The WAWG Blog

Texas State Revenue on the Rise, But Republicans See No Reason to Reduce School Cuts – At a Texas House budget hearing Tuesday, state officials confirmed that state revenue is rising rapidly enough to produce a surplus of $1.6 billion for the current budget period and to boost the Rainy Day Fund to $7.3 billion. In fact, we’ve heard unofficially that the Rainy Day Fund is filling up so fast with oil and gas revenue that the total might reach $9.5 billion in available reserves for the 2013 legislature’s use. Whether it’s $1.6 billion plus $7.3 billion, or $1.6 billion plus $9.5 billion, we’re talking about more than enough funding to reverse the $5.4 billion in brutal education cuts enacted last year.

Hence some lawmakers have called on the governor to convene a special session to get a head start on undoing the damage to public education, even forestalling cuts for the 2012-2013 school year that have yet to take effect. For example, Rep. Sylvester Turner, Democrat of Houston, asked at Tuesday’s House Appropriations Committee hearing: In light of the improving budget outlook, “why should our kids have to continue to bear the brunt” of these cuts?

In response, Republican Gov. Rick Perry emphatically rejected the call for a special session, contending that more than enough money is being spent on Texas schoolchildren already. Said Perry: “We’re not going to have a special session…. I don’t see any reason to be changing course.”

No reason to change course? One might ask: What about an average of $500 less per pupil that has already led to more than 8,000 overcrowded K-4 classrooms, and (by a conservative estimate based on our December survey of superintendents) more than 30,000 jobs lost in Texas public schools? What about the total elimination of state funding for full-day pre-kindergarten, the near-total elimination of Student Success Initiative funding for students at risk of failing the state’s required standardized tests, and cuts of $240 million in state funding for Teacher Retirement System pension and health benefits?

I encourage you to sign the Save Texas Schools online petition at the link above.

Rick Santorum Rejects Catholic Church Teaching on Torture, Death Penalty, Pre-Emptive War, Welfare, Global Warming and Evolution – Catholic candidate wages multi-front war on the Catholic Church.

Republicans Misrepresent Facts on U.S. Military Aid to Israel – Recent accusations by senior Republican lawmakers that the Obama administration’s new budget jeopardizes the national security of Israel do not address the entirety of U.S. financial support for the Israeli armed forces, a Saturday analysis by the Associated Press determined.

Senate Candidate Ted Cruz Calls Sustainable Development a Dangerous U.N. Plot – Who’d have thought Fort Worth’s efforts to spruce up inner-city neighborhoods were part of a U.N. plot to rob us hard-working Americans of all we hold dear?

That head-scratching conclusion is where the dots might lead if you connect them in the way U.S. Senate hopeful Ted Cruz wants you to.

He would have you hear “sustainable development” and see a “leftist agenda,” financed by loaded bogeyman George Soros (for the equivalent on the right, think Sheldon Adelson or the Koch brothers) and determined to “undermine property rights and undermine our economic liberty.”

Bill O’Reilly Admits He Has ‘No Blanking Idea’ – On his February 13th program, Bill O’Reilly White House said he didn’t understand White House chief of staff Jack Lew talking about deficit as a percentage of Gross Dosmestic Product (GDP):

LEW: “The plan that the president is going to be sending to Congress tomorrow will reduce our deficit to the point that over the period covered by this budget, the deficit as a percentage of GDP will be less than 3 percent, which means that we will stop having new spending adding to the deficit.”

O’REILLY: “What? What? With all due respect to Mr. Lew, I have no blanking idea what he just said. I have no clue.”

But once upon a time, Bill O’Reilly did, in fact, understand this budget mumbo-jumbo. Here’s O’Reilly with Bush adviser Karl Rove (8/4/08):

ROVE: “Yes. Well, look, first of all, let’s–one point. I agree with you, over the long haul, big debts are difficult and dangerous. But let’s also remember that we are–that what you need to do is look at it in terms of the entire economy. Our deficit this year, which is big, will be 3.3 percent of GDP.”

O’REILLY: “OK, I understand that, but the dollar is nowhere.”

So what’s the difference? Simple: When George W. Bush was president, there was a need on the right to rebut arguments about the increasing budget deficit. Now some of the same people are really concerned about deficits. Bill O’Reilly is so concerned he’s forgotten what he used to know.

Bizarre Record of Fox’s Rape-Is-to-Be-Expected Pundit – Liz Trotta, a Fox News contributor and former Washington Times editor, drew attention this week (2/12/12) when she suggested that women serving in the U.S. military should expect to be sexually assaulted by their male counterparts. In addition to her unconventional views about rape in the military, Trotta has joked about assassinating Barack Obama “if we could” (Fox News, 3/23/08). She has also described Fox competitor MSNBC as “close to being a communist channel.” she cheered the burning of Harry Potter books by a right-wing pastor in New Mexico. Trotta tried to link convicted “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski to environmentalists and the left even though Kaczynski wrote a rambling “manifesto” attacking technology, the left and environmentalists. And last October (Fox News, 10/8/11), she attempted to link Occupy Wall Street protestors to Kaczynski, comparing the activists’ rhetoric to “the ravings of what sounds like the Unabomber.”

Five Worst People of the One Percent – Five videos, each only one minute long.

Regards,

Jim

Our Absentee Governor – In the first 16 days since abandoning his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Perry has been to his office just three times and stayed no longer than three hours each time. In 11 of the days since, his schedule shows no state meetings, phone calls or other events. In the five days thereafter, he is shown engaging in 10 hours of state business spread over three days. One day, he taped a message for the El Pasoan of the Year. He toured a racetrack under construction near Austin another day. Perry receives a salary of nearly $133,000 per year as governor and a state pension of $7,700 per month.

