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Democratic Politics Republican Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Bashing

Elections Do Have Consequences, As Seen In Wisconsin

Elections have consequences, and the people of Wisconsin are dealing with the consequences of electing a Republican governor, along with Republican majorities in both the Wisconsin Senate and House Assembly. The mid-term election started the ball rolling, and it is culminating in massive rallies by the people of that state, demanding a recall of the governor, Mr. Scott Walker.

The governor however, along with his Republican majority in both chambers are choosing not to listen to the will of the people and are going forward with their plans to pass a bill geared towards taking away the power from the working Wisconsinite.

What’s all the fuss about?  Unions

Unions are despised by Republicans for a number of reasons – the main ones being;

  • Unions represent a large section of the average middle class working American. A representation that includes negotiating with business owners, Corporations and government officials to secure better working conditions, better pay, holiday allotments, health care packages and in some cases, retirement options for their members. The very nature of these negotiations are to benefit the union member, thus, it is considered by most Republican as putting the business owners, Corporations or government officials at a disadvantage.
  • It is common knowledge that Unions represent the working middle class. Therefore, they support political candidates who look out for the best interest of their members. Almost all the time, those political candidates would be from the Democratic party.

The struggle by Republicans to silence Unions in this country and take away their negotiating privileges has been going on for decades, and now, what’s happening in Wisconsin is the envy of other Republican governors and state legislatures across this nation. Today, in a final vote that is expected to pass the Republican controlled government, Unions will in essence, be silenced.

What’s in the Bill?

The bill – which passed the Legislature Budget committee on Wednesday with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats voting against it – will, among other things,  require public workers to pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage. It will also take away the collective bargaining rights of the unions representing these workers.

“I think the taxpayers will support this idea,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald had the nerve to say. But taxpayers seem to feel a different way. Over the last 3 days, thousands have gathered in opposition of the measure.

Yahoo News Reports;

“I’m sad. Scared. Disappointed,” said Kelly Dzurick, a 31-year-old fifth-grade teacher in Elkhorn, who came to the Capitol on Wednesday night. “Nobody’s listening to what people say.”

Democrats have been powerless to stop the bill.

“The story around the world is the rush to democracy,” said Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar. “The story in Wisconsin is the end of the democratic process.”

Yes, elections do have consequences, and what’s happening in Wisconsin is just the beginning of a dangerously empowered Republican party.

UPDATE:  Where Are The Democrats?

In a shocking turn of events, Wisconsin congressional Democrats have all disappeared, causing the final vote on this controversial bill by Republicans to be post-poned. The NY Times reports;

By noon, Ted Blazel, the sergeant-at-arms, began making his way through the Capitol building, packed with chanting protesters (elated at the development), in search of a Democrat — in offices, under desks, in corridors. “Nothing yet,” he said, his forehead drenched in sweat.

If none of the lawmakers were found in the building, the Wisconsin State Patrol would be assigned to begin searching for them elsewhere, said a Senate official.

Inside the Capitol, speculation swirled: Were the Democrats together somewhere, maybe even in another state by now?

The presumed reason for their disappearance is that Democrats — and thousands of teachers, state workers and students — vigorously oppose the Republican-backed bill that would sharply curtail the collective bargaining rights and slash benefits for most public sector workers, including teachers, in the state. Republicans control the Senate by a 19-to-14 margin, but 20 senators — and thus, at least one Democrat — are needed to vote on a bill.

At the time this post was written, the Democrats were found – all of them – in a neighboring state of Rockford Illinois. They have since disappeared again in an effort to give more time to the demonstrators to pressure Republicans into listening to the demands of the Wisconsin people.

Stay tuned…

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Barack Obama Egypt White House

Obama Ordered Secret Report on Egypt Uprising Last August

Seems the Obama Administration had their hand on the pulse of the Egypt uprising since last August. According to reporting from The New York Times, President Obama ordered a secret report  detailing areas of unrest in the Arab world, and ways to assist the people of this region to peacefully absolve the  political conflict. The report, called The Presidential Study Directive, focused on Egypt and other places, including Yemen and Bahrain.

The Times report states;

In Yemen, too, officials said Mr. Obama worried that the administration’s intense focus on counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda was ignoring a budding political crisis, as angry young people rebelled against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, an autocratic leader of the same vintage as Mr. Mubarak.

“Whether it was Yemen or other countries in the region, you saw a set of trends” — a big youth population, threadbare education systems, stagnant economies and new social network technologies like Facebook and Twitter — that was a “real prescription for trouble,” another official said.

The White House held weekly meetings with experts from the State Department, the C.I.A. and other agencies. The process was led by Dennis B. Ross, the president’s senior adviser on the Middle East; Samantha Power, a senior director at the National Security Council who handles human rights issues; and Gayle Smith, a senior director responsible for global development.

