commission will be issuing subpoenas to other stores that have been unresponsive, including Old Navy and Banana Republic.”
Of course, it’s still unclear in the NYPD was acting alone, or in conjunction with the retailers, or if the retailers were the ones who contacted police.
But between NYC’s “shopping while Black,” and “stop and frisk” attacks, and recent reports like the three Black Rochester, NY high school basketball stars arrested for waiting on the sidewalk for their school bus, it feels like the entire state has jumped into the 1950s.
The top fundraiser behind Hillary Clinton’s first presidential bid is currently in talks to join Priorities USA, the leading super PAC behind President Obama last year that is now positioning itself for a possible Clinton White House bid in 2016.”
Jonathan Mantz, who served as Clinton’s national finance director in 2008 and is one of the Democratic Party’s biggest names in fundraising, is set to join Priorities USA in a senior adviser.
Four sources familiar with the Mantz discussions said he will fundraise for Priorities as transitions from the last presidential election into its next phase — a pro-Clinton paid media effort, likely led by Jim Messina and John Podesta, top former aides to Barack Obama and Bill Clinton respectively.”
With Healthcare.gov now functioning at a higher capacity, conservative activist and RedState editor in chief Erick Erickson has a new recommendation for Republicans looking to undo President Obama’s signature healthcare reform: sabotage!
In a blog post at RedState, Erickson claims that Healthcare.gov remains “unusable” but insists “conservatives are wrong to fixate on it.” Rather than focus on the site, Erickson recommends, conservatives should devote their energy to thwarting Democratic attempts to improve the law.
“Conservatives need to keep their focus on the law overall,” Erickson writes. “The website is a reflection of a terrible law.”
“As we all get back to business today, we must remember the law itself is the problem — not the website,” Erickson continues. “The website they can fix. We must deny them the opportunity to fix the law itself. Let the American people see big government in all its glory. Then offer a repeal.”
Erickson’s approach is in marked contrast to that of his fellow Republican, Georgia’s Jack Kingston. While Erickson recommends thwarting attempts to improve the law, Kingston is on record saying that letting flaws in Obamacare linger would be irresponsible.
Categories
The Race to the Bottom
One of the warnings that veteran educators tried to sound was that the growth of charter schools would create two levels of opportunity: one for parents who were proactive and worked to get their children into top charter schools, and the rest of the population that either couldn’t compete or was shut out and stuck in the now-depleted public system. That seems to be happening in Newark, if this article is accurate. Yes, there are some significant successes if you count the students who are thriving in schools that can skim the best off the top and can generally avoid recruiting the poorest and least-able students. Test scores are up. There are fewer disruptions.
But it’s a false success if it means that other students are denied that quality of education. Free market principles are great for businesses, stock markets, and competitions for talent and ability. It can be deadly, however, when it comes to education.
Public schools by law must educate all children. Think about that: all children. Not one exception. And they need to educate them so they will be productive members of society. What the know-nothings have done is to criticize the public schools as unwieldy, rife with union activism, and failing our children. What they’ve created are academies that are exempt from the public school’s rules and worse, have created winners and losers. That’s not what education is about. As a matter of fact, it runs against every rational, reasonable and moral imperative that undergirds an education system in a compassionate society. It’s wonderful that more students are doing well and are thriving in these new schools. For the losers, though, it’s a life sentence.
As for the teachers, the know-nothings created a new evaluation system that is supposed to weed out the less effective educators from the classroom. What they’re created in reality is a time-wasting, money-sucking, mathematically-skewed nightmare that is taking money from school programs and budgets that can best be used in the classroom, and not on software that shows faculty members what an effective lesson looks like. We already know that.
With the Common Core Standards breathing down our necks, educators need more resources that students can use to learn, such as technology that works, interactive readings and mathematics lessons, and more time to plan collaboratively with teachers of other disciplines, grades, and expertise.
What we’re getting is a system that requires teachers to spend hours writing or rewriting lesson plans to meet the new guidelines, to meet with administrators to coordinate scoring rubrics, and to defend what we’ve always done in every other year, but now have to write down. If the goal was to create evaluations that mimicked the business world, then congratulations; it’s just as ineffective as your average corporate annual review.