Republicans Completely Dismantle Democracy in Michigan Cities and School Districts – Michigan’s emergency-manager law continues to undercut locally elected officials and benefit private corporations. Public Act 4, supported by Governor Rick Snyder and state Republicans, allows the Governor to appoint a single person to control a financially struggling city.

They only report to the Governor, and unlike city council members they do not face the voters.

The Michigan governor placed Louis Schimmel in charge of Pontiac, a city of roughly 60,000, last September. In less than six months Schimmel fired or outsourced nearly all city employees and departments, stripped city council of their powers and placed city properties up for sale. He even threatened to layoff the entire fire department.

Deregulation of Electricity in Texas Caused Rates to Go Higher Than in Areas Not Deregulated – Texas lawmakers deregulated our electricity market 10 years ago and it has cost residential consumers $11.5 billion since deregulation began in 2002. The added cost to all consumers (residential, commercial and industrial) is even greater. The average residential price of electricity in deregulated areas in Texas was up to 42 percent above the national average. A 2009 report on Texas electricity deregulation by McCullough Research found that “lower rates, the fundamental promise of deregulation, have never been realized.” The report found that the average electricity rates in deregulated areas “far outpaced rates in the 25 percent of Texas not deregulated, and in neighboring states that are equally dependent on natural gas.”

The report also states that residential electricity prices in Texas increased 64 percent since 1999. The report attributes the rate increases to “the cumulative effect of deregulated rates increases is staggering for Texas households and the state’s economy.”

America’s Richest Congressman Stuck Taxpayers With the Bill for Private Events With His Biggest Donors – Texas Republican Michael McCaul, one of the richest members of Congress, thinks you should pay for private events with his biggest donors. For years, McCaul has spoken at a private event at the exclusive, members’ only Headliner’s Club, attended by his top donors. Last year, while collecting big checks, America’s richest Congressman stuck taxpayers with the bill – charging hundreds of dollars for the event to his taxpayer-funded federal account. This year McCaul is back at it again. Today, while Congress is on vacation, and instead of making time to meet with the taxpayers who pay his salary, he’ll be schmoozing with his donors at another exclusive event at the Headliners Club.

Regards,
Jim

The following excerpts are from an article in the highly-respected Scientific American magazine: – Leaked documents from the free-market conservative organization The Heartland Institute reveal a plan to create school educational materials that contradict the established science on climate change.

The documents, leaked by an anonymous donor and released on DeSmogBlog, include the organization’s 2012 fundraising plan. It lists Heartland Institute donors, from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation (established by Koch Industries billionaire Charles G. Koch), to Philip Morris parent company Altria, to software giant Microsoft and pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

The climate change education project is funded so far by an anonymous donor who has given $13 million to the Institute over the past five years. Proposed by policy analyst David Wojick, who holds a doctorate in epistemology and has worked for coal and electricity generation companies, the project would create education “modules” written to meet curriculum guidelines for every grade level.

“These [anti-science] documents are breathtaking, and they reveal what many of us have long suspected: That there is a campaign afoot by groups directly funded by the fossil fuel industry and right-wing foundations such as Koch Industries to mislead the public about climate change,” Pennsylvania State University climatologist Michael Mann wrote in an email to LiveScience.

Other donors giving more than $10,000 a year to the Institute include Allied World Assurance Company, Amgen, USA, AT&T, Bayer Corporation, Comcast Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline and General Motors. Links to all documents can be found at DeSmogBlog.

So, What is the Actual Scientific Opinion on Climate Change? – National and international science academies and professional societies have assessed the current scientific opinion on climate change. These assessments have largely followed or endorsed the IPCC position that “There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.” Among the world’s recognized scientific organizations, there are 30 of them that have issued official statements in agreement that global warming is real and that human activities are contributing to it. There are two organizations that have issued non-committal statements. There are zero science academies and professional societies that have issued dissenting statements.

Also, the Pope of the Catholic Church has issued a paper declaring that climate change is occurring due to human activity.

References for these official statements from the science academies and professional societies follow:

References

^ Working Group 1, IPCC.
^ “Warming ‘very likely’ human-made”, BBC News, BBC (2007-02-01). Retrieved on 2007-02-01.
^ Science Panel Calls Global Warming ‘Unequivocal’ Rosenthal, Elisabeth for The New York Times, February 2007
^ On the Climate Change Beat, Doubt Gives Way to Certainty Stevens, William for The New York Times, February 2007
^ U.N. Report: Global Warming Man-Made, Basically Unstoppable Fox News, February 2007
^ New York Times Panel Urges Global Shift on Sources of Energy
^ About IAC
^ IAC report Lighting the Way: Toward a Sustainable Energy Future Forward
^ IAC report Lighting the Way: Toward a Sustainable Energy Future 5.2 Conclusion
^ US National Academies’ news page. See ‘’ Statement on Climate Change’’.
^ Joint science academies’ statement: Global response to climate change June 2005
^ The Science of Climate Change from www.royalsociety.org
^ CAETS Statement on Environment and Sustainable Growth
^ “Lets be Honest”. European Academy of Sciences and Arts (2007-03-03). Retrieved on 2008-04-01.
^ a b “Joint statement by the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) to the G8 on sustainability, energy efficiency and climate change”. Network of African Science Academies (2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
^ a b Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions
^ European Science Foundation Position Paper Impacts of Climate Change on the European Marine and Coastal Environment – Ecosystems Approach pp. 7-10
^ a b AAAS Board Statement on Climate Change www.aaas.org December 2006
^ FAS web page, retrieved 3/25/08
^ WMO’s Statement at the Twelfth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
^ Climate Change Research: Issues for the Atmospheric and Related Sciences from www.ametsoc.org
^ Royal Meteorological Society’s statement on the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report.
^ AMOS Statement on Climate Change
^ Position Statement on Global Warming – Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (Updated, 2007)
^ CFCAS Letter to PM, November 25, 2005
^ INQUA Statement On Climate Change.
^ AMQUA “Petroleum Geologists’ Award to Novelist Crichton Is Inappropriate”
^ Global warming: a perspective from earth history www.geolsoc.org.uk
^ IUGG Resolution 6
^ IUGS pdf Climate Change p.6
^ IUGS pdf Climate Change p.9
^ Position Statement of the Division of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences of the European Geosciences Union on Climate Change.
^ CFES ‘’Global Climate Change’’
^ Global Climate Change Position Statement
^ Human Impacts on Climate
^ Statement supporting AGU statement on human-induced climate change, American Astronomical Society, 2004
^ Statement supporting AGU statement on human-induced climate change, American Institute of Physics, 2003
^ [1], American Physical Society, 2007
^ “Statement on Global Climate Change”. American Chemical Society (2007). Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
^ Policy Statement, Climate Change and Energy February 2007
^ Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere www.climatescience.gov
^ Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate www.climatescience.gov
^ American Statistical Association Statement on Climate Change
^ Policy Statement on Climate Variability and Change by the American Association of State Climatologists (AASC)
^ Position Statement: Climate Change from http://dpa.aapg.org
^ a b Julie Brigham-Grette et al. (September 2006). “Petroleum Geologists‘ Award to Novelist Crichton Is Inappropriate”. Eos 87 (36). Retrieved on 2007-01-23. “The AAPG stands alone among scientific societies in its denial of human-induced effects on global warming.”
^ Volunteers: Good For AAPG Climate
^ Understanding and Responding to Climate Change
^ Joint Science Academies’ Statement
^ The Science of Climate Change
^ Climate Change Research: Issues for the Atmospheric and Related Sciences February 2003
^ Pope urges international agreement on climate change

Attacks Paid for by Big Business Are Driving Science Into a Dark Era – Most scientists, on achieving high office, keep their public remarks to the bland and reassuring. Last week Nina Fedoroff, the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), broke ranks in a spectacular manner.

She confessed that she was now “scared to death” by the anti-science movement that was spreading, uncontrolled, across the US and the rest of the western world. “We are sliding back into a dark era,” she said. These pronouncements were set against a background of an entire intellectual discipline that realises that it, and its practitioners, are now under sustained attack.

As Fedoroff pointed out, university and government researchers are hounded for arguing that rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are changing the climate. Their emails are hacked while Facebook campaigns call for their dismissal from their posts, calls that are often backed by rightwing politicians. “Those of us who grew up in the sixties, when we put men on the Moon, now have to watch as every Republican candidate for this year’s presidential election denies the science behind climate change and evolution. That is a staggering state of affairs and it is very worrying,” said Professor Naomi Oreskes, of the University of California, San Diego.

Corporate business interests sponsor campaigns in the US aimed at blocking the introduction of environmental and medical measures such as bans on smoking and the use of DDT, laws to limit acid rain, legislation to end the depletion of ozone in the atmosphere and attempts to curb carbon dioxide emissions. In each case, legislation was delayed by years, sometimes decades, thanks to the activities of a variety of foundations – such as the Heartland Institute – which are backed by energy companies such as Exxon and billionaires like Charles Koch. These institutions, acting as covers for major energy corporations, are responsible for the onslaught that has deeply lowered the reputation of science in many people’s minds in America.

Climate Scientists Vilified on Fox News, blogs and by Republican Members of Congress –

Regards,

Jim

Anti-Gay Conservative Radio Talk-Show Host Identified in Hit-and-Run at Houston Gay Bar – Security camera footage from a well-known gay bar has played a key role in a hit-and-run investigation of a former Houston City Councilman, who is now a conservative talk show host, Local 2 Investigates reported on Wednesday. A Houston man reported to police that KTRH talk show host Michael Berry plowed his SUV into another car outside T.C.’s Show Baron Converse near Fairview in the Montrose area about 11 p.m. on January 31st. Tuderia Bennett, of Galena Park, told Houston police that he was working as a bouncer at the front door during a popular cross-dressing ‘drag show’ that was going on inside the club. He watched the crash happen and told police he rushed up to the car after impact and got a good look at Berry behind the wheel. Managers of the bar then turned over security camera video from inside the club to HPD investigators, and they write in an e-mail to Local 2 Investigates that their video confirms that Berry was in their establishment that night. Berry once had to apologize for suggesting that the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” in New York be blown up if it is ever built.

Rick Perry Chooses Super PAC Over Texas Taxpayers – Rick Perry wasted nearly $2.7 million taxpayer dollars on airfare, baggage fees, food and even parking during his failed 160 day Presidential campaign. According to Rick Perry’s latest ethics report, his state PAC has $2.47 million in the bank. That means he could repay 93% of what he owes us today by writing one simple check. But instead of figuring out how to use his leftover campaign money to repay taxpayers, Perry wants to give it all away to an unaccountable Super PAC.

