Friday, August 30, 2013

Video: GOP Congressionals Were Invited to 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington but Refused to Attend


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Most telling was Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina whose excuse was that he was going to be in South Carolina at that time.

Distance Charleston to DC (according to Google Earth) 531 miles.  Distance Passenger jets fly in an hour (According to ChaCha.com) 587 mph.  Yes, of course, there's check in, baggage, security gates, etc. and then booking a room in DC.  Oh Wait! Tim Scott is a US Senator who should have a regular place all settled so he can attend the Senate, right?

Tim Scott would be the currently most important symbol of how far we've come besides the President himself.  But even he had to play by the GOP rules.  

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Proven: There is Secret Database of Gunowners! Guess Who Owns It. Video, With Explanation


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All this time Wayne La Pierre has been warning about a secret database being built to be used to harm your and your family's life or lifestyle, and he was right!  He knew, because his group owns that data base!

The NRA uses the list, possibly with your name on it, to convince corrupt politicians that you are a mindless right wing beast that will vote for those who cut gun control (because you crave going on TV to talked about you murdered innocent loved ones, maybe?), give massive tax cuts to the Romney-Koch Brother class, and cut assistance to the poor and the -- already paid for by each working person through tax -- Social Security (proof here that you have paid for up to 40 years full income Social Security by retirement), even though those government actions would actually cost middle and low income people their jobs rather than boosting the economy.

There is apparently no way to get off the NRA list of gun owners.

If you won't or can't view the video, what else you need to know is:

The NRA not only collects the names, etc of their own members (at $30 a year, membership is less membership than a magazine subscription and a way to sell your personal info to advertisers and political groups) but gun safety classes from NRA verified instructors often required by state governments -- attendance at guns shows, and, I'm guessing, regular gun stores. 

There may be no way to get your name off the data base.

The video above explains.

An important point is that what a group knows about your private life can be used to lie to you in without rebuttal by opponents or verification from the media.

Now it becomes clear why so many think Obama is a fascist coming to take their guns, a barrage of propaganda from the NRA and right wing political groups to cover the fact that they have the secret list of gun owners which they use to sell to interest groups and to influence government themselves.






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Monday, August 19, 2013

The Truth About Food Stamps


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Typical right wing BS starts this video,..  The Congressman  finds a father who works hard for a living and wife that isn't fat because she mixes in just enough hamburger or even beans to the spaghetti and cheap sauce to keep the family healthy and then he uses that example to actually claim that the couple is committing food stamp fraud because they can get a decent exercise outfit out of the thrift store at 1/10th of a discount store). (but don't worry because he's probably lying anyway as Reagan once did over the "young buck buying steak" and "welfare queens" he often talked about. (We forgive the former president  because of his Alzheimer's problems that began to affect his thinking decades before his death.)

Funny how the GOP is starting this jihad against the poor, right after they forced millions of women into childbirth of mouths they can't feed, since their creepy anti-abortion laws have made it nearly impossible, especially for working class and poor women to get an abortion.

Of course they want to change the subject so they can win the next election, even though they have harmed women, men, and their families with their anti-woman jihad but all they have to do is get the white men and women to blame minorities and the young and they surge back to more power in 2014! (plus they have their installed state wide Gerrymandering gambits, but they need an excuse for winning n inordinate number of races).  Notice the front row of the Congressman's audience is all white women.  Women of all types have been particularly hard hit by repeated attacks by the Republican party on what used to be called the middle class, but is increasingly the working class as GOP policies took money from the middle class (by destroying unions, refusing to raise the minimum wage, throwing out massive tax cuts for fat cats who then buy up and install an increasingly affluent white male Congress and state legislatures and expand proven Gerrymandering to keep them that way).  Then they stand up there pretending that they are working class too though the US gives each US Congressman $170,000 per year or more (I haven't kept up with the boosts for inflation) for about less than 30 weeks of work, and reimburses for all their necessary travel to attend to their legislative duties in DC and at home, and get a stipend they can use for DC residence though that money isn't dependent on how or where they live which is why some live in their offices. 

