The WAWG Blog

Republican Redistricting Plans Are Discriminatory and Federal Court Says So – Republican leaders violated US Voting Rights Act in Congressional, State Senate and State House maps. A three-judge Federal District Court panel in Washington, DC has ruled that the redistricting maps adopted by the Texas Legislature last year violate the US Voting Rights Act. The Court determined that Texas Republican leaders enacted maps that reduced the opportunity for minority voters in Texas to elect their candidates of choice and the Court ruled that the Legislature used a process that was intentionally discriminatory in adopting the Congressional and State Senate maps.

Republicans to Declare ‘We Built This!’ in Stadium Built with Government Funds – The Republican National Committee (RNC) announced this week that it would craft its convention theme around President Barack Obama’s “You didn’t build that” remark — which was taken out of context — and the Republicans will unveil their message in an arena that was financed with $86 million in public money.

During a campaign event in Virginia last month, Obama had pointed out the importance of the government’s role in providing infrastructure and education as a foundation for small business success. In a series of ads and speeches, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign selectively edited those remarks by removing the reference to “roads and bridges, ” making it seem like the president was dismissing the success of small business owners. In speeches and videos, the Romney campaign has repeatedly distorted Obama’s words” PolitiFact wrote. “By plucking two sentences out of context, Romney twists the president’s remarks and ignores their real meaning. … Romney and his supporters have misled viewers and given a false impression. For that, we rate the claim False.” But just because it’s been proven false, that won’t stop the Republicans for using it as a theme at their convention.

Texas Government cut more than 6,000 employees – A state auditors report just released shows that the state has eliminated about 6,145 jobs in the past year. Most of those cuts have come in state agencies, but colleges and universities also report that they have cut 336 faculty posts and 580 staff members.

The Legislature slashed state spending last year to deal with a multi-billion shortfall. The numbers of job lost don’t reflect public school teaching jobs, where nearly 11,000 positions were cut.

Romney Campaign Is Looking Through Your Personal Information – Mitt Romney’s campaign began a secretive data-mining project this summer to sort through Americans’ personal information — including their purchasing history and church attendance — to identify new and likely wealthy donors, The Associated Press has learned.

The project employs strategies similar to those the business world uses to influence the way Americans shop and think. Now they’re being used to sway presidential elections. The same personal data consumers give away — often unwittingly when they swipe their credit cards or log into Facebook — is now being used by the people who might one day occupy the White House.

Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is hoarding $300 million from Texas students. – Last November Texas voters approved a Constitutional Amendment to send that $300 million to our kids’ classrooms. Jerry Patterson, the announced candidate for Lt. Governor, is the Chairman of the 3-person School Land Board that has decided to keep $300 million of taxpayer dollars in a fund his office controls instead of funding our schools.

Here is a little more background information on this issue:

• A Constitutional Amendment, Proposition 6, was approved by Texas voters in the November 2011 Constitutional Amendment Election.
• The $300 million was budgeted to support school operations, contingent upon the constitutional amendment’s passage in November and the approval of the School Land Board, which lawmakers thought was guaranteed.
• Patterson has refused to release the $300 million to public education in order to fund “upcoming investment opportunities.”
• On August 21, Jerry Patterson and the School Land Board will meet again and could vote on this very issue.

We have 4 more days to make a difference. Make your voice heard and demand Jerry Patterson listen to the will of Texas voters.

Voter Suppression in Ohio – In Ohio the Republican Party isn’t even trying to hide its intentions. One of Gov. John Kasich’s closest advisers declared that election officials like himself should not “accommodate the urban — read African American — voter-turnout machine,” essentially admitting that their strategy is to limit African Americans’ ability to vote. On Friday, Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted suspended and now may fire two election board members for the offense of — imagine this — seeking to expand access to the polls.

After the 2004 election, which saw thousands of Ohioans waiting in long lines for hours after the polls closed, Ohio sensibly created early voting by mail and in person. County election officials were able to ensure access to the polls for all voters. And in 2008, hundreds of thousands of voters — particularly African Americans — were able to vote early instead of waiting in long lines on Election Day.

But now, Republicans want to change the rules and limit access to early voting to give themselves an unfair advantage. In fact, they expanded early voting opportunities for Republican counties, but gave voters in larger, Democratic counties less time to vote early — even though these counties were precisely the counties that needed early voting because of the long lines in 2004! In response to accusations of unfairness, Secretary of State Husted then limited early voting opportunities for all counties. It’s outrageous.

In the past week, two Democratic election board members in Montgomery County refused to back down to Husted and proposed keeping early voting on the weekends so working people could vote in the election. For that, Husted punished them, suspending them from their positions. Can you believe it? Election officials shouldn’t be fired for trying to expand access to the voting booth.

Tell Secretary of State Jon Husted to reinstate fair early voting rules!

Paul Ryan’s Connection to China and Gambling – Three days after being picked as Romney’s running-mate – Ryan went to Las Vegas to pay homage to Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire who is the poster boy for using money to become “politically connected” in Washington, and getting the “breaks” that come with it. Adelson has promised to donate up to $100 million to make sure Romney and Ryan are in the White House next year.

Much of Adelson’s fortune comes from his casino in Macau, in China, via his money-greased access to Washington. When China’s pitch for the 2008 Olympics was endangered by a House resolution opposing the bid because of China’s “abominable human rights record,” Adelson phoned Tom DeLay, then House majority whip and recipient of Adelson’s political generosity — urging him to block the resolution, which DeLay promptly did. The next day, according to the New York Times, a Chinese vice premier promised Mr. Adelson an endless line of gamblers to the Macau casino.

The money Adelson has committed to putting Romney and Ryan into the White House is a business investment. Adelson has a lot riding on the 2012 election. Last year, his Las Vegas Sands Corporation came under investigation by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — bribing Chinese officials to help expand its casino in Macau. The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, meanwhile, is investigating whether the Sands Corporation violated federal money-laundering laws by accepting more than $100 million from high-rolling gamblers accused of drug trafficking and embezzlement, rather than reporting the suspicious funds to the government.

House Republican Trip to Holy Land with Drinking, Nudity – The FBI probed a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee [on Aug. 18, 2011] that involved drinking, numerous GOP freshmen lawmakers, top leadership staff – and one nude member of Congress, according to more than a dozen sources, including eyewitnesses. During a fact-finding congressional trip to the Holy Land last summer, Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) took off his clothes and jumped into the sea, joining a number of members, their families and GOP staff during a night out in Israel.