Climate Change Denial Think Tank Wants to Dissuade Teachers From Teaching Science – The Heartland Institute — a self-described “think tank” that actually serves in part as a way for climate change denialism to get funded — has a potentially embarrassing situation on their hands. Someone going by the handle “Heartland Insider” has anonymously released quite a few of what are claimed to be internal documents from Heartland, revealing the Institute’s strategies, funds, and much more. Heartland allegedly wants to develope a curriculum for teachers to use in the classroom to sow confusion about climate change. I know, it sounds like I’m making that up, but I’m not. In this document they say:

[Dr. Wojick’s] effort will focus on providing curriculum that shows that the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain – two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science.

Climate Change Denial Think Tank Funded by Koch Brothers – The Heartland Institute 2012 Fundraising Plan attacks the temperature station data of the the National Aeronautics and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The plan states, “The Charles G. Koch Foundation returned as a Heartland donor in 2011. We expect to ramp up their level of support in 2012 and gain access to the network of philanthropists they work with.” Heartland made its name helping tobacco company Philip Morris question links between secondhand smoke and cancer.

Commercial Banks Spent Record $62 Million on Lobbying in 2012 – Commercial banks spent nearly $62 million last year on lobbying, another record total for an industry that has become one of the most active voices in the political arena. Last year’s lobbying expenditures by the commercial banking industry were up 9 percent from the year before, marking the sixth straight year of increased spending, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. The financial sector as a whole spent more than $472 million.

Audit Uncovers Extensive Flaws in Foreclosures – An audit by San Francisco county officials of about 400 recent foreclosures there determined that almost all involved either legal violations or suspicious documentation, according to a report released Wednesday. Commissioned by Phil Ting, the San Francisco assessor-recorder, the report examined files of properties subject to foreclosure sales in the county from January 2009 to November 2011. About 84 percent of the files contained what appear to be clear violations of law, it said, and fully two-thirds had at least four violations or irregularities.

Kathleen Engel, a professor at Suffolk University Law School in Boston said: “If there were any lingering doubts about whether the problems with loan documents in foreclosures were isolated, this study puts the question to rest.”

Republicans Refuse to Allow Women at Committee Hearing on Women’s Health Issues – Today, at a House Oversight Committee hearing, House Republicans convened a panel on denying access to birth control converge with five men and no women. As Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney asked, where are the women?

Tell Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor, Chairman Issa and all House Republicans to demand that women be brought to the table when discussing women’s health issues. Help us gather 50,000 signatures before Congress heads home tomorrow.

Sign the petition at the link above.

Regards,
Jim

Romney’s Tax Plan Helps Millionaires and Hurts the Middle Class – Closer scrutiny of Romney’s actual proposal reveals that it’s very good for the wealthy—and very bad for everyone else. Turning his back on the American middle class at a critical time, Romney would rather reward millionaires like himself with generous tax breaks they don’t need. Meanwhile, taxes for people making less than $40, 000 would increase on his watch., Here’s a point-by-point look at what the Romney plan would do for the wealthiest Americans:

• The richest 1 percent of American households would get a tax cut worth more than $80, 000. Those with income in the top 0.1 percent would get a cut of nearly half a million dollars.
• Families who make more than $1 million would see their taxes cut by an average of about $145, 000, making them 6.9 percent richer and reducing their federal tax rate by more than 15 percent.
• Romney would repeal the Affordable Care Act’s 3.8 percent tax on investment income that goes into effect in 2013—saving himself about $800, 000 a year.
• And here’s what Romney’s tax plan would do to the middle class and lower-income households:
• Married couples making between $30, 000 and $40, 000 would see their taxes increase by $236.
• Middle class tax provisions from the American Recovery Act would expire—including higher education tax credits and expansion of the earned income tax credit.

Romney also opposes the Buffett Rule, President Obama’s proposal to require millionaires to pay the same tax rates as the wage-earners who work for them. And he refused to support closing the carried interest tax loophole—choosing to allow private-equity managers to pay a lower tax rate than middle-income Americans., Mitt Romney’s tax plan is undoubtedly good—for millionaires like him, not the middle class.

Republicans Wasted Millions of State Taxpayer Money on Illegal Redistricting – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and state Republicans spent millions of dollars trying to eliminate the voting rights of Tarrant County citizens. In an attempt to destroy Senate District 10, the state of Texas removed large African American neighborhoods in the southeastern part of the district and attached them to an Anglo Republican district extending one hundred miles to the south. The state then removed Latino neighborhoods in the northern part of the district and attached them to a Denton County Republican district.

Senator Wendy Davis and other key leaders like Commissioner Roy Brooks, State Representative Marc Veasey and Constable Sergio De Leon had the guts and the smarts to stand up to Greg Abbott. Their courage paid off. Just a short time ago, the state Attorney General’s office agreed to drop its efforts to dismantle Senate District 10. Under an agreement made with state Senator Wendy Davis and other plaintiffs, Senate District 10 will remain completely unchanged in its configuration. The agreement represents an enormous victory for Tarrant County voters and minority citizens in Fort Worth.

New Hampshire Republicans Propose Bill To Eliminate Workers’ Lunch Breaks – New Hampshire’s Republican legislature has come up with all manner of absurd bills recently, including a proposal making public school curriculum optional, another to prevent police from protecting domestic abuse victims, and even a measure mandating that new laws be based on the Magna Carta. Some of the Granite State’s Republican lawmakers have even proposed doing away with the law that requires employers to give their workers time off for lunch.

Arizona Republicans Want To Protect Doctors Who Lie To Women – Arizona is following Kansas’ lead in trying to shield doctors for malpractice lawsuits that can arise when a doctor does inform pregnant women of prenatal problems that could lead to the decision to have an abortion. This malpractice shield is the latest in attacks on a woman’s right to access reliable, unbiased health care information and represents yet another effort by Republican legislators to interfere in doctor-patient relationship.