( Former Rep Ron Paul was allegedly accused by a former supporter of double dipping by getting money from a group the advocated for him and the US Treasury-- which the former Congressman says was a mistake and fixed -- I don't mean to claim Congressman Paul acted unethically, but with all the whining by Congress about how their salaries have to cover travel, and a DC address, I had thought the folks needed that $170+k. )

See Salaries and Benefits of U.S. Congress Members for up to date information.

At least now the GOP can't be so obvious about the race of aid recipients.  We were too quiet in the 80s, because we didn't have the Internet to talk back to the Mainstream news that wouldn't fight the battle for truth and risk their big salaries.  Now at least they have to let their racist followers decide in their own mind that aid recipients are of dark skin, and show one white surfer on food stamps to imply there is a massive scamming of the program.

What is actually creepy, is that more and more farms are owned by mega corporations, and farm subsidies have been shown to promote scamming by farmers big and small with the plowing of unusable land to get more money (a gambit I bet is used more by corporations than family based farm groups). but farm subsidies have to be increased while GOP candidates get as close to the Strapping Young Buck and Welfare Queen crap fed to ailing President Reagan and from him to the public in the 80s and plot to take away food stamps from struggling families.

Video: Martin Bashir Talks To Lee Daniels About "The Butler"


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Sunday, August 18, 2013

Real Cash Money. How to Make Wall Street Work for Us


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And, of course some serious action on minimum wage which would have to be raised to over $15-22 depending on region of the nation to equal what it did in the late sixties.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Obama Rodeo Clown Banned for Life From Missouri State Fair


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That's sad, it's probably an old man they talked into putting on the mask who will suffer economically, but his asshole buddies thought they'd get creds with haters for the stunt. 

Shorter URL= http://bit.ly/1btRXQQ

Sunday, August 11, 2013

John Kasich and Republicans Stab Ohio in the Back Again. After Ohio Voters Reject Restrictions on Abortion Rights


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You have to be amazed at GOP gall.  The people flat out reject some measure but their fat cat buddies want it so the put it into law by a vote in their legislature.  Or by Government decree.  Whatever it takes.

I guess those people who've always wanted to live in a dictatorship or a Soviet style nation, without the guaranteed pay and health care should be very pleased by the Gerrymandered power in Republican dominated states.

Benghazi Fever Responsible for Latest Embassy Closings

Images of 2012 Attack on Benghazi, Libya Consulate from Aug 2013 New Yorker

The GOP led by Darrell Issa, which had played Watergate 2.0 over some ATF decisions among staff in Arizona, used the attack on the Libyan Consulate in Benghazi to start Watergate 3.0, making wild claims and allegations with no evidence other than insinuations from right wing media.

Esteemed Middle East Analyst Juan Cole says GOP over-reaction after the Benghazi Attacks led to the closings this month in the Middle East which has harmed the image of the United States in the world.

the GOP is inadvertently pushing the US into a posture of dangerous diplomatic weakness.  This weakness is clear in the unprecedented closing of 21 US embassies in the Middle East this weekend because of a vague terrorist threat apparently emanating from “al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” based in Yemen. The Obama administration most likely took this weird step to insulate itself from any further witch hunts of the sort the Republicans launched over the tragic attack on a CIA safe house doubling as a US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2011.  
(I would never attempt to correct Mr. Cole a well recognized expert on the Middle East and events there, but my memory and a Google search agrees the attack took place in 2012. That must not diminish what he has said.  He was superior in his insight as to any success the United States would have in finding any program to develop WMDs or evidence of any useful examples of such items in Iraq from before any troops, or even inspectors stepped foot on their sovereign soil.)