The following freshmen lawmakers also went swimming that night: Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.) and his daughter; Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and his wife; Reps. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.), Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.). Many of the lawmakers who ventured into the lake said they did so because of the religious significance of the waters. Others said they were simply cooling off after a long day. Several privately admitted that alcohol may have played a role in why some of those present decided to jump in.

Paul Ryan’s Stimulus Problem – Paul Ryan says his office mishandled constituent requests for stimulus funding, which is why he claimed to have never requested stimulus funds even as the documents told a different story.

The GOP’s new vice presidential candidate has said repeatedly that he has never asked for stimulus funds, but recent reports indicate he has written letters on behalf of local businesses seeking them.

How Todd Akin And Paul Ryan Partnered To Redefine Rape – Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) claimed that “legitimate rape” does not often lead to pregnancy because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” This is not the first time the biologically challenged senate candidate tried to minimize the impact of rape. Last year, Akin joined with GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as two of the original co-sponsors of the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” a bill which, among other things, introduced the country to the bizarre term “forcible rape.”

The 1 Percent Are Stingy – Middle-class Amer­i­cans give a far bigger share of their discretionary income to charities than the rich. Households that earn $50,000 to $75,000 give an average of 7.6 percent of their discretionary income to charity, compared with an average of 4.2 percent for people who make $100,000 or more. In the Washington metropolitan area for example, low- and middle-income communities like Suitland, Md., and Capitol Heights, Md., donate a much bigger share of discretionary income than do wealthier communities like Bethesda, Md., and McLean, Va.

Rich people who live in neighborhoods with many other wealthy people give a smaller share of their incomes to charity than rich people who live in more economically diverse communities. When people making more than $200,000 a year account for more than 40 percent of the taxpayers in a ZIP code, the wealthy residents give an average of 2.8 percent of discretionary income to charity, compared with an average of 4.2 percent for all itemizers earning $200,000 or more.

Senate Republican Candidate to Reporter: ‘Go f–k yourself’ – Michael Baumgartner, a Republican Senate candidate from the great state of Washington, has told a reporter at Seattle Met magazine to “go f–k yourself” after asking Baumgartner to clarify his position on abortion.

Earlier this week, Baumgartner joined a wide swath of Republicans in condemning Rep. Todd Akin for his controversial remarks about “legitimate rape.” But when Met reporter Josh Feit asked him how his position was different than Akin’s, Baumgartner ducked and did not clarify.

Republican Sheriff Candidate Said He Would Use Deadly Force Against People Who Are Not Breaking the Law – Republican Sheriff candidate Frank Szabo indicated that he would not rule out the use of deadly force to prevent an abortion from taking place. That’s right – he’s so pro-life that he would kill someone.

Doctors and patients should never feel threatened –especially by a county Sheriff– when carrying out or receiving a legal procedure. A sheriff’s duty is to enforce laws, not break them in the name of personal motives.

He has since changed his statement to say, “If someone is seeking an elective abortion and certainly a late term abortion, certainly I would arrest them.” Szabo’s promise to arrest people who are not breaking the law completely contradicts the duties of a sheriff.

The Price of Austerity: Record Forest Fire Damage – Spain, stuck in a recession and with almost a quarter of its workforce unemployed, has experienced some of its worst forest fires in almost twenty years this summer with 24,710 acres of land left blackened. Cuts to rural firefighters are being blamed for a number of deaths and for the loss of forest landscapes.

As the Guardian notes, “several wet years, followed by a dry winter and hot summer” have created “perfect wildfire conditions.” But also bearing a huge part of the blame are “official negligence, rural population flight and disappearing herds of sheep and goats.”

Robert Rubio, a forester, ecologist and professional firefighter from Andilla, 12 miles from Alcublas in Valencia, tells the Guardian that only a tenth of the usual number of temporary local summer firefighters were hired this year (officials claim otherwise). Other regional governments, in northeastern Catalonia and northwestern Galicia, are spending 20 percent less than two years ago.

Regards,

Jim

In his latest article, George Lakoff discusses how The Devils Budget proposed by the opponents to President Obama will eventually destroy the soul of our democracy by defunding all of its Public infrastructure: public protection, public empowerment, public education, public roads, public libraries, public security and safety, etc.

The effects of The Devil’s Budget are hidden behind the Noble Lie of balancing the budget while further enriching the ONE%. As Lakoff discusses, there are other bigger lies behind this budget.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

America’s soul resides in our relation to one another, the way citizens have from the beginning joined together to form a government whose mission is to protect and empower everyone equally, and to use that government for the sake of The Public, the system that provides the basic means for our freedom to live decent lives and pursue happiness of all kinds, whether it comes from wealth or making music, or becoming a doctor, a scientist, a businessman, an athlete, a teacher, or whatever you find fulfilling. The Public is what unites us in a common enterprise, and the destruction of The Public is a destruction of the bonds that hold us together.

The Congressional Budget office estimates that Ryan’s “long-term budget, if you project forward defense spending, would cut 91 percent from these and all other non-defense programs. Ninety-one percent.” That’s 91 percent of The Public gone: Medical and scientific research. Pell grants. The EPA. The NIH. NPR. The small business administration. Unemployment insurance. Regulation of corporations. Money to help state and local governments. Highway repair. Air traffic controllers. And all government employees doing everything The Public does.

The destruction of The Public is not reversible. It would be the death of the very idea of America. Here’s what it would mean.

Even more, a lot more, of the nation’s wealth than the current 40 percent going to the top 1 percent. Poverty up. Opportunity gone. No way for the poor and middle class to get a college education, and maybe not even a decent K – 12 education, and certainly not public pre-schools. As unemployment rises, competition for jobs gets greater, and so wages get even lower and pensions and health benefits disappear. As the public control of the airwaves disappears with the FCC, the corporate control of news rises, and objectivity of reporting gets much lower. Freedom of the press becomes meaningless. When the military controls almost all of the budget, it gets immensely strong in society, threatening civilian control of the military. When the EPA and FDA disappear, say goodbye to clean air, clean water, and safe food. Wilderness in the National Parks will not exist: it will be destroyed in the race to get at our natural resources — wood, minerals, oil and gas.

