The WAWG Blog

Texas Legislature Intentionally Under-Funded Medicaid – The Texas Legislature passed a so-called “balanced” budget by intentionally under-funding the Medicaid program by $4.5 billion, essentially choosing to postpone payment of that bill until 2013. Now, escalating caseload growth will bump that figure into the atmosphere, State Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs told hospital administrators in a speech Wednesday.

Santorum to Sick Kid: Don’t Complain About $1 Million Drug Costs – Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum told the mother of a child with a rare genetic disorder on Tuesday that she shouldn’t have a problem paying $1 million a year for drugs because Apple’s iPad can cost around $900.

Speaking to more than 400 people at Woodland Park, Colorado, the former Pennsylvania senator said that demand should set prices for drugs.

“People have no problem paying $900 for an iPad,” the candidate explained. “But paying $900 for a drug they have a problem with — it keeps you alive. Why? Because you’ve been conditioned to think health care is something you can get without having to pay for it.”

The mother replied that she could not afford her son’s medication, Abilify, which can cost as much as $1 million a year without health insurance.

Santorum insisted. “But the bottom line is, we have to give companies the incentive to make those drugs.”

Republican Senator Says Low Teacher Pay Mandated by God – A Republican State Senator from Alabama claimed this week that keeping teacher salaries low is actually an order from the Christian deity figure, imparted in ancient texts written by Jewish tribesmen thousands of years ago.

Speaking at a prayer breakfast recently, Alabama state Senator Shadrack McGill praised giving pay raises to politicians, saying that it helps to prevent bribery. Then he shifted gears and went in the opposite direction with regards to teachers, arguing against a bill that would increase their salaries. He said, ”

“It’s a Biblical principle. If you double a teacher’s pay scale, you’ll attract people who aren’t called to teach.” He further said that because teaching is a “calling,” teachers would still do their jobs no matter how little they are paid.

States That Adopted Right-Wing Education Methods Did Poorest – On Tuesday, the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) released a “Report Card on American Education.” In ranking the 50 states and Washington, D.C. some interesting trends emerge. Blue states tend to outperform red states. Based on standardized test scores these are five states: Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. Numbers 47-51: Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

The other funny thing about ALEC’s education report card is that they grade each state on whether they’ve adopted ALEC’s education reform agenda but are unconcerned with how their reforms affect outcomes. Some of the states with the highest marks for reform with rank in the bottom half on their performance, such as Missouri, California and Arizona.

“One Million Moms Group” to JC Penney: Fire Ellen DeGeneres, She’s Gay – One Million Moms — a project of the American Family Association (AFA) — who doesn’t have one million moms in it — is very angry at JC Penney because their spokesperson, Ellen DeGeneres is gay, and open about it. With this campaign, One Million Moms, is going after one of the country’s most well-liked and most congenial television hosts. The group wants JC Penney to replace Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson.

What else has AFA done? They have called for the shutdown of PBS and as a result of the AFA’s campaign, many state legislatures reduced funding for public broadcasting. The AFA alsospearheaded the attack on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), using direct mail and extensive print advertising to distort the NEA’s record of sponsorship of the arts.

Secrecy Shrouds ‘Super PAC’ Funds in Latest Filings – Newly disclosed details of the millions of dollars flowing into political groups are highlighting not just the scale of donations from corporation and unions but also the secrecy surrounding “super PACs” seeking to influence the presidential race.

Some of the money came from well-established concerns, like Alpha Natural Resources, one of the country’s largest coal companies, which is backing Republican-aligned American Crossroads, or from the Service Employees International Union, a powerful union allied with Democrats, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Some came from companies closely identified with prominent industrialists or financiers, like Contran, a mammoth holding company controlled by the Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, a patron of a number of conservative groups and candidates, and Blue Ridge Capital, a New York hedge fund founded by the wealthy investor John A. Griffin, a supporter of Mitt Romney.

The US Spends a Lot More to Beat Other Countries Than to Assist Them – The US is number one in the world in military spending. The US spends $100 billion more on our military than the next highest 15 countries combined. More than China, UK, France, Russia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, India, Italy, Brazil, South Korea, Australia, Canada and Turkey combined. Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2011 Yearbook.

$836 billion is budgeted for military spending by the US in 2012. Source: US Office of Management and Budget, Fiscal Year 2012.

However, the US government ranks 19th out of 23 countries in assistance to poor nations, giving only about two-tenths of one percent of US gross national income to poor countries. Source: Global Issues: Foreign Aid for Development Assistance.