Republican state Sen. Nancy Barto introduced the proposal and is important to protect doctors from lawsuits that endorse the idea that if a child is born with a disability someone is to blame.

These kinds of “wrongful birth” lawsuits usually involve a doctor failing to share or properly communicate the results of prenatal screenings or risk factors to parents. Proponents of the law want to encourage doctors to fail to fully inform women of the risks associated with their pregnancies and any other information that would be relevant in a decision to terminate a pregnancy.

Like other efforts at tort reform, this law is a solution in search of a problem. But even worse, the law presumes that it is the state’s role to dictate what information a woman should have access to and what information she needs to be “protected” from in accessing routine health care services. It’s made all the more offensive by dressing the proposal up as some kind of concern over the value society places on the life of a disabled person.

Fox News’ Liz Trotta On Women Raped In Military: ‘What Did They Expect? – Fox News pundit Liz Trotta made a series of incendiary statements about rape in the military during a Sunday appearance on the network.

Trotta was reacting to news that the military will allow women to work closer to the front lines. Speaking to Fox News host Eric Shawn, she alleged that feminists wanted “to be warriors and victims at the same time.” She said, “I think they have actually discovered there is a difference between men and women. And the sexual abuse report says that there has been, since 2006, a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults. Now, what did they expect?”

Trotta also alleged that “feminists” have demanded too much money to fund programs for sexual abuse victims. “You have this whole bureaucracy upon bureaucracy being built up with all kinds of levels of people to support women in the military who are now being raped too much,” she said.
(My questions for Liz Trotta: How much rape is too much? How much is too little? How much is just right? – JLV)

House Republicans Release “Uniquely Terrible” Transportation Bill That Hurts Low-Income Families – House Republicans have released a transportation bill that would eliminate the government’s dedicated funding stream for mass transit, instead counting on a plan that the Congressional Budget Office found would cover just 5 percent of transit costs. The New York Times called the bill “uniquely terrible,” while Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican, called it “the worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen during 35 years of public service.” Cuts to mass transit fall hard on low-income people who count on public transportation to get to work, go to school, and go about their lives. And they fall hardest on low-income minorities, who, as the research organization PolicyLink noted, as disproportionately likely to not own an automobile.

Cooper Tire Locks Out Employees While Giving Bonuses to Executives – Thanks to the workers’ sacrifices and productivity, Cooper Tire has made more than $300 million in profits since 2009. Cooper paid its executives millions of dollars in bonuses and bought a new corporate jet. What did its employees get? Locked out on Thanksgiving weekend.

Despite soaring profits, Cooper pushed a new contract on its employees with higher healthcare premiums and undisclosed wage terms. Cooper’s employees were more than willing to keep working through negotiations to reach a fair deal after their contract expired last fall. But Cooper refused to budge—leaving 1,050 workers out in the cold since November 28.

Cooper can easily afford to set things straight and still turn a profit. Cooper CEO Roy Armes received $4.7 million in compensation in 2010. And the company has purchased a plant in Serbia for $17.3 million! Cooper wants to cry broke, but greed—not need—is driving this lockout. As Chico Ramirez, who’s logged 25 years with the company, explains, “The thing that bothers us is that we gave them concessions to help them get back on their feet, and they are paying out bonuses instead of paying back the backbone of the company.”

Tell Cooper Tire that its bullying and greed must end now by clicking the link above.

Medical Device Industry Likes Loopholes in Testing – In the past decade, tens of thousands of automated external defibrillators (those electric paddles used to help victims of heart attacks) have been recalled. The corporations that make and sell medical devices are already using loopholes to avoid properly testing new devices before they’re used on patients. The result has been predictable. Patients who were treated with inadequately tested, high-risk devices have been subject to risky, painful corrective surgeries — procedures that are costly to patients and contribute to rising health care costs, including billions in taxpayer dollars.

This, in itself, is an outrage. But the fact that hundreds of lobbyists representing this $350 billion industry have been working to weaken this already weak system is abhorrent in the highest degree.

Tell your representative: Don’t let industry risk our health in order to pad its profits. Improve testing of high-risk medical devices to reduce unnecessary harm to patients.

Regards,

Jim

While Digging Up 1,235 Acres For His Golf Course in Scotland, Donald Trump Says Wind Farms Are ‘Destroying’ Scotland – After starting construction on a 1,235 acre coastal golf course on rural land in Scotland that will feature two golf courses, 950 houses and a luxury hotel, Trump is now complaining that the Scottish Minister is “hell-bent on destroying Scotland’s coastline” with offshore wind projects. Trump’s letter comes after a multi-year battle with local landowners who don’t want to be forced from their property to make way for the golf course. In one case, Trump built a fence around a local homeowner’s property he deemed “ugly” and then billed him for half the costs!

A Sample of More Bad Deeds From Charles and David Koch – The FBI caught Koch Industries pilfering oil from the Osage reservation – a theft personally ordered by Charles Koch according to hidden wire recordings of Koch Industry executives. The Justice Department prepared racketeering and felony theft charges against Koch Industries, but these were dropped, and charged FBI agent Richard Elroy, after political pressure was brought by Koch-funded Senator Bob Dole.