The biggest lie is that there is, or should be, no Public. The biggest lie is that Democracy is about personal freedom alone, about the “liberty” to seek your own interests with no responsibility for the interests or well-being of your fellow citizens. The biggest lie is a moral lie. If believed and carried to the conclusion defined by a Devil’s Budget, it means Evil with a capital E and the loss of the American soul.

The idea of American Individualism is a moral lie. There can be no Individualism without The Public. Individualism can only begin where The Public leaves off. Individualism begins after the roads are built, after individualists have had an education, after medical research has cured their diseases, after the individualists have received from The Public land grants, grazing, water, and mineral leases, oil and agriculture subsidies, after they have received crucial patents.

Here’s what Lakoff says about the two candidates pushing this budget:

Paul Ryan is a personable individualist and extreme conservative. And he is smart — seen as an intellectual by his conservative colleagues because has mastered budget policy enough to construct a Devil’s Budget with all the right numbers. Not the right numbers to eliminate the deficit, as Paul Krugman has observed. But the right numbers to eliminate The Public, which is the real conservative goal.

Mitt Romney knows about Devil’s Budgets from Bain Capital, whose goal was to make as much money as possible for investors and major management by squeezing human values out of businesses: treating employees as resources for profit, maximizing profits by outsourcing, minimizing skill levels, eliminating unions, ending pensions, seeking tax loopholes, moving profits to tax havens, eliminating factories and firing employees, moving jobs abroad, devastating communities — whatever was necessary to maximize profits for Romney and other managers and investors. Liberty for Romney has meant applying Devil’s Budgets in corporate life. The Romney-Ryan ticket is ideal for destroying the American ideal of The Public and the freedom that it provides for all of us.

Lakoff concludes with the historical morality that gave America its soul:

In what was perhaps the first statement of the morality that lit the Soul of America, John Winthrop told his fellow passengers on the New World-bound Arbella in 1630:

…that every man might have need of others, and from hence they might be all knit more nearly together in the bonds of brotherly affection. From hence it appears plainly that no man is made more honorable than another or more wealthy etc., out of any particular and singular respect to himself…

This is the morality that informs the Declaration and the Constitution. It is the morality that led to emancipation, to universal suffrage, to the New Deal and the Great Society, and Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms — freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear — with the recognition that we are all in this democratic experiment together. It is what, from the beginning, has informed the formation of The Public. It is that sense of morality that we must maintain.

‘Taking American back’ means implementing the soulless vision of America promoted by people like Ayn Rand and her libertarian followers. Destroy all that is Public and they will destroy the nurturant democracy of America. America will no longer be able to protect and empower all citizens or provide equal opportunity. America will become a plutocracy of the rugged individualistic ONE% as Romney/Ryan take America back.

Romney Got Several Years of Tax Returns From Pawlenty, But Only Wants to Give Us One or Two – Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was passed over for the vice presidential slot by presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Now Pawlenty is indicating that Romney may have higher standards for his running mate than he does for himself.

On “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” Pawlenty said that he gave Romney “a bunch” of tax returns as part of the vetting process for the second spot on the GOP ticket.

“I don’t remember the exact number,” Pawlenty told Stephanopoulos. “It was several years, I believe.”

Republican Congressman is OK With Bringing a Child to Dogfighting and Cockfighting – Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa last week made shocking comments opposing a federal bill that would crack down on dogfighting and cockfighting. King defended his campaign to defeat legislation that would make it a crime to attend or to bring a child to an animal fight. In a tele-town hall, King said, “there’s something wrong with passing legislation to keep children away from animal fights when it’s not a federal crime to induce somebody to watch people fighting.” He added, “there’s something wrong with the priorities of people that [sic] think like that.”

Fortunately, legislation backed by the Humane Society Legislative Fund to strengthen the federal animal fighting law, making it a crime to attend or bring a child to a dogfight or cockfight, has passed the U.S. Senate as part of the 2012 Farm Bill, and also has passed the House Agriculture Committee. But Congressman Steve King is trying to derail this legislation. He doesn’t consider it a priority to stop professional animal fighters from bringing children to dogfights, exposing them to the violence, blood-letting, and illegal gambling. And he wants no federal penalties for the spectators who finance criminal animal fights with their admission fees and gambling wagers.

Republican Congressman Submitted Forged Petitions For His Re-Election – Four staffers of former U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter (Republican-Livonia) were charged in connection with the false nominating petitions that led to McCotter’s departure from Congress,” the Detroit Free Press reports. “Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette described the four as ‘not simply Keystone Kops running amok … criminal acts were committed.’ He said the petition forgeries and cut-and-paste jobs on the petitions ‘would make an elementary art teacher cringe.’ Schuette said the McCotter staffers also likely did the same thing in the 2008 elections, using 2006 petition signatures.

Voter ID Could Keep Candidate From Voting – Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi – a candidate for Congress – said he may not be able to vote this November because of Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law,” Path reports. Maggi’s name was released by the Department of State as having a different name on his voter registration than he does on his driver’s license. His voter registration is listed as ‘Larry Maggi’ while his driver’s license reads ‘Lawrence Owen Maggi.’ To raise awareness of how unprepared the state is to implement this law less than 90 days from today, Maggi created www.letlarryvote.com to encourage others to sign his petition and demonstrate support for an injunction to delay the law’s implementation.

Republican Lawyers Prove Republicans Wrong About Voter Fraud – Data from the National Republican Lawyers Association shows that there have been only 340 confirmed cases of all types of voter fraud in the entire United States over the past 10 years. That averages to only 0.7 cases per state per year. And those numbers include things like errors on petitions and voter registration forms, on which voter ID laws would have no affect. Voter ID laws are needed as much as leash laws for unicorns.

Fox News Guest Says Gold Medal Winner Not Patriotic Enough; Wants American Olympic Spectators to Be More Eager to Wage War – Fox News was complaining that Gabby Douglas wasn’t patriotic enough because she wore a pink leotard when she was winning a gold medal in gymnastics for the United States of America. If you’re not sure which one she is, let me save you some time: She’s the black one.

Fox asked a black conservative commentator, David Webb, to tut-tut her tutu. There was some bizarre whining that people weren’t chanting “USA! USA! USA!” loudly enough, but then things got really weird.