Regards,

Jim

The bad ole boys of Galveston County
By Lloyd Criss

Special to The Daily News
Published February 2, 2012
On the national scene, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are viscously engaged in a no holds barred battle for the GOP presidential nomination.

In Austin, our governor has returned to the state capitol after an embarrassing ego trip that cost Texas taxpayers $1.1 million for his security costs. But the combined bad behavior of GOP national and state leaders is minuscule when compared to the recent shenanigans of the local GOP elected officials in the Galveston County Courthouse.

First to make the news was our GOP county treasurer who faced criminal charges for providing alcohol to minors at a graduation party. To be followed by charges and criminal conviction of our GOP district clerk for violent acts against his spouse.

In September, four members of the county commissioners court, in a gesture to promote limited government, voted to take a 5 percent pay cut and discontinue their $1,000 per month automobile allowance. This vote was supported by two Democrats and two Republicans. Within one week, the two Republicans joined a third GOP member of the court and voted to take back from the taxpayers their 5 percent pay cut and the $1,000 automobile allowance.

In December, the other GOP county commissioner, the one who did not earlier vote for the pay cut, made the news. A local newspaper story revealed his son had been hired on the county payroll. This was a clear violation of state nepotism law. According to the Texas attorney general’s office, when a public official violates state nepotism law, he must be removed from office.

In January, in another exposé of a county GOP official, a county court at law judge’s ex-wife said he had lied on his application to appear on the 2010 GOP primary ballot. Within one week, this same judge was involved in another incident. This time a visiting judge fined him $7,500 for failure to appear in court in a lawsuit where he was accused of malpractice and fraud.

That’s not all, folks! At least three other local GOP elected officials have either a spouse or a close relative working full time on the county payroll. A closer investigation of at least two of these hires could very well show violations of the state nepotism law.

Before the 2010 general election, the Galveston County Courthouse was dominated by Democratic elected officials. The Republicans referred to the Democrats as the “good ole boys.”

Now the GOP holds a majority. Never before has one group of elected officials demonstrated this degree of arrogance and disrespect for the laws they swore to uphold. Being a “good ole boy” was a badge of honor when being compared to the deeds of this current crop of Galveston County GOP “bad ole boys.”

Lloyd Criss is chair of the Galveston County Democratic Party.

Regards,

Jim

In 1994 Bain purchased Baxter International and renamed it Dade International. Bain partnered with Goldman Sachs for the deal. The company was purchased for $442 million, but since it was leveraged, Bain put in less than $30 million. They also charged the Dade a little under $100 million in management fees. Source: Forbes

In 1995, Bain contemplated either selling Dade, or buy one of its competitors and expand it. Selling would have meant a quick return on Bain’s investment, but Romney wanted to keep the company and “double down” on Dade. Source: New York Times

Bain wanted to sell Dade in 1999, but they couldn’t find an offer they liked. KKR offered $1.9 billion. So Dade took out loans so that it could buy out half of its share holders. Bain got $242 million and Goldman Sachs $121 million. Top Dade executives were paid $55 million. The total payout to shareholders was $420 million. Source: Forbes

Dade’s workers were very unhappy. From The NYT:

William T. Mowrey, a field engineer, after Dade bought the DuPont unit, his generous pension plan was replaced by a 401(k); his salary was cut by $2,000 a year and he was not paid for overtime. “They were just trying to milk as much out of us as they could,” he said.

Soon after Dade bought the DuPont unit, it closed a plant in Puerto Rico; all but a few of its nearly 300 workers were laid off.

Dade persuaded a dozen of the Puerto Rico workers to move to Miami, where Dade had another plant. Not long after the workers arrived, the company said it would close that factory, too and declined to help the workers return to Puerto Rico.

In 2002 Dade filed for bankruptcy, 1700 jobs had been lost in the U.S. The company had simply incurred too much debt, about $1.5 billion of it. From the LA Times:

“When I listen to Mitt Romney these days, he talks about creating jobs. My experience at Dade during those Bain Capital years was that it was strictly an investment, not to create jobs,” said Michael Rumbin, a vice president of technology management at Dade during the Bain years whose position was eliminated in 2000.

“No one came from Bain and said, ‘How can we hire more people?’ ” Rumbin said. “It was, ‘How do we turn our investment around and make a lot of money?’ Which they did.”

Bain was forced to relinquish its stake in Dade in the bankruptcy. Romney was charged with “unjust enrichment.” Source: Forbes

Meanwhile, as it was going through turmoil and cutting jobs in the U.S., Dade was hiring abroad. Source: New York Times

Summary: Leveraged buyout, borrowing, gambling with other people’s money, layoffs, broken promises to workers, too much debt, bankruptcy, unjust enrichment, sending jobs overseas.