The administration kept the project secret, officials said, because it worried that if word leaked out, Arab allies would pressure the White House, something that happened in the days after protests convulsed Cairo.

Read the Times Report here.

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Barack Obama Politics Republican United States

Boehner Sheds No Tears For “200,000” Americans Out Of Jobs

“In the last two years, under President Obama, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs,” Boehner said. “If some of those jobs are lost so be it. We’re broke.”

Okay! Forget the fact that Boehner is lying about the job figure. Independent researchers have come up with drastically smaller figures, somewhere around 20,000. But let’s say for argument sake that Boehner is correct. Should “so be it” be the appropriate response to putting 200,000 American families out of work and possibly out on the street?

John Boehner and his Republican comrades won the House of Representatives and gained seats in the Senate in November mainly because of a promise to “create jobs.” He traveled from state to state, district to district campaigning on the platform of “Where’s the jobs?” and accusing the Obama administration of being mis-guided with their domestic policies.

After the mid-term elections, it was Boehner who was heard in an interview with ABC news saying;

“I think the American people want us to focus on their message during the election: stop the spending, get rid of the uncertainty. Let’s get around to creating jobs again and staying focused on what the American people want us to focus on is my number one priority.”

What happened to his “number one priority?” Well, it came to a head-on collision with the reality of actually governing. John Boehner is slowly beginning to realize that actually “creating jobs” like he and his allies had promised is easier said than done. He’s seeing that being responsible for one branch of the federal government means people are going to look to you to actually get things done. No longer is just saying “no” to all the president’s policies acceptable.

So what’s a Boehner to do?

Create a distraction. He’s not going to come out and say to the American people, “Listen, I can’t create jobs because I am totally in over my head and this governing thing is a lot harder than I thought it would be.” No, that will be suicide for the Republican party to renig on one of its major campaign platform promises. And his incompetence as Speaker of the House will not be forgotten in 2012.

So the distraction would be to pivot. Take the focus off of ‘creating” jobs and make it about the so-called 200,000 unnecessary federal jobs created by the Obama administration. Now Boehner knew this number was inflated, but he had to go big, big enough so that the Teaparty would be impressed with his ability to cut unnecessary spending. After all, that too was another promise he made, “cut unnecessary spending.”

However, in his haste to create the illusion of being on the job and uncovering massive savings by eliminating 200,000 unnecessary federal jobs, Boehner unintentionally created another headline asking where are his tears for the 200,000 families he would single-handedly place on the unemployment line?

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Immigration Reform Politics Republican United States White House

Haley Barbour – For Immigration Reform Before He Was Against It

In today’s political climate, any Republican in favor of providing a pathway to citizenship for those here illegally would face the wrath of the GOP and the Teaparty. So a potential 2012 Presidential Republican candidate would have every right to hide that fact.

Enter Haley Barbour – the Republican Mississippi governor who was interviewed on Fox News and spoke about his ambitions for 2012. Questions were asked about Barbour’s history as a lobbyist, and in his effort to defend his position, Barbour seemed to forget one very important client he had when lobbying – The Embassy of Mexico.

Time reports;

Barbour may be eager to showcase his record, but one of Barbour’s foreign lobbying clients could cause him some troubles in the 2012 Republican primary, if he decides to run. According to a Justice Department filing by Barbour’s former lobbying firm, The Embassy of Mexico decided to retain Barbour’s services on August 15, 2001, to work on, among other things, legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for foreigners living illegally in the United States—what opponents of immigration reform call “amnesty.”

“Haley Barbour and I will lead the BG&R team,” wrote Lanny Griffith, Barbour’s former business partner, in the filing. According to subsequent filings, Barbour’s work included “building support in the legislative branch for passage of a bill related to Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.” As part of that work, Barbour’s firm arranged meetings and briefings with “Senators, members of Congress and their staff, as well as Executive Branch Officials in the White House, National Security Council, State Department, and Immigration & Naturalization Service.” Barbour’s firm charged Mexico $35,000 a month, plus expenses.

Could it be that Haley Barbour was once for amnesty? What would the Teaparty say if they found out about his amnesty providing past?

Mr. Barhour says he will wait until April to announce whether or not he will run for president in 2012. Until then, there are a lot of questions to be answered but chances are he’s not gonna be asked these type of questions over at the Republican branding FOX network.

Read the full Time report here.