“We’ve lost over time that jingoistic feeling,” said Webb. The American Heritage dictionary defines jingoism as “extreme and emotional nationalism, or chauvinism, often characterized by an aggressive foreign policy, accompanied by an eagerness to wage war.”

I’m not quite sure they picked the right target in Douglas. She hasn’t seen her father in two years because Air National Guard Staff Sgt. Timothy Douglas is stationed in Afghanistan.

Republican Councilman Carries Sign Showing President’s Bloody Head on a Spike – Republican Councilman Paul Smith of Sterling Heights, Michigan, has found himself at the center of controversy after video of him holding a sign that depicted President Obama’s head on a spike surfaced after being recorded at a Tea Party rally more than three years ago in April 2009. He also had other signs that included Nancy Pelosi with bullet holes in her head, and a noose around the neck of former Michigan Governor, Jennifer Granholm.

The sign that depicted a decapitated President Obama with blood dripping from his neck contained the statements, “Shit on a stick”, and “One more day is too many!” and “He changed American into Uganda.” which was scrawled out in large letters.

While that sign was repugnant, Smith’s signs towards female politicians were notably harsher. Democratic Minority Leader of the House, Nancy Pelosi ,was depicted with 6 blood dripping bullet holes in her face. The ugly phrases included “Pelosi hates America. Loves bribes and wetbacks.” The sign also said “Extreme Left Bitch.” Indeed, because nothing says civility like holding a sign calling another person an extreme bitch. Right?

Romney’s Half-Truths About His Education Record – Mitt Romney’s claims about his education record while governor of Massachusetts raise the question about whether his at-times selective and less-than accurate credit-taking reflect a pattern.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact.com rated as “Half True” this statement from Romney made this month: “When I was governor, not only did test scores improve – we also narrowed the achievement gap.”

According to the fact-checking service, “State education figures over two years support Romney’s claim about learning gains, although it’s worth noting that some areas declined on his watch, such as the drop-out rate. And it’s always somewhat dubious to take a snapshot of statistics from only one or two years . . .”

It goes on, “What’s more, Romney, a single-term governor, should not get all the credit for improvement in the achievement gap, which is influenced by myriad factors. His statement is partially accurate but omits a lot of important information and overstates his impact.”

What, then, are some verifiable education-related actions taken by Romney as governor?

Romney proposed eliminating early literacy programs, full-day kindergarten, and class size reduction programs. [Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, March 5, 2003]

Romney vetoed a universal pre-kindergarten bill and “questioned the benefits of early education.” [Massachusetts Telegram and Gazette, February 2, 2007]

College fees soared 63% under Romney because of his cuts to higher education budget as governor. [Boston Globe, June 29, 2007]

For more verifiable information about how Romney and President Barack Obama compare on education and issues that affect the middle class, read the Education Votes 2012 Candidate Issue Guide.

Regards,

Jim

Just over a year ago, I wrote a post about The Powell Memo. This memo has been referred to by others like Henry Giroux and Richard Wolff. This memo, by Lewis F. Powell and dated August 23, 1971, was a plan Powell developed and delivered to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It outlined how “to win an ideological war against liberal intellectuals, who argued for holding government and corporate power accountable as a precondition for extending and expanding the promise of an inclusive democracy.”

Now that we have the “Koch brothers’ dream ticket,” Ryan’s economic extension of the Powell Memo, his budget plan, has serious implications for “the promise of an inclusive democracy.”

Below are three summaries of how the Romney/Ryan/Koch future would look after implementing Ryan’s extension of the Powell plan. The first is short. The second includes a video, and the third is a summary of everything that the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has written about Ryan’s plans for a Koch Brothers’ America. I conclude this post with my own summary.

Twelve Things You Should Know About Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan – “Mitt Romney has picked as his running mate 42 year-old Republican Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), the architect of the GOP budget, which the New York Times has described as ‘the most extreme budget plan passed by a house of Congress in modern times.'”

Romney and Ryan want to take us back to the failed, top-down economic ideas of Ronald Reagan and GW Bush – “This extreme plan would turn Medicare into a voucher program, increasing seniors’ costs by up to $6,350 per year. It would also slash education and clean energy funding, along with other middle-class investments critical to economic growth—while raising taxes on millions of middle-class families to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.”

Ryan Roundup: Everything You Need to Know About Chairman Ryan’s Budget – Here “is a compilation of the CBPP analyses and blog posts on the budget that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan proposed, and the House of Representatives passed, in March. At the bottom of the compilation, we also list the Center’s analysis of the Ryan ‘Roadmap’ budget plan.”

Here’s my summary of this possible Koch Brothers’ future if their dream team is elected: All public that remains will continue to be privatized – government accountable to voters will become corporate governance accountable only to boards of directors and institutional shareholders; expanding, delusional, rugged individualism will stamp out our ability to empathize; critical thinking will be replaced by blind beliefs; higher education will exist only for the ONE%; our democracy will migrate to a plutocracy through casino capitalism as any attempts to cancel Citizen United are squashed; our prison population will increase at rates similar to our past doubling of technology speeds; the middle class will disappear as their wages continue their 40 year stagnation, will stop using credit, and their kids won’t be able to find work and have to move back in; becoming seriously ill will once again result in bankruptcy and/or premature death; most americans will have to work until they die as they can’t afford to save for retirement and social security will be privatized and left to the rampages of unregulated casino capitalism; etc.

America’s future will be determined by our actions over the next 87 days.

Romney Avoided Over $100,000 in Property Taxes –

“Mitt and Ann Romney were easily able to afford a $12-million La Jolla home. But that didn’t insulate them from the winds buffeting the real estate market in the months following their purchase in 2008. After paying cash for the Mediterranean-style house with 61 feet of beach frontage, they asked San Diego County for dramatic property tax relief,” the Los Angeles Times’ Robin Abcarian reports. “San Diego County assessor records shed light on one sliver of the couple’s personal taxes during that time: a months-long effort to reduce their annual property tax bill. Initially, the Romneys asked that their 2009 assessment, $12.24 million, be reduced to $6.8 million, maintaining that their home had lost about 45% of its value in the first seven months they owned it. Thirteen months later, after hiring an attorney to guide them, the Romneys filed an amended appeal, contending the home had suffered a less-dramatic fall of 27.3%, to $8.9 million. They also filed an appeal for the 2010 tax year, claiming the house had dropped further, to $7.5 million, 38.7% less than the home’s assessed value. As a result, the Romneys have avoided about $109,000 in property taxes over four years.”