Regards,

Jim

Republican Senator Threatens to Block All of President Obama’s Nominees – During an appearance on Chris Matthews, Republican Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) aid that he would bring America down if Democrats didn’t vote to force the American people to live under conservative rule via a Constitutional amendment. Now, Mike Lee is continuing his quest to destroy America by obstructing President Obama’s judicial and government agency nominees in the Senate. On Friday, Lee threatened to block all of President Obama’s nominees if he doesn’t remove Richard Cordray from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Republicans think the President violated the Constitution by appointing Cordray during the recess.

Lee is one of the most destructive Senators on Capitol Hill. He opposes child labor laws, food stamps, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, programs that help the poor, FDA, EPA, and just about the entire federal government. He thinks everything is unconstitutional, despite what the Supreme Court has ruled.

Dallas ISD School Board Closes 11 Neighborhood Schools and Extends Teachers’ Workday Without Extra Pay – Last week the Dallas ISD school board rammed through controversial new policies that would close 11 neighborhood schools and extend teachers’ workday without extra pay next year. The policy content was bad enough. But the process was even uglier. And Dallas educators and community members are not going to stand for it.

Last week, a parent who raised her voice in opposition to the board’s action was ousted from the board’s meeting room on orders from the board chairman. Faced with an overflow crowd of irate parents, school employees, and citizens vocally opposed to their policies, board members left the board room, secluded themselves in another room, and allowed the further testimony and proceedings to be monitored only on video. “The board walked out on the community,” said board member Carla Ranger, who refused to join the walkout.

As one local media commentator wrote: “Did the school board make any effort at all to find out how much time teachers are already spending to accomplish their work? No. If you know a public school teacher, have you ever known that person not to bring home tons of grading and paperwork at night and on weekends—unpaid work that sucks time away from family and health?”

The Bad Deeds of Income Inequality – The typical worker must earn $18.46 an hour to rent a two bedroom apartment. Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Except for eleven counties in Illinois and another eight in Puerto Rico, there is no county in the US where a one bedroom fair market rate apartment is available to a person working full-time at the minimum wage. Source: The National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The combined pay of the top 299 CEOs is enough to support 102,325 average jobs. Source: Corporate Paywatch.

In the last numbers reported, the top 1 percent had net worth 225 times greater than the median or typical household’s net worth, the highest ever recorded. Source: Economic Policy Institute.

In 2011, Exxon Mobile Made $1300 in Profit Per Second, But Pays a Lower Tax Rate Than the Average American – ExxonMobil had the largest profits of the Big Five oil companies in 2011, raking in $41.1 billion for the year. This 35 percent jump from last year is driven in large part by record-high oil prices. Today, the oil giant announced its fourth quarter profits of $9.4 billion, a 2 percent increase since 2010. (So, why can’t they afford to lower gas prices a few cents?)

Here are a few other facts about ExxonMobil:

– Exxon’s $41.1 billion in 2011 profit translates into nearly $5 million in profit every hour, or more than $1,300 every second. The annual profit comes near the record revenues of $46.23 billion in 2008.
– Stock buybacks for Q4 were $5.4 billion, and $21.60 billion for the year, equivalent to 53 percent of total 2011 profit. This enriches executives, the board of directors, and largest shareholders (but not you).
– Exxon pays a lower tax rate than the average American. Between 2008-2010, Exxon Mobil registered an average 17.6 percent federal effective corporate tax rate, while the average American paid a higher rate of 20.4 percent.
– The company paid no taxes to the U.S. federal government in 2009, despite 45.2 billion record profits. It paid $15 billion in taxes, but none in federal income tax.
– The oil giant uses offshore subsidiaries in the Caribbean to avoid paying taxes in the United States.
– Exxon is sitting on $11 billion cash on hand as of September 30.
– Exxon spent nearly $13 million on lobbying expenditures in 2011. The company gave nearly another $900,000 in federal campaign contributions. 92 percent of contributions went to Republicans.
– Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson made $29 million in 2010 (according to the latest records): He made $2.2 million in salary, a $3.4 million bonus, and stock awards valued at $15.5 million.
– Exxon is drawing out a legal battle for damages on a spill from 22 years ago. Exxon hasn’t paid $92 million in cleanup for the devastating Valdez Alaskan oil spill. In its Sept. 30 court filing, Exxon argued the damages it agreed to pay only covers “restoration” and not additional “clean-up.”
– Far from a job creator, ExxonMobil — together with Chevron, Shell, and BP — reduced their U.S. workforce by 11,200 employees between 2005 and 2010.