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Abortion Featured House of Representatives South Dakota

Republicans Trying to Legalize Killing Abortion Doctors

If the Republicans in South Dakota gets their way, killing an abortion doctor will be legal. No, that wasn’t a misprint. A bill being pushed by House Republicans in South Dakota’s congress will redefine the term “justifiable homicide” to include killing anyone who brings harm to a fetus. The bill, HB 1170 has already passed the committee with a vote of 9 – 3, and will be brought to the floor of the House of Representatives for a final vote.

According to reports by Mother Jones;

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Phil Jensen, a committed foe of abortion rights, alters the state’s legal definition of justifiable homicide by adding language stating that a homicide is permissible if committed by a person “while resisting an attempt to harm” that person’s unborn child or the unborn child of that person’s spouse, partner, parent, or child. If the bill passes, it could in theory allow a woman’s father, mother, son, daughter, or husband to kill anyone who tried to provide that woman an abortion—even if she wanted one.

Protecting the unborn fetus can be considered an admirable trait, but what happens after the baby is born and grows up to become… I don’t know, maybe… an abortion doctor? At what point is it really okay to protect the unborn but kill the living?

More on this story from Mother Jones here

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Egypt Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck Tells His Followers – Don’t Use Google!

Don’t look now, but Glenn Beck has a new conspiracy theory, one that he has verified (in his head) and has determined to be true. According to this nut-job, Google is a “government propaganda” machine responsible for the  uprising in Egypt and those in Iran in 2009.

But in order not put words in Beck’s mouth, let me pass the chalk over to the man worshiped by millions of followers in radio land and on Fox-We Make This Stuff Up-News!

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Domestic Policies Indiana New York United States

Auto Bailout Worked – General Motors Shares its Profits with Employees

Most would consider this good news, but those wishing for America’s destruction simply for political gains will not be happy over this. General Motors, the company that received $50 billion from tax payers in the form of a “bail-out,” has recovered to the point where they are now giving checks in the amount of $4,000 or more, to 45,000 hourly American workers through profit sharing.

The New York Times reports;

The checks will be worth “upwards of $4,000,” a G.M. spokeswoman, Sherrie Childers-Arb, said. That is more than double the company’s previous record of $1,775, paid in 2000.

About 3,000 G.M. workers at four plants in New York, Michigan and Indiana that were formerly part of the Delphi Corporation will receive about $3,000 each.

In all, G.M. will give at least $189 million of its profit back to plant workers.

If Republicans had their way, General Motors would have been a faint memory, causing hundreds of thousand to loose their jobs. Since receiving the bailout, GM has recovered, restructured its product and the company’s goals. Between January and September of 2010 GM saw profits of $4.2 billion.

Read the New York Time’s report here.

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CNN Michele Bachmann Republican United States USA PATRIOT Act

Bachmann Disappoints Her Fans Again

In a shocking twist, we find out that Michele Bachmann is just another opportunistic politician. Well, maybe not shocking, but after promising the Teaparty that she will promote “small government,” Bachmann voted ‘yes’ for a bill that represents one of the largest government intrusion into the lives of ordinary Americans – the Patriot Act.

She explains the reason for her vote on her Facebook page;

Today I voted for a temporary extension of three legal authorities in the Patriot Act. This vote was not for a full reauthorization of the Patriot Act. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I look forward to briefings and reports from our intelligence community that will help us develop longer term solutions as we protect our nation against international terrorism.

Her fans are not happy

Well, this didn’t go over too well with her Facebook fans. Page after page of negative responses were posted in reference to Michele’s vote. Below is a small section from some angry fans:

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Domestic Policies Republican United States washington

Sacrificing America’s Future Is The Republican Way

The Republican Party would like Americans to believe they are all for deficit reduction. Of course, their position on the deficit and spending can easily be refuted by the free pass they gave the Bush Administration, who conducted business in Washington like they were playing with monopoly money. That said, the Teaparty was hatched to keep Obama  in check, and the November midterm election saw much of their members elected to Congress.

They rode into Washington claiming to have a mandate from the Teaparty the –reduction of America’s  deficit–and in keeping with this mandate, Republican leaders in the house  began making the usual promises . One of those promises was a reduction of $100 billion, a feat easier said than done, and one that can only be accomplished through drastically slashing services that benefit many Americans. The Teaparty demanded these spending cuts, and the House Republicans are determined to please.

So what’s a Republicans to do?

Paul Krugman – a nobel price winner for Economics – wrote an article in then New York Times in which he explains the plight the Republican leaders face. As Krugman explains, Republicans will “sacrifice the future.”

Focus the cuts on programs whose benefits aren’t immediate; basically, eat America’s seed corn. There will be a huge price to pay, eventually — but for now, you can keep the base happy.