Again, it’s the students who will really pay for the damage in time, in money and in lost resources. I give this new teacher ratings system about five years before the corporate world and the Koch brothers move on to something else they can try to ruin. Until then, the race to the bottom will be quick.
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Melissa Harris Perry wrote an open letter to Florida’s Prosecutor Angela Cory – the same Angela Cory who sent Marissa Alexander to jail for 20 years for firing a warning shot to scare off her abusive husband, and the same Angela Cory whose prosecution team allowed George Zimmerman to walk free after killing Trayvon Martin.
And in her letter, Perry shed some light on a little nugget that I’m sure many have missed, that Angela Cory appears to penalize the victims more than she does the perpetrators. Melissa focused her letter on Cory’s prosecution on Merissa, but her words could have very well be for Cory’s failure in finding justice for Zimmerman’s victim, Trayvon Martin.
There is nothing like being home for the holidays with your loved ones. So I can only imagine that this Thanksgiving is particularly bittersweet for Marissa Alexander, who was granted a special pre-trial release at 10:30 PM on Wednesday – Thanksgiving Eve – after spending more than 1000 days in jail, and barely seeing her youngest child who just recently turned three.
But my letter is not to Marissa. Sis, I am saving that one for when you are finally freed for good. No, my letter this week is to the woman that worked to put you in jail in the first place: Florida State Attorney for the fourth judicial circuit, Angela Corey.
Dear Angela Corey, It’s me, Melissa.
Angela, there are few times in life that we get second chances to right our wrongs. Well Angela, this is yours.
You have been called a fierce victim’s advocate, so it is way past time that you start acting like it.
Because a woman who was hospitalized in 2009 after being shoved into a bathtub and hitting her head – she is a victim.
A woman whose estranged husband has admitted to abusing all five mothers of his kids – she is his victim.
And when that woman, that victim, who has just recently given birth, fires a warning shot near the man that has cornered her in her home – she is a victim who feels she has no other recourse.
But that is part of the problem, Angela. You never saw Marissa as a victim. You saw Marissa as the aggressor and even justified why the infamous “Stand Your Ground” law was not applied in Marissa’s case.
Because, as you put it, she was not fleeing from an abuser, even though Rico Gray, her estranged husband, has admitted telling Marissa that he would kill her if she ever cheated on him.
You have said that the shot fired was not consistent with a warning shot because it was at adult head height. Marissa is three inches shorter than Rico Gray.
And according to you she didn’t have to get 20 years in jail. That also was her fault, right Angela? You said to NBC’s the Grio back in May: “She didn’t have to get 20 years, because I took into account their prior domestic history and her lack of a [criminal] record, and we offered her the three year mandatory minimum.”
Marissa is a mother of three. And she is a victim of abuse.
Any mother knows that one day away from her child is 24 hours too long.And when you are an abuse victim, you have to believe that the courts will finally free you from the cycle of violence instead of criminalizing you for trying to protect yourself.
If nothing else, the last two years should have shown you that an aggressive prosecution is not always the best one.
So while I know Marissa is thankful this holiday to be home with her family while she awaits her new trial on March 31st, 2014, maybe you should spend this holiday being thankful that you have a second chance to right this obvious wrong.
Sincerely,
Melissa
Today, Bernie Sanders almost made it official. In an appearance on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, Sanders was asked to respond to the many speculations that he may run for president in 2016.
After spending most of the segment discussing the improvements in the Obamacare website, host Ed Schultz asked, “what are the possibilities of you running for the Democratic nomination or Independent nod to be a presidential candidate.”
Sanders responds;
Well Ed this is what I said. There are enormous problems facing this country you and I talked have talked about them. Income wealth inequality, massive high unemployment, fact that we are the only country in the industrialize world which doesn’t guarantee healthcare to all people, global warming.
It seems to me it will be a real disgrace if we had a campaign with those issues, the needs of working family, the needs of the middle class, the needs of the elderly were not front and center. We need people out there fighting for ordinary people and not simply taking campaign contributions from the wealthy and a powerful. So what I have said and that candidate is needed. And if somebody else doesn’t step up, I am prepared to do it.
You got my vote Bernie, but if Hillary runs… well, I’m gonna have to think about this.