Regards,
Jim

Republican Wants to Bring Back Public Hangings – There’s something about a public hanging that strikes me as very oh, I don’t know, “cruel and unusual” and offensive to every last bit of human decency. Not so for North Carolina Republican Larry Pittman. He wants to bring back public hangings in North Carolina as a deterrent to crime. He expressed his views in an email sent Wednesday to every member of the General Assembly. “For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well.”

Mitt Romney Donates to Anti-LGBT Groups While Saying He Opposes Discrimination Against LGBT Americans – Two weeks ago, Mitt Romney claimed that he opposed discrimination against LGBT Americans. But his tax returns reveal a different story. The Republican presidential hopeful donated at least $35,000 to the Massachusetts Family Institute and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberties. These organizations are notorious for their anti-LGBT discrimination. If Mitt really opposed discrimination, he wouldn’t throw money at groups that, among other things, have actively opposed making schools safer for LGBT kids. Click on the link above and tell Mitt that we’re living in 2012. This is not okay.

Texas Budget Cuts Are Having a Significant Negative Impact on Our Schools – A recent Texas AFT survey of public school superintendents from 241 districts found that state budget cuts of $5.4 billion are having a significant impact on classroom instruction, teacher morale and help for struggling students. Superintendents are saying that teacher layoffs, larger class sizes and cuts in services for struggling students are creating a stressful environment and creating concerns about how to deal with the implementation of the new standardized tests being rolled out this spring.”

As one superintendent noted, “The funds to produce a world‐class educational system in Texas are there. The willingness to invest in our kids and our state is not. Cut now, pay later. Our state leadership has failed us.”

Right-Wing Politicians Are Stealing the People’s Property – State officials are sacrificing parks in order to keep the tax-dodging moneyed elites who pay for their campaigns from paying even a dime more in taxes. The majority of states have been closing many of their parks, slashing hours and services at others or simply handing the public’s asset to profiteering corporations. Idaho’s governor has proposed eliminating the entire parks department; California shut the gates of a fourth of the state’s parks last year; officials in Arizona and Florida intend to privatize their parks; Washington state has cut off most of its park funding; and Ohio has okayed oil drilling in its parks to replace state financing.

Last year, the gang of Republican hucksters who control our state government pulled off a huge heist, covering it up with an equally huge boast: “We balanced our budget. Not by raising taxes but by setting priorities and cutting government spending,” bragged the gang leader, Gov. Rick “Oops” Perry. How’d they fill the $27 billion shortfall that they themselves had created by their previous budgetary mismanagement? By stealing money from already poorly funded programs — from education to parks — that ordinary Texans count on.

Many of our Texas state parks are now understaffed, open fewer hours and in disrepair because the system’s budget was whacked by 21.5 percent in order to spare the wealthiest families and corporations in this enormously rich state from paying a teensy bit more in taxes. But that was only part of the robbery. A state sales tax on sporting goods, dedicated by law to help finance the people’s parks will generate about $236 million this year and next. But the governor and his legislative henchmen raided this pile of revenue, filching two-thirds of it for the state’s general fund so they could claim that they “balanced our budget (without) raising taxes.”

Bad Decision May Cause Loss of Wildlife at Lake Conroe – Lake Conroe is experiencing record low water at present following severe drought conditions. These drought conditions have left a portion of the standing timber fish habitat structure uncovered. This in unfortunate because now the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission is seeking to destroy this structure which occupies much of the north 1/3 of this reservoir without any proper data impact studies being done. This reservoir is not only home to many species of fish, but also waterfowl and endangered species such as the American Bald Eagle. This structure creates a shoreline habitat that many of these species have come to depend on.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission’s own biologist less than two years ago described it thus, “Most of the ecologically functional shoreline habitat occurs in this section of the reservoir,” meaning that the bulk of all wildlife supported within this reservoir depends heavily on this specific portion of the lake and the habitat formed by the timber fish habitat structure.

To remove it poses no benefit aside from potentially making the lake more aesthetically pleasing to people stopping by. That said, without the wildlife supported by this structure, the volume of people coming to the reservoir would likely dry up anyway, thus defeating the only potential purpose.
The removal of standing timber tops and cutting away of them needs to be stopped before the entire structure is gone and the Lake Conroe ecosystem completely altered. These animals need a habitat, even during drought seasons.