Romney Skirted Taxes in Italy, Also – Bloomberg says it was prudent for Romney to skip Italy on his Europe swing. “That’s because Bain Capital, under Romney as chief executive officer, made about $1 billion in a leveraged buyout 12 years ago that remains controversial in Italy to this day,” Jesse Drucker, Elisa Martinuzzi and Lorenzo Totaro report. “Bain was part of a group that bought a telephone-directory company from the Italian government and then sold it about two years later, at the peak of the technology bubble, for about 25 times what it paid. Bain funneled profits through subsidiaries in Luxembourg, a common corporate strategy for avoiding income taxes in other European countries, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg News. The buyer, Italy’s biggest telephone company, now has a total market value less than what it paid Bain and other investors for the directory business. In Italy, the deals have spurred at least three books, separate legal and regulatory probes and newspaper columns alleging investors made a fortune at the expense of Italian taxpayers. Boston-based Bain wasn’t a subject of the inquiries, which didn’t result in any charges…Romney himself probably earned more than $50 million, and possibly as much as $60 million from the Italian directory sale of Seat Pagine Gialle SpA, according to a person familiar with the matter. The deal turned into one of the biggest windfalls of his tenure.”

Republican Texas State Senator Vows to Use Public Money for Private Schools – State Sen. Dan Patrick, the Houston Republican who anchors the rightmost wing of his party’s caucus in the Senate, has vowed to make private-school voucher legislation a focal point of his efforts in the 2013 session of the state legislature. According to the Houston Chronicle, Patrick said, “To me, school choice is the photo ID bill of this session….Our base has wanted us to pass photo voter ID for years, and we did it. They’ve been wanting us to pass school choice for years. This is the year to do it, in my view.”

Right-wing legislators like Sen. Patrick have been trying in vain to pass voucher legislation in Texas, transferring public tax dollars from public to private schools, for decades, session after session. Last year the pressure for private-school vouchers slacked off a bit, as legislators were preoccupied with funding cuts that deprived Texas public schools of more than $500 annually per pupil—an unprecedented $5.4 billion in cuts, all told, leading to the loss of more than 25,000 jobs, inflated class sizes, and the elimination of valuable educational services such as full-day pre-kindergarten.

Money for private schools – profit: the rich get richer.

Romney Invested Millions in Chinese Company That Benefited from US Outsourcing – Romney invested millions in a Chinese company that profited nicely from U.S. outsourcing. ”On April 17, 1998, Brookside Capital Partners Fund, a Bain Capital affiliate, filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission noting that it had acquired 6.13 percent of Hong Kong-based Global-Tech Appliances, which manufactured household appliances in a production facility in the industrial city of Dongguan, China. That August, according to another SEC filing, Brookside upped its interest in Global-Tech to 10.3 percent. Both SEC filings identified Romney as the person in control of this investment: “Mr. W. Mitt Romney is the sole shareholder, sole director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Brookside Inc. and thus is the controlling person of Brookside Inc.” Each of these documents was signed by Domenic Ferrante, a managing director of Brookside and Bain.”

Romney Tax Plan is Mathematically Impossible According to FactCheck.org and Two Tax Policy Groups – The non-partisan FactCheck.org has analyzed the Romney tax plan and has concluded that Romney’s promises are mathematically impossible. That’s also the conclusion of the Tax Policy Center and an expert from the pro-business Tax Foundation, who states that the Tax Policy Center analysis “correctly identified the Romney plan as a tax cut, at least in static terms, that accrues mainly to high-income earners.”

Regards,

Jim

Republican Party’s New ‘Voter Fraud’ Expert is Ex-Lobbyist Convicted For Corruption – A former lobbyist convicted in the Jack Abramoff congressional lobbying scandal has found a new line of work while still on probation: becoming a spokesman and self-appointed expert on allegedly rampant illegal voting. A new paper claiming that voter ID laws actually protect rather than disenfranchise minority voters is getting play in conservative circles. What isn’t being mentioned so much is the background of the paper’s author.

Horace Cooper, the author of the paper, told the Daily Caller this week that voter fraud “criminals — more often than not — are Democrats violating the rights of people who tend to be black or senior.”

Cooper may not have any expertise on voter fraud, but he does know a thing or two about falsifying documents. Cooper was indicted in 2009 on five public corruption charges, charged with exchanging political favors for gifts from Jack Abramoff. Cooper allegedly accepted bribes as a staffer to former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey.

Romney’s Economic Plan Would Kill 360,000 Jobs In 2013 Alone – A Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis has found that the Romney economic plan would actually kill 360,000 jobs next year alone.

Several of Romney’s proposals entail no change in policy, so its unclear how they would create jobs. Several others — including tax incentives for outsourcing — would actively undermine U.S. employment. Remember, Romney’s job creation record as governor was hardly stellar, as Massachusetts was 47th in job creation during his tenure.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today that 163,000 jobs were created in the U.S. last month under President Obama. And, the current unemployment rate would be a full percentage point lower were it not for the hundreds of thousands of public sector layoffs that have occurred as a result of budget cutbacks. It could be even lower than that if Republicans would stop obstructing the jobs bill.

Texas to Execute Mentally Disabled Prisoner on Tuesday – A death row prisoner who has been medically diagnosed as “mentally retarded” and therefore exempt from execution is set to die on Tuesday in Texas, a state that rejects scientific consensus and instead applies its own definition of learning difficulties based on a character in a John Steinbeck novel. Ah, those Compassionate Conservatives!

Very Rich Porn Star Endorses Romney Saying, “When you’re rich, you want a Republican in office.” – Very rich (worth an estimated $30 million) porn star Jenna Jameson has put her spin on the presidential race: “I’m very looking forward to a Republican being back in office. When you’re rich, you want a Republican in office.”

Jameson’s “let them eat cake” moment came Thursday in San Francisco while she was sipping champagne in a VIP room at Gold Club in the city’s South of Market neighborhood.