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A 72-year-old who suffered from Alzheimer’s was shot dead after wandering onto a man’s property early Wednesday morning, ringing the doorbell and turning the door handle. After Joe Hendrix’s fiancé called 911 to report a possible intruder, Hendrix went outside to take matters into his own hands, and fired four shots at a silhouette in his yard, killing Ronald Westbrook.
Hendrix admitted to shooting Westbrook in the yard of his rural northern Georgia home after calling out to him and hearing no answer. The county sheriff said Hendrix went outside after waiting 9 or 10 minutes for the police, while his fiancé was still on the phone with the 911 dispatcher. The county sheriff said was “certain” he and his fiance felt threatened.
The incident is the latest in a series of fatal shootings by residents who said they feared an intruder. Last month, protests erupted while a Detroit-area district attorney mulled whether she would file charges against a homeowner who shot a 19-year-old girl, reportedly seeking help after a car accident. Theodore P. Wafer was ultimately charged with murder, but his lawyer invoked the language of the state’s “shoot first” laws that authorize deadly force in self-defense, suggesting Wafer may seek immunity against charges.
Like Michigan and Florida, Georgia has an aggressive law that permits deadly force in self-defense, both inside and outside the home. Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson told the Times Free Press in Chattanooga, Tenn., that he expected the district attorney to consider Georgia’s Stand Your Ground law in deciding whether to press charges
Categories
The Wages Are Sinful
You’ve heard about the healthcare website. You’ve heard about Iran. You’ve heard about the fiscal negotiations. You’ve eaten, shopped, dozed, decorated and lit candles.
Get ready for the wage fight, which could be the most important issue we’ll face in the next few months. On Thursday, fast food workers in 100 cities plan to strike at fast food outlets across the country to publicize the fight for a livable minimum wage. Right now, that wage is $7.25 per hour and hasn’t kept pace with the cost of living or the rate of inflation…ever. To give you some perspective, and to show just how old I am, I remember my first job at Korvettes making $2.50 per hour in 1977. The present wage isn’t even three times that much and over 35 years have passed.
The protests now are asking for a wage of $15 dollars per hour, which still isn’t much, but would allow some people to actually live a middle class existence without having to get more than one job. Consider these statistics from this article about one such person who is trying to survive on the minimum wage:
According to a study released in October, only 13 percent of fast-food workers get health-insurance benefits at work. In New York State, three in five have received some form of government assistance in the last five years. Meanwhile, executive pay and profits in the industry are on the rise. Last winter, Bloomberg News determined that it would take a Chicago McDonald’s worker who earns $8.25 an hour more than a century on the clock to match the $8.75 million that the company’s chief executive made in 2011.The classic image of the high-school student flipping Big Macs after class is sorely out of date. Because of lingering unemployment and a relative abundance of fast-food jobs, older workers are increasingly entering the industry. These days, according to the National Employment Law Project, the average age of fast-food workers is 29. Forty percent are 25 or older; 31 percent have at least attempted college; more than 26 percent are parents raising children. Union organizers say that one-third to one-half of them have more than one job — like Mr. Shoy, who is 58 and supports a wife and children.
The argument against a rise on the minimum wage has always centered around the notion that raising the wage would force small businesses to lay off workers because labor costs would eat into profits. I can see this happening to a certain extent to local businesses and independent stores, but there’s simply not a lot of evidence to suggest that this would be an issue for large retail outlets, fast-food restaurants or national chain stores. In fact, the data suggests that raising the wage would even help the economy and lift spending, which would then allow companies to hire more workers to meet demand.
The other problem is that this is a moral issue that is reaching far beyond what many people consider to be a teenage, burger-flipping concern. More and more families rely on the minimum wage to get by and more adults, whose higher paying jobs have fled or disappeared, are now working the lower paying jobs. Children are now in danger of living below the poverty line. That’s a huge concern.
We are living in a country where the top wage earners have seen a fabulous rise in their incomes, and for the most part they have earned that. But if we don’t help those who struggle at the bottom–people who are working–then what does that say about our country?
There’s an argument about what might happen if we raise the wage, but we know what will happen if we don’t raise it. Make this a personal issue. Respect the fast food strike on Thursday. Make sure that all people get their shot at the American Dream.
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