If you didn’t understand that logic, you might be puzzled by many items in the House G.O.P. proposal. Why cut a billion dollars from a highly successful program that provides supplemental nutrition to pregnant mothers, infants, and young children? Why cut $648 million from nuclear nonproliferation activities? (One terrorist nuke, assembled from stray ex-Soviet fissile material, can ruin your whole day.) Why cut $578 million from the I.R.S. enforcement budget? (Letting tax cheats run wild doesn’t exactly serve the cause of deficit reduction.)

Once you understand the imperatives Republicans face, however, it all makes sense. By slashing future-oriented programs, they can deliver the instant spending cuts Tea Partiers demand, without imposing too much immediate pain on voters. And as for the future costs — a population damaged by childhood malnutrition, an increased chance of terrorist attacks, a revenue system undermined by widespread tax evasion — well, tomorrow is another day.

Sacrificing America’s future just to win the next vote. But then again we are talking about the Republican party, and with them, it has always been party before country, regardless of what John McCain’s 2008 presidential slogan was!

Read Paul Krugman’s Article here.

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Featured Republican Party (United States) South Carolina

South Carolina Wants Their Own Currency… Really!

More Republican foolishness. This time, the people in South Carolina are definitely not getting their money’s worth. The fool? State Sen. Lee Bright (R-Roebuck). His idea? Give South Carolina its own currency!

Senator Lee Bright is not so bright at all. He thinks he has his finger on the pulse of this economy and the United States dollar, and as far as he can tell, the dollar will be worthless because, “many widely recognized experts predict the inevitable destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency through hyperinflation in the foreseeable future.”

So Mr. Bright has introduced legislature in South Carolina, the purpose of which was to create a group of experts who will provide a study detailing the benefits and the best way of implementing the new currency. According to the legislation;

South Carolina can avoid or at least mitigate many of the economic, social, and political shocks to be expected to arise from hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System only through the timely adoption of an alternative sound currency that the state’s government and citizens may employ without delay in the event of the destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency;

Director of South Carolina’s Democratic Caucus Phil Bailey calls the legislation a waste of time;

“It’s a waste of resources. I mean who’s paying for this study? Will they be paid in actual dollars or gold doubloons?”

Pay them in doubloons please!

More on this story here.

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Bill O'Reilly United States

Fox’s Bill O’Reilly Needs A Lesson In Honesty

In the heat of the Health Care battle when all manner of accusations were made against President Obama and the Democrats implementation of  Health Care reform, Senator Tom Coburn accurately said that FOX News were spreading false and misleading information insinuating that Americans will be jailed if they don’t purchase Health Insurance.

Bill O’Reilly, in his effort to prove Mr. Coburn wrong and restore Fox’s unknown reputation for truth-telling, brought the senator on his show, The O’Reilly Factor and did what he does best – lied-  saying no one at FOX ever made the statement.

Of course, it’s all on tape…

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Fox News

Fox Employee Confirms – Fox News Makes Stuff Up

We knew this all along. They call themselves a news channel, but what they broadcast are lies and willful misinformation.  Now, a former employee of FOX NEWS is coming forward with information that the network just made stuff up in an attempt to destroy the  Obama administration and the Democrats.

“It is their M.O. to undermine the administration and to undermine Democrats,” says the source. “They’re a propaganda outfit but they call themselves news.”

The employee spoke in an exclusive interview with Media Matters and confirmed what the rest of the world already knew.

“I don’t think people would believe it’s as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up.

“They say one thing and do another. They insist on maintaining this charade, this façade, that they’re balanced or that they’re not right-wing extreme propagandist.”

“You have to work there for a while to understand the nods and the winks, and God help you if you don’t because sooner or later you’re going to get burned.”

The source continues;

“Like any news channel there’s lot of room for non-news content. The content that wasn’t ‘news,’ they didn’t care what we did with as long as it was amusing or quirky or entertaining;  as along as it brought in eyeballs.  But anything—anything–that was a news story you had to understand what the spin should be on it. If it was a big enough story it was explained to you in the morning [editorial] meeting. If it wasn’t explained, it was up to you to know the conservative take on it. There’s a conservative take on every story no matter what it is. So you either get told what it is or you better intuitively know what it is.”

Yes, FOXNEWS lies. Yes, they make stuff up and yes, they’re a propaganda machine for the right-wing. But their need to stoop this low is not the saddest  part of the story. What’s really sad is their faithful followers who tune in night after night expecting news, and not able or willing to accept the fact that they aren’t getting it.

According to a recent study conducted by World Public Opinion, Fox has the most uninformed viewers among cable news networks. The poll basically found that watching Foxnews makes you stupid. But don’t tell that to their audience. These poor souls continue tuning in – night after lying night – to get their dose of dumbing-down. Some people you just can’t help!

More from the  employee’s interview  here.

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