More Proof That Romney Was Involved With Offshoring Jobs After He Says He Left Bain – Romney has said he had no active role in Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded, after February 1999. Yet Romney continued to oversee his partnership stakes even as he disengaged from the firm, personally signing or approving a series of corporate and legal documents through the spring of 2001. Andrea Saul added that ‘it took some time to transfer his ownership to the other partners, which is not surprising given the growth and success of the firm.’

Documents also showed that Romney signed several power-of-attorney statements that were used repeatedly during the transition, allowing other senior Bain partners and several lawyers for Bain to represent his interests in the investment deals the company struck between 1999 and 2001. http://yhoo.it/NTWSR5

FLASHBACK: Romney Economic Advisers Predicted Bush Tax Cuts Would Lead To Huge Job Growth – They Were Wrong – The same advisers who are working for Romney — economists Greg Mankiw and Glenn Hubbard, both worked for former President George W. Bush. Then, they estimated that the Bush tax cuts would lead to massive job growth:

Back in 2001, as chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, Hubbard predicted that tax cuts slanted disproportionately to Americans in the topmost tier of income and wealth distribution would “quickly deliver a boost to move the economy back toward its long-run growth path,” starting with adding 300,000 more jobs and half a percentage point to the 2002 growth rate.

Then in early 2003, as President Bush proposed another round of tax cuts, Hubbard predicted these would add another 1.4 million jobs to the U.S. economy, over and above the 3.1 million jobs the economy would create on its own from natural economic growth in that time. Mankiw — who took over for Hubbard as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers later in 2003 — co-signed a letter with Hassett (then-economist at the American Enterprise Institute) to President Bush “enthusiastically” endorsing more tax cuts because “it is fiscally responsible and it will create more employment [and] economic growth.”

Unfortunately for American workers, these rosy predictions failed to pan out. In fact, total employment in the U.S. economy created less than half of what Hubbard predicted. By 2007 the economy was running nearly 8 million jobs short of what Hubbard predicted. And in 2008 there were massive job losses.

Regards,
Jim

Those most likely to become authoritarians (social dominators or followers) are raised from a young age in a strict-father environment where violent punishment is used aggressively. And, according to James Dobson, the sooner it is applied, the better.

Dread of this punishment keeps the followers in line and gives the social dominators the tools they need to keep them in line.

When one provokes in a child a fear of the dark, one awakens in him a feeling of atavistic dread. Thus this child will be ruled all his life by this dread, … — Adolf Hitler, July 1941

This physical, and mental, punishment is used to teach what is morally right for the conservative worldview: that you should never question authority; that you are totally responsible for your success; that those who are not successful lack the moral strength to succeed and deserve what they get; that you’re on your own; that beliefs trump conflicting facts; that if you accept the help of others, you are a parasite; that critical thinking threatens one’s beliefs and should be banned; that repaying what is taken from the common wealth is not required; that working with anyone not like you is a moral sin; that punishing those whom you consider morally wrong is justified.

This authoritarian worldview also has a hierarchy with a male God at the top followed by white men, then women, white children, non-white men and women (especially the poor) and lastly poor children.

This need to punish is exemplified by authoritarians, mostly white men acting against those lower in this hierarchy, who go crazy with guns trying to punish those who are morally wrong in the conservative worldview.

“We have a group of people in this country who are Christian, who are fundamentalist, who have within their midst, individuals who are incredibly dangerous who are waiting to go off like bombs ready to explode with the fuse lit.” – Frank Schaeffer interview about his book Crazy for God.

“Since the arrival of the Puritans, punishment has been inextricably woven into the fabric of American life, and increasingly it targets young people who have been pushed to the margins of society. Hence, it is not surprising that in America there is a rush to punish individuals for committing crimes but no longer a passion or commitment to examine the larger issues that produce the crimes.” — Henry Giroux, Trayvon Martin and Racist Violence in Post-Racial America

We also have those who are paid to justify this violence by opposing attempts to control it.

On one of Diane Rhem’s recent shows, she had a panel discussing the shooting in Aurora, Colorado. A pro-any-gun-for-anybody guest on the show stated that there was a recent intervention of a robbery by an armed citizen and that this kind of action has happened “hundreds of thousands of times.”

If this were true, where are all the news stories to support this? A few videos on Youtube with some gun owner firing wildly is not enough and those armed-citizen actions are just as unsafe for bystanders as were the actions of the fleeing criminals. Where’s the multi-source evidence that this armed-citizen action does any real good?

Concealed weapons in the hands of armed citizens has little to do with saving lives, as we are told, and much more to do with our form of Hitler’s “atavistic dread” and gun sales. This national dread and the Aurora shootings have driven up Gun sales in Colorado and the only entities gaining from this fear/dread are gun manufacturers – not innocent bystanders. Gun and ammunition manufacturers are raking in millions as they, or their supporters, claim it’s too early to talk about regulation that would eventually slow these rampant, highly profitable, dread-based, gun sales.

Remember, fearful people think/do/believe stupid things – it just how the brain works on adrenaline.

One last point. most fearful gun owners have had little real event training and therefore have little real skill to save lives. You are more likely to be killed by an American gun owner than saved by one.

Limbaugh Says Don’t Tell People on Welfare When the Election Is – Rush Limbaugh is calling on his listeners to keep the election date a secret from the poorest Americans.

Limbaugh said, “We shouldn’t remind people on welfare when the election is. That may not be something we want to actually do.”

Guy Who Boasted His Family Built Their Business On Their Own in Romney TV Ad Actually Took Over $1 Million in Government Loans – The up-by-his-bootstraps businessman who stars in an ad for Republican hopeful Mitt Romney seems to have built his business through government-sponsored loans, putting a dent in the campaign’s attack on President Barack Obama’s saying to business owners, “you didn’t get there on your own.”

“My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company?” New Hampshire businessman Jack Gilchrist, president of Gilchrist Metal asks in the ad that’s been making waves since last week.

Reporting by The New Hampshire Union Leader disputed this claim by looking into Gilchrist’s history, revealing that he took over $1 million in government loans since the 1980s, including $800,000 in tax-exempt bonds issued by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority to build a new manufacturing plant and buy equipment. Gilchrist also admitted to the paper that he took a U.S. Small Business Administration loan of “somewhere south of” $500,000 in the 1980s, and said that to this day about 10 percent of his business comes from defense-related projects.