Liz Cheney, Caught Lying About Wyoming Residency to Save $68 on A Fishing License, Frames Clerk Who Processed It


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Kinda like Daddy Warbucks stealing napkins from a restaurant, except that Mr. W never ran for office so it wouldn't have been so important if he did do such a stupid, corrupt stunt.

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Saturday, August 10, 2013

As Russia Cracks Down on Homosexuals, Calls Emerge to Move the 2014 Winter Olympics. Is Russia Like Germany in the Thirties?


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As George Takei points out Vancouver still has facilities available to host the Olympics.


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How Do You Feel about this?

Should the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Be Moved?
  
pollcode.com free polls 

Friday, August 9, 2013

Lawrence O'Donnell Questions NYT Reporter Charlie Savage on His Revelations of NSA Spying on Emails


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First of all, man does Mr. Savage look tired. His probable long lesson in patience in school due to his last name, must have served him well yesterday. He probably was on every news show beamed from New York -except FOX which doesn't deal with facts only allegations and innuendos.   I think this discussion explains and demystifies the latest NSA outrage, and explains the latest revelations in a straight forward manner.  It doesn't seem so awful to me.  And I helps me forgive the NYT for Judith Miller's  trolling for the Bush administration (probably inspired by a need to "make a name for herself" rather than GOP dollars or promises, but still).

Shorter URL:  http://bit.ly/15mgxx1

"Here's a link to Savage's NYT piece in case you want to read it for yourself. 

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Video: Obstacles Rosa Parks Faced in Registering to Vote and Texas Actions After SCOTUS Decision Shows Why the Voting rights Act Was and Is Still Needed.


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As soon as the pre approval section of the Voting Rights Acts was ended by the SCOTUS this year, Texas dropped plans to redo a redistricting scheme that disappeared minority districts into white ones a clear violation of the act itself.  Also, before the VRA, poll taxes and other hurdles made it difficult for minorities to get registered before the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.

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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

American Right Wing Media Also Shown to Have Been Involved in Inspiring Boston Bombing


Remember how we noted on the day of the attack that the day was not only the hated "Tax Day" but also "Patriots Day"?

Excerpts:
Extremist U.S. newspapers and other publications found in the apartment of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev reveal a broad interest in far-flung conspiracy theories, well beyond the Islamist radicalism authorities allege motivated the attack
...
The papers included The First Freedom, an Alabama-based newspaper that espouses "equal rights for whites" and whose websites features a Confederate flag. Another was The Sovereign, a New York-based publication that alleges the U.S. is under the sway of Israeli lobbyists, and that Israel and the Department of Homeland Security were "deeply involved" in the Boston bombings. Neither paper returned requests for comment.
Mr. Tsarnaev got his own subscription to American Free Press, a paper that the Southern Law Poverty Center said promotes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. A spokeswoman for the paper denied it had such an agenda, saying the paper publishes "news that the established media won't."
...
Terror experts said extremist U.S. literature and Islamist readings may reach vastly different audiences but the themes are largely the same. Both suggest wide-ranging plots by the U.S. and Israeli governments; that time is running out before an intended apocalypse, and heroes must act before it is too late.
 (Excerpt consistent and below allowed as detailed in statement by District Court in Democratic Underground v Righthaven  -- less than 10% of original article)

Luckily white right wing radicalism hasn't been shown to have inspired terrorism in the past.  Oh wait.  Waco, OKC, Oregon bank bombing.

To read report you can:

Click on link below if you have a WSJ digital account or will purchase one immediately.

Boston Bombing Suspect Was Steeped in Conspiracies

Or go to Google News (or possibly other news search) and search on the title as shown in link above.
Publications must offer a small number of visits to money-locked articles per day to non-subscribers if they want to be included in the service.  That's how I was able to read it.

Kudos to the reporter who noticed the name of the subscriber to the older publications while being shown Tamerlan's apartment.