The US Senate Special Committee on Investigations concluded that, “Koch Oil is the most dramatic example of an oil company stealing by deliberate mismeasurement and fraudulent reporting.” Committee member Senator Dennis DeConcini of Arizona stated that the Koch’s personally threatened him to prevent an investigation into the theft and dropping of criminal charges. Koch’s oil company paid the Indians $25 million to settle their civil claim.

llegal Koch Industries campaign contributions in 1994 brought a Republican majority to power in Congress. Before Citizens United, Koch Industries, via a cut-out called Triad Inc. which in turn used a front called, ‘Coalition for Our Children’s Future’ and ran $25 million in smear ads last minute against Democratic Congressional candidates before the 1998 vote. The smears, the hidden source of funds, and the size of the campaign spending were then new, shocking — and effective in wiping out Koch’s political opponents. Britain’s Guardian disclosed that the Koch’s avoided prosecution, according to US Senate investigators, through their political connection to Senator Trent Lott.

This January in California, the Koch Brothers have set out to buy the White House, having pledged 100 million dollars in now unlimited campaign funds (thanks to the Citizens United ruling) to defeat President Obama.

Scandal Involving Fox News Owner Widens – As dozens of investigators and high-powered lawyers converge on Rupert Murdoch’s News International in the phone hacking scandal, attention has focused on the printout of an e-mail excavated three months ago from a sealed carton left behind in an empty company office. Addressed to Mr. Murdoch’s son James, it contained explosive information about the scale of phone hacking at The News of the World tabloid — information James Murdoch says he failed to take in because he did not read the whole e-mail chain.
The e-mail returned to cause trouble for News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of News Corporation. The scandal appeared to be widening on Saturday, as senior journalists at News Corporation’s Sun tabloid were arrested.

Embroiled in three separate police operations, a parliamentary investigation, a judicial inquiry and a flurry of civil suits with potentially hundreds more waiting in the wings, News Corporation has begun to provide information that suggests a broader sweep of hacking activity at News International than was suspected even recently and more widespread knowledge within the company of past efforts to cover it up.

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector [a Republican] Secretively Purging Voter Rolls – The Harris County tax assessor-collector [a Republican] has re-created the equivalent of a regressive poll tax by maximizing the time and travel costs of voting. He forces most voters in Harris County to reapply over and over. He then decides whether to allow a citizen to remain on the registration rolls by a secretive purging operation that, even after the lawsuits by the mentioned in the Jan. 30 article, remains largely obscured from public scrutiny. No increase in the voter rolls for this dynamic and growing community is the result.

The Tax Office suspends or cancels voter registrations based on something like a credit check. The office calls it a live check; it sends personal identification information into a so-called “fusion center” and, from there, to where nobody will say. In any case, the unreliable information returned from various sources is used to disqualify or misdirect voters. This is not subject to audit and barely subject to appeal. You the voter just show up at the polls to discover when it is too late to do anything about it that you are not qualified to vote. Just making a simple change of address is difficult and risks cancellation. Voter registration in Harris County is really a lifetime reregistration process costing millions their right to vote and the county millions of dollars.

Regards,

Jim

Republicans Attempting to Weaken Laws Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault – The Violence Against Women Act was first passed in 1994, providing billions to enhance investigation and prosecution of violent crimes perpetrated against women. It was most recently reauthorized in 2005 by unanimous consent in the Senate.

It’s up for reauthorization again, but this time it received zero Republican votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Why? Because Republicans want to throw out provisions in the bill protecting victims who are LGBT or undocumented, slash funding for enforcement, and eliminate entirely “the Justice Department office devoted to administering the law and coordinating the nation’s response to domestic violence and sexual assaults.”

Republican Governor Scott Walker Steals Mortgage Settlement Money – Just a couple of days ago, Scott Walker, Fartfuhrer of the Totalitarian Corporate Plutocracy of Fitzwalkerstan, formerly Wisconsin, was crowing about how he had balanced the budget. He was lying, of course. He had a balanced budget when he was elected, but despite gutting worker’s compensation and services for citizens, all his giveaways to the Koch Brothers and other corporate criminals have built up a significant deficit. Now that Fitzwalkerstan will be getting mortgage relief for homeowners, the Fartfuhrer’s plan for that money has nothing to do with the homeowners.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced they were going to take roughly 18 percent of bank-paid mortgage settlement funds to help balance the state budget.

As an aside, I have opposed the Republican plan to convert Medicaid to a voucher program for states. If they succeed, this is what Republican Governors will do with health care funds for the poor.

Make Big Money and Pay No Taxes – In just one year a single hedge fund manager made enough money to hire 100,000 new teachers while calling his $5 billion income “carried interest” so he could defer the little amount of taxes he owed.

Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend On It – LINDSTROM, Minn. — Ki Gulbranson owns a logo apparel shop, deals in jewelry on the side and referees youth soccer games. He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government. He says that too many Americans lean on taxpayers rather than living within their means. He supports politicians who promise to cut government spending. In 2010, he printed T-shirts for the Tea Party campaign of a neighbor, Chip Cravaack, who ousted this region’s long-serving Democratic congressman.

Yet this year, as in each of the past three years, Mr. Gulbranson, 57, is counting on a payment of several thousand dollars from the federal government, a subsidy for working families called the earned-income tax credit. He has signed up his three school-age children to eat free breakfast and lunch at federal expense. And Medicare paid for his mother, 88, to have hip surgery twice.

Regards,

Jim

When Mitt Romney Came To Town – Watch the video.

Ari Fleischer Secretly Involved in the Komen Foundation’s Strategy Regarding Planned Parenthood – Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush and prominent right-wing pundit, was secretly involved in the Komen Foundation’s strategy regarding Planned Parenthood. Fleischer personally interviewed candidates for the position of “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations” at Komen last December. According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen’s relationship with Planned Parenthood.