Romney Does Not Believe All People Created Equal; Judges Them By Their Income – Mitt Romney of racism after he told wealthy donors — including billionaire Sheldon Adelson — that Israelis were more economically successful because of their culture and intervention by God.

“And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things,” Romney remarked at a $25,000-a-plate fundraiser, adding that a climate of innovation and the “hand of providence” also played a part.

“As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality,” he said.

According to the CIA, Israelis had a 2011 per capital income of $31,400, while Palestinians had a per capita income of just $2,900.

Activists have long said that Israel’s restrictions on trade and strict border blockade are responsible for crippling the Palestinian economy.

Romney Insults Both Countries He Has Visited on Foreign Tour – Romney wanted to show that he is a statesman. So, first, Romney insulted the British about their readiness for the Olympics.

Then, in Israel, Romney was forced to cancel a high-price dinner fundraiser because it was scheduled for a Jewish day of fasting. The Republican presidential candidate originally had planned a $50,000-a-plate dinner in Israel for Sunday night — even though it is also Tisha B’Av, a Jewish day to mourn the victims of the Holocaust and the destruction of first and second Temple of Jerusalem. It is traditionally a day of fast when restaurants in Israel are closed by law.

Romney Lies About His “Friendship” With Netanyahu – Mitt Romney, who’s currently in Israel holding secretive fundraisers out of the view of the press, loves to brag about his close friendship with with Bibi Netanyahu.

“We can almost speak in shorthand,” Mr. Romney said in an interview. “We share common experiences and have a perspective and underpinning which is similar.” […] “Before I made a statement of that nature, I’d get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say: ‘Would it help if I say this? What would you like me to do?’”

And, Romney also said, “Israel’s current prime minister is not just a friend, he’s an old friend.”

Mitt and Bibi: BFFs!

Except no one told Bibi.

“I remember him for sure, but I don’t think we had any particular connections,” Netanyahu said. “I knew him and he knew me, I suppose.”

Yes, Bibi Netanyahu just called Mitt Romney a liar.

Joe the Plumber Spent Campaign Donations on Personal Clothing – Joe the Plumber, running for Congress as a Republican in Ohio and certain to lose, spent $634 in campaign money at Jos. A. Bank in April and May. The Toledo Blade calls him out.

NRA Scuttles International Arms Trade Treaty and Then Brags About It – The NRA is taking credit for scuttling a UN treaty that would have limited the sale of weapons to potential human rights abusers overseas.

In a triumphant email titled “NRA Stops U.N. Arms Trade Treaty” and sent to constituents within hours of the Arms Trade Treaty’s (ATT) death on Friday, the NRA wrote:

“NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre testified before the U.N. making it clear that the NRA would fight any international treaty that included civilian arms.”

To be crystal clear, no constitutional right could possibly have been affected by this treaty: First, because it would only have dealt with international arms trade, and second because no treaty can supersede the U.S. Constitution, period.

What the treaty would have done is abrogate U.S. arms manufacturers’ time-honored right to sell guns to warlords and insurgent militias. Which if you’re the NRA, which relies on arms manufacturers’ donations and good will, is pretty much something you’d want to stop at all cost.

And, in the “It takes one to know one” department – PALIN BACKS FLAKE: “Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has endorsed U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake in Arizona’s bitterly contested Republican Senate primary,”

And now, the good news:

Koch-Funded Climate Scientist Admits He Was Wrong, Now Says Humans Are Causing Global Warming – The founder and director of a climate change study project funded heavily by the Koch brothers, who last year reversed course and said he believed global warming was real, has gone one step further, writing in a weekend op-ed in the New York Times that he is now convinced the phenomenon is caused by humans.

In a piece titled, “The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic,” Richard A. Muller, a University of California, Berkley physicist who founded the Berkley Earth Surface Temperature study (BEST) wrote that his, “total turnaround, in such a short time,” was driven by a new report from the group that concluded for the first time that global warming is a man-made problem. That revelation brings Muller essentially full circle from his stance a few years ago, when he criticized other global warming studies as flawed and questioned whether the Earth was even warming abnormally, dangerously fast at all.

Muller’s conversion is particularly notable because his research had been heavily bankrolled by the Koch’s, who have a well-documented history of financing climate change denial. A Greenpeace report earlier this year found that the Koch’s had given nearly $61.5 million since 1997 to groups denying climate change.

Romney Praises Israel’s Health Care System Which Includes Individual Mandate – Mitt Romney had kind words for Israel’s health care system Monday, even though, as ThinkProgress reports, it resembles the recently passed Affordable Health Care Act, which his party has been trying to repeal.

Israel’s health-care system includes an individual mandate clause, requiring citizens to buy one of four HMOs offered by the government since 1995, with the state covering 60 percent of a person’s medical costs. The remaining 40 percent is covered by income-related tax collections.

Last month, The Jewish Daily Forward reported that Israel boasts an average life expectancy of 82 years, four years more than the U.S., with half the mortality rate due to heart disease.

Regards,

Jim

Republican Rep Says, I Don’t Think Someone Who Is Diagnosed With A Brain Tumor Should Have Health Care Provided – On Monday evening, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) said that insurance companies should be allowed to discriminate against people with brain tumors during a House Rules Committee debate of the GOP’s bill repealing the Affordable Care Act. The law, which Republicans will vote to eliminate on Wednesday, includes a provision prohibiting insurance companies from turning away sick people.

But Dreier suggested that these individuals would be better off enrolling in state-based “high-risk insurance pools,” that could offer coverage to the individuals who are turned away from the individual health care market because they are too costly to cover:

DREIER: “And I believe my state of California has a structure in place to deal with pre-existing conditions. It’s a pooling process, which I think is one worthy of consideration, because while I don’t that think someone who is diagnosed with a massive tumor should the next day be able to have millions and millions and millions of dollars in health care provided, I do believe that there can be a structure to deal with the issue of pre-existing conditions.”

Romney’s Support for Eliminating U.S. Taxes on Foreign Incomes Would Create 800,000 Jobs Overseas at the Expense of American Workers – A new report estimates that Mitt Romney’s support for eliminating U.S. taxes on American companies’ foreign incomes would create 800,000 jobs in other countries, including 73,000 jobs in China. These jobs are likely to come at the expense of American workers.