Picture above is widely available on the Internet

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Sunday, August 4, 2013

Ohio GOP Group Investigated by IRS Helped Fat Cats Stop Fair Redistricting, and Enslave The State's Citizens


The GOP is having a tantrum over supposed illegality of investigating their "Social Welfare" groups in Ohio.  But Social Welfare groups are actually classified as "charities".  That is why they are to be given a tax exempt status and protection from donor disclosure.

Now charities for say feeding poor women and children, might want to stretch their effectiveness by working to get the local, state, or federal government to kick in to feed the downtrodden folks as well, and therefore maximize their efforts to actually get a decent diet for such citizens.  God knows it's needed and it has been done for many decades, in fact since FDR.  Before that, we got by by letting many of the poor get weak and succumb to diseases or die of starvation outright.

So, to increase fairness the Eisenhower administration changed the 501(c)4 groups to  be "primarily" social welfare (charity) groups.

Later political pressure from big money people brought that down to 51% of work of the 501(c)4 needing to be charitable. That's hardly a good definition of primarily, but it still had some control.

But the political groups that created copious right wing 501(c)4 groups in Ohio and then did little but political actions, and no charity at all, are now having tantrums  about not being able to have donor masking and tax exemptions, and much of the news system is refusing to explain why they are wrong to do so.

This is an extreme example of the he said/she said wimpiness of "The Press".

But lets examine what one group, the one who worked to defeat an mandate for new and fair redistricting in the state of Ohio, caused to not happen. The above picure shows the results of the 2012 election for US House representatives form Ohio.

 Excerpt USA Today report (which is linked near bottom of this report):
Protect Your Vote Ohio was never incorporated in the state, according to the Ohio Secretary of State's website. Yet it was a big contributor in the campaign to defeat Issue 2, the 2012 ballot initiative that would have given a citizen's panel the ability to draw congressional districts in Ohio.
Let's compare the results of the 2012 House elections in the state with the 2012 presidential election which isn't cut up into districts.

Of the 16 districts 12 went to GOP candidates 4 went to Democrats.

That means people voting for Democrats for House seats won 25% of the districts.  But comparing that number with the presidential election (because 2 House votes were for 1 candidate elections and for ease) Obama  and Romney each won nearly 50% of the state vote.  So suddenly a Democratic vote for a US House Representative becomes half as valuable as a 1 to 1 comparison.

Your vote for in state representation is likely to be no more fairly treated than that for US House races. I don't have the numbers on that right now though.

To compare your voting status in Ohio it to a slave's status before the civil war, if slaves were worth 3/5ths of a person and a full citizen is worth 5/5ths of a person.  A Democratic vote in Ohio US House races is worth 2.5/5ths of a person. Less than an antebellum slave.

Republicans' votes are worth no more than Democrats' though because if you can't change your mind without losing half your rights, you don't have those rights to begin with.

Everyone in Ohio is worth less than a slave.

That's why an initiative was started to break that gambit of enslaving Ohioans by allowing the citizens of the state to vote for better representation in November 2012.

I'm guessing the money flowed though to the group in question which paid for ads and media exposure to confuse the people of Ohio, and now this political group wants it's donors to be able to give tax free non-disclosed donations as if it is a social welfare group ie a charity.

2.5/5ths of a person, Ohio.  Does that sound good to you?  I'd hate it.  I like being a full person, and am happy that I live in California where we passed citizen enabled redistricting.

You should work on your own state passing such a proposition in the next election cycle, if you don't want to be worth less than slaves to the Koch brothers and other wealthy individuals who are reaping the rewards of Gerrymandering out of your hard work.

The leader of the US House Investigations and Government reform committee is GOP Congressman Darrell Issa who represents CA49 North San Diego and South Orange Counties including Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, etc.  He has been adamant in defending such groups as I have written about in this article who are pretending they are charities, but are political activism groups without any charitable activities.

Above picture of slave memorial in Africa used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user "Son of Groucho" who has no connection to this blog or blogger.

Info on GOP group that helped stop fair redistricting found at USA Today: Ohio groups targeted by IRS spin web of connections

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