Fleischer’s relationship with Komen and the Planned Parenthood controversy was previously undisclosed. In November, Komen advertised for a top level communications position in Roll Call. Promising applicants received a call from Fleischer. According to a source, during at least one interview, Planned Parenthood was a major topic of conversation and Fleischer indicated that he had discussed the Planned Parenthood issue with Komen’s CEO.

As a result of this process, Komen hired Karen Handel for the position. Handel not only has a long anti-choice history, but pledged to eliminate grants for Planned Parenthood to provide breast and cervical cancer screenings when she ran for governor of Georgia in 2010. Handel has now resigned.

BP Made $3 Million Per Hour In 2011, While Spill Victims Continue To Suffer – BP’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill is still affecting the lives of many Americans, particularly the tens of thousands that have not settled lawsuits with the company. Yet the company has bounced back from the billions it lost in the wake of the spill.

BP announced today that its 2011 profit totaled $26 billion, a 114 percent jump from the year before, when the company’s “failure of supervision and accountability” caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history. As the company prepares for its upcoming criminal trial, let’s take a look at how BP has made out after the Deepwater Horizon disaster:

• BP earned $3 million per hour in 2011. Its fourth-quarter profits reached $7.69 billion, which is up 38 percent from 2010.
• The company is sitting on another $14 billion in cash.
• The company continues to scale back its production in the wake of the spill, producing 10 percent less than 2010 levels.
• BP contributions to federal candidates totaled more than $98,000 in 2011, with more than half (65 percent) to Republican candidates.
• BP spent $8 million lobbying Congress in 2011, down from the record $15 million the company lobbied in 2009 – one year before the oil disaster.
• For every dollar the big five oil companies use in lobbying, they effectively receive $30 in subsidies. This could mean BP potentially gained up to $243 million in subsidies, although the exact amount for an individual company is undisclosed.
• In the third quarter, BP’s Bob Dudley announced the company had reached a “definite turning point” of boosted profits. However, nearly two years following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP has still only paid $7.8 billion of the $20 billion fund they created to compensate individuals and businesses for losses incurred by the spill.

Republican Representative Thinks Onion Article About “Abortionplex” Was Real – Louisiana Republican Rep. John Fleming reposted a story about the opening of a supposed $8 billion Planned Parenthood “Abortionplex” on his Facebook page on Friday. But, the article was from comedy fake-news website The Onion. The more unbelievable something is, the more likely these guys will believe it. Their main source of exercise is jumping to conclusions.

Immigrant Children Targeted in Child Tax Credit Fight in Congress – The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has proposed excluding families who pay their taxes with an ITIN (rather than a Social Security number) from receiving the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC). This credit offers up to a $1,000 tax break for millions of parents to offset the costs of raising children and to reduce child poverty. In most instances, ITIN filers are low-income families already struggling to pay their bills, as over 60% of families receiving this credit earn less than $25, 000 per year. This modification to the ACTC would target approximately 4 million U.S. citizen children being raised in 2 million immigrant households.

Health Insurance Companies Bilk Policy Holders While Raking in Huge Profits, CEO Salaries and Bonuses, and Spending Big on Lobbying – Anthem Blue Cross is spending millions on executive salaries and lobby efforts against healthcare reform — and how are they paying for it? By forcing 39% increases on their policy holders in California.

Netting $2.5 billion in profits wasn’t enough for WellPoint, the nation’s largest insurance company. WellPoint’s affiliate, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is spending millions by suing the state of Maine for refusing to guarantee the company a profit in the midst of a painful recession.

Texas Congressman Wants Pipelines for Caribous – Apparently, Texas Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert got a new memo, and it said something about promoting a massive petrochemical pipeline in Alaska. Well, ok, so far this is fair enough, he’s also undoubtedly a proud card-carrying member of the Drill-Baby-Drill Caucus.

Here’s the theory Gohmert managed to come up with: we can’t stop this pipeline. Because if we stop this pipeline, the caribou will suffer. The caribou will suffer because the pipeline provides warmth. Without the warmth, the caribou won’t want to mate.

Yes, friends, apparently Gohmert believes oil pipelines make caribou horny. Without the pipeline, he’s concerned there won’t be enough caribou screwing going on. Pipelines apparently make the other caribou look really hot to each other, and they have sex with wild abandon. Pipelines apparently bring out all the slutty caribou who might otherwise stay home. But with the pipeline, it’ll totally be like a cari-booty call situation all the time. In conclusion, pipelines are caribou beer goggles.

Have a good laugh and read the whole article at the link above.

Regards,
Jim

Texas Attorney General Misleads on Redistricting “Deal” – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced he had reached agreement on most parts of the Texas redistricting maps with most of the parties involved. However, the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, the NAACP, the “Davis” plaintiffs, and the Texas Democratic Party have said they have not agreed to any deal with Abbott, All of these groups are parties to the lawsuit against the maps drawn by the Republican-dominated legislature. Apparently, Abbott does not know the meaning of the word “most.”

Karl Rove Offended by American Success – In a Chrysler ad aired during the Super Bowl Sunday, touting the resurgence of the American auto industry, Clint Eastwood declared that it’s “halftime in America and our second half’s about to begin.” “I was, frankly, offended by it,” said Karl Rove on Fox News Monday.

Republican Runs Racist Ad – Republican Peter Hoekstra’s campaign for a U.S. Senate seat hit a new low on Super Bowl Sunday, when it began airing a racially charged ad, complete with an Asian-American actress speaking in broken English. The advertisement, which will continue to run in Michigan for two weeks after the Super Bowl, features an Asian-American woman with a conical straw hat riding a bicycle through a rice paddy. “Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good,” the actress says. “You borrow more and more from us. We take your jobs.” The ad draws on some of the most common and harmful stereotypes of Chinese people to make its point. And below is what you see if you look at their source code:

“Yellow girl” to refer to a Chinese woman?