This new report, published in Tax Notes, concludes that the reforms Mitt Romney supports ‘would significantly increase incentives for U.S. firms to move economic activity abroad.’ Economist Kimberly Clausing writes that, under current economic conditions, ‘those new, low-tax-country jobs could displace jobs at home.’ Romney’s plan to create jobs in other countries comes after independent economists have said that his economic plans could slow the economy and reduce the number of jobs in the United States. See the 3-page memo.

Mitt Romney Promises to Eliminate Bureau That Protects Consumers – Mitt Romney promises to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if elected. Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the 2008 financial crisis to protect all Americans from toxic mortgages and other bank ripoffs. Just this week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau won a refund of $140 million for two million credit card customers of Capital One.

Conservative Hypocrisy Over Romney’s Tax Return – On his show, on Stewart marveled at how many Republicans have been pressuring Mitt Romney to release his tax returns, but as for the conservatives defending Romney and saying he doesn’t need to release his tax returns, he called them out for hypocrisy, considering how much scrutiny conservatives have wanted to apply to President Obama‘s past, especially at the height of Birthergate., He ripped conservatives for defending Romney keeping his tax returns secret by going down a whole list of “frivolous transparency demands” that conservatives wanted in order to completely vet Obama’s past., He showed clips of them wanting to see the president’s full college records, his time at the Harvard Law Review, everything he did in the Illinois State Senate, and even some nonsense about Michelle Obama allegedly using the word “whiteys” at some point., And there’s the doubt that was cast over Obama’s birth certificate, with people disputing its authenticity by narrowly focusing on little minutiae that might prove it to be fake or something.

Watch the video at the link above.

Romney’s Weak Bain Capital, Tax Return Defense – Jon Stewart tore apart every inch of Mitt Romney‘s arguments regarding his not releasing tax returns and the inconsistencies surrounding his time at Bain Capital. Looking at the holes in Romney’s arguments, Stewart skewered the presidential hopeful. Stewart began with Bain and outsourcing — noting Romney’s previous argument that he wasn’t running things at the firm when the outsourcing took place. Except then those SEC filings happened, showing Romney still held executive titles…but from which he “retired retroactively.” So, Stewart said, it’s basically Romney saying he held “the smoke screenish yet still legal title of CEO and Managing Director who was paid at least $100,000 a year to do what according to me, Mitt Romney, was nothing. That’s the kind of cap and spend business experience I hope to bring to the White House.”

And then there are the tax returns. Romney insists he abided by the law, but that’s not the issue Stewart said. “If you are so-called job creator in the country, even if the jobs you create are in India or China, you are legally entitled to wonderful things like offshore tax accounts” and slashed interest rates. And $77,000 in business deductions for dressage horse competition expenses. In other words, “to send your horse to the f**king prom.”, Here’s the bottom line, he said:, Nobody cares that Mitt Romney is rich. It’s Romney’s inability to understand the institutional advantage that he gains from the government’s tax code largesse, that’s a little offensive to people, especially considering Romney’s view on anyone else who looks to the government for things like, I don’t know, food and medicine.

Watch the video at the link above.

Texas Outsourcing Voter Disenfranchisement Efforts РAs with redistricting, the State of Texas contracted with Chicago-based law firm Bartlit Beck to take the lead in representing Texas in the Voter ID trial. The Texas Democratic Party submitted an Open Records Request to the Office of the Attorney General inquiring how much Texas taxpayers have spent on the Voter ID trial and specifically how much has been outsourced to Bartlit Beck. You can read it here. TDP spokeswoman Rebecca Acu̱a released the following statement:

“Apparently General Abbott thinks no one in the Attorney General’s office or in Texas for that matter is capable of leading the Republican voter suppression trial. Just like with the redistricting trial, Abbott is outsourcing official Texas business to a Chicago law-firm. It’s shameful enough that Abbott continues to taxpayer dollars to disenfranchise Texans. The fact that he’s sending this money out of state makes it worse.

Texans deserve to know how much of their money is being wasted and outsourced by the Attorney General Abbott on these disenfranchisement efforts.”

Background
· According to the Dallas Morning News, as of January 26, 2012 Texas taxpayers had spent almost $1.4 million in legal costs for the Texas redistricting battle. Of those $1.4 million, $395,000 went to a contract with Chicago-based law firm- Bartlit Beck.
· Leading up to his 2006 reelection campaign, Abbott cost Texas taxpayers $1.4 million on a wild goose chase that turned up no cases of voter impersonation.

In Texas, the Working Poor Stand at Center of Debate Over Health Care Law’s Medicaid Expansion – BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Jose Gallegos’ company eliminated employee health insurance to save money, so when his gut started hurting and his skin took on a yellow tinge, he resisted seeing a doctor. When he finally went to the emergency room, physicians diagnosed stomach cancer.

Gallegos made too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy his own insurance, so he scraped together what he could, and his wife, Andrea, took on three jobs. Just over a year later, at 41, he died, leaving behind four children.

Police Officer Kicks Handcuffed Woman in the Head – Caught on video Krawetz’s crime is a clear case of excessive and potentially deadly force. The woman was unable to break her fall as the kick slammed her head on to the curb, and then Krawetz did nothing to check whether she was all right.

While sitting handcuffed on the curb, the woman had kicked at the cop’s leg with her bare foot as he began going through her purse, but he was clearly in no danger, and other officers stood nearby.

Crimes such as Krawetz’s should never be taken so lightly. Tell RI to get tough on police brutality

Regards,

Jim

Americans are more likely to be killed by domestic terrorists with guns than international terrorists with bombs. When will we redirect our national resources to reflect this higher threat to American lives?

Sign the petition …

Also, here’s my message to President Obama on domestic terrorism, which was provided to the White House via their on-line communications form:

Mr. President,

We are all saddened by the killings in Colorado, but it points out again that we need perspective on threats to Americans.

We have domestic terrorists in greater numbers than international terrorists – and they are already here. Frank Schaeffer, a former insider of the far-right evangelical movement, has written about them in Crazy for God. He refers to them as the extreme right of the extreme right – that puts them at about 4% of our population.

Proof of their numbers exists. I would bet that there are more threats to your life by some of these extremists than there are threats to America by foreign terrorists.

Whether domestic or international, they need to be handled in the same way – as criminals. We are spending too much on a relatively few international terrorists and too little on the domestic ones. The killings in Colorado are proof of this.