Tell Hoekstra to stop running the advertisement immediately and to apologize for perpetuating racist stereotypes.

Regards,

Jim

Romney Has Proposed Weakening the Same Safety Net That He Says Is Why He Doesn’t Worry About the Very Poor – Coming off his big win in Florida, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney told CNN, “I’m not concerned with the very poor. We have a safety net there.” He later described the safety net as “very ample.”

Romney’s claim that the safety net is “very ample” suggests a lack of understanding . While safety net programs kept seven million Americans out of poverty in 2010, according to a study from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, government assistance fell far short of insulating all, or even most, poor Americans.

But his comment is especially tone deaf considering that Romney has proposed weakening many of these safety net programs. Under Romney’s proposed reductions in federal spending, it’s likely that Medicaid would be cut by $153 billion by 2016, the food stamp program would have to throw 10 million low-income people off the rolls, and a key program supporting poor children’s health would face cumulative cuts of $946 billion through 2021. As ThinkProgress’ Igor Volsky has said that Romney is living in a “dream world” when he claims his Medicaid cuts won’t hurt the poor.

And Romney’s tax plan suggests his focus is really on the wealthy, as it includes massive giveaways to upper-income earners and investors, while doing almost nothing for middle- and low-income Americans.

Government Cuts Are Holding Back Job Growth – The country added 243,000 non-farm payroll jobs in January. Private industry actually gained 257,000 jobs, but 14,000 police, firefighters, teachers, and other state workers were laid off by Republican cuts to government in order to give more to millionaires, billionaires, and corporate criminals.

U.S. Corporate Tax Rate Plunges To 40 Year Low – In recent decades, corporate tax revenue has plunged, falling from about 6 percent of gross domestic product in the 1950′s to less than 2 percent today, due to a proliferation of corporate tax breaks and the use of offshore tax havens. According to the Congressional Budget Office, in fact, corporate tax receipts as a share of corporate profits have hit their lowest point in 40 years.

Total corporate federal taxes paid fell to 12.1% of profits earned from activities within the U.S. in fiscal 2011, which ended Sept. 30, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s the lowest level since at least 1972. And well below the 25.6% companies paid on average from 1987 to 2008.
Even the 25.6 percent share of profits that went to corporate taxes over the last quarter century comes in below the top statutory corporate tax rate of 35 percent.

Meanwhile, corporate profits are currently at a 60 year high, rebounding back to above where they were before the Great Recession hit. At the same time that corporations are pulling in huge amounts of money, workers are seeing their wages shrink. Last year, real wages fell by 2 percent, and “many employees are also working longer hours and getting more done without raises or overtime pay.” “Part of the reason why business profits are so high is it is a zero-sum game, so labor is on the losing end of that,” said Aaron Smith, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics. “Businesses are getting more out of each worker they have.” (and not paying them for it-JLV)

The Komen Foundation’s Political Agenda – The Breast & Cervical Cancer Prevention & Treatment Act was crafted to provide Medicaid coverage for uninsured women diagnosed through the Breast & Cervical Cancer Prevention & Screening Act, which had been passed several years earlier. The Treatment Act was necessary because uninsured women were getting no-cost breast cancer diagnosis, but still had no means to pay for treatment. However, Komen opposed the bill because they felt that treatment for uninsured breast cancer patients should be funded through private donations, like the pink ribbon race. They spend a lot of money lobbying for a very different agenda. The bill passed anyway. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the end of Komen (and its founder, Nancy Brinker’s) political maneuvering to stall or kill legislation in Congress and in state legislatures that was supported by other breast cancer advocacy groups.

Komen fought behind the scenes to stall or kill the Breast Cancer & Environmental Research Act. In the end, they eviscerated it by removing new funding for environmental research and substituting a panel to review all research on breast cancer & environment. Using private funds, they recently collaborated with the Institute of Medicine to develop said report. Released last December, it sadly detailed the same old arguments that there’s no evidence of links between environmental toxins and that no further research should be done on the subject since everyone has those toxins in their bodies already. Instead they chose to blame breast cancer patients for getting the disease (more here).

In 2009, Komen lobbied behind the scenes to weaken the health care bill (ACA) as it was being debated in Congress. They hired Hadassah Lieberman, wife of Joe, in an effort to convince Joementum to vote against the Public Option. Komen spent over $1 million in 2008 & 2009, on behind the scenes lobbying related to the health care reform bill.

Oops: Florida Republican Forgets To Remove ALEC Mission Statement From Boilerplate Anti-Tax Bill – Progressives have long tried to expose the influence the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) wields in state house across the country, but one Florida lawmaker is making it too easy.

Funded almost entirely by large corporations, ALEC produces “model legislation” favorable to industry that state lawmakers can introduce as their own bills. Usually, the legislators tweak the language of the bills to make them state-specific or to obfuscate their origins. Usually, but apparently not always.
In November, Florida state Rep. Rachel Burgin (R) introduced a resolution (PDF here) that would officially call on the federal government to reduce corporate taxes, but she apparently forgot to remove ALEC’s mission statement from the top of the bill, which she seems to have copied word-for-word from ALEC’s model bill.

As the government transparency group Common Cause reports, “Burgin quickly withdrew the bill hoping that no one had noticed and then re-introduced it 24-hours later, with a new bill number (HM 717), but now without the problematic paragraph.”

Regards,

Jim