Peaceful Occupy DC Demonstrator Tased – Until now, Occupy DC has been protected from eviction because the National Park Service — not the DC police — have jurisdiction over them. The National Park Service said publicly, “We don’t have any issues with these folks” and “The core of their First Amendment activity is that they occupy the site.” But last week, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa politicized the Park Service — holding hearings where he pressured them to crack down on Occupy DC under the pretext of enforcing camping regulations. The Park Service quickly buckled.

On Sunday, the National Park Service brutally tased a peaceful, young Occupy DC demonstrator. Click on the link above and watch the video here (warning: it’s graphic). And please join me in petitioning the National Park Service to leave Occupy DC alone.

Have You Heard This One? – An adulterer-turned Catholic whose campaign is underwritten by a Jewish casino tycoon, walks into a Baptist church where the audience has been primed with speeches about how “God intended” marriage to be “between one man and one woman” and how their state was on the verge of being taken over by the “vice” of gambling.

But it’s not a joke. It was a Newt Gingrich campaign appearance at a Presidential Forum, hosted by the conservative Christian legal group Liberty Counsel and others, at Aloma Baptist Church in Winter Park, Florida, just north of Orlando.

Regards,

Jim

Ron Paul Signed Off on Racist Newsletters in the 1990s, Associates Say – Ron Paul, well known as a physician, congressman and libertarian , has also been a businessman who pursued a marketing strategy that included publishing provocative, racially charged newsletters to make money and spread his ideas, according to three people with direct knowledge of Paul’s businesses. The Republican presidential candidate has denied writing inflammatory passages in the pamphlets from the 1990s and said recently that he did not read them at the time or for years afterward. Numerous colleagues said he does not hold racist views.

Welfare Drug Testing Bill Withdrawn After Amended To Include Testing Lawmakers – A Republican member of the Indiana General Assembly withdrew his bill to create a pilot program for drug testing welfare applicants Friday after one of his Democratic colleagues amended the measure to require drug testing for lawmakers.

The Rich Pay to Have Laws Written That Give Them Every Advantage and You Get Nothing – The [Mitt] Romneys gave $100 million to their sons and paid not one penny of gift tax. They were able to take assets they have that are producing enormous income and, under the law, give that money to their children and not pay any taxes on it. They have not paid a penny of gift tax. That’s because Congress allows a very tiny group of people—the Romneys by their income are in the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent—to not count as having any value the real source of their income, something called carried interest, if they give it to their children. Can you do that?

Rifle Crosshairs Put on Doors of Five Missouri Democrats – Five Democratic state senators in Missouri discovered large, orange crosshair stickers over their office nameplates on Tuesday in the Capitol Building in Jefferson. The targets included all four Democratic women in the state Senate, as well as the Democratic minority leader.

Arizonia Police Sgt Took Photo of Teens Posing With Guns and Obama T-shirt With Bullet Holes – Peoria, Arizonia police Sgt. Pat Shearer admitted that he took a photo of several young men — possibly minors — posing with guns and an Obama “Hope” T-shirt that had been destroyed by gunfire. Two of the young men are holding what appears to be assault rifles and another is sporting a pistol. “Another trip to the ranch,” read the caption on the photo, according to Phoenix New Times. Comments on the photo included, “Damn it feels good to be a gangsta,” and, “They look like Gangsta’s huh?” The photo went viral after Shearer posted it to his Facebook page. Shearer told ABC 15 that “he stands by President Barack Obama and would sacrifice his own life for the President’s.”

Regards,

Jim

Swiss Mitt! – Mitt Romney Tax Returns Released: Paid Just 13.9% Rate In 2010, below that of most wage-earning Americans, had Swiss bank account.

Rick Santorum Campaign Staffer Says It Is Against God’s Will to Have a Female President – Last June, one of Rick Santorum’s campaign staffers sent him an email that stated that having a female president would pose a threat to children because it was against God’s will “to have a woman rule the institutions of the family, the church, and the state.” It’s clear that the notion that children would be harmed by a female president is not only absurd but harmful. Yet, despite calls to do so, Santorum has not denounced the notion that it would be wrong for a woman to be president. Tell Rick Santorum: The idea that only men should be president is offensive and wrong–denounce your campaign’s message immediately.

Regards,

Jim

The Very Well-to-Do Mitt Romney Wants to Give Himself a Tax Break – Mitt Romney pays a tax rate lower than most middle-class Americans. Even though Mitt is worth as much as $250 million, Republican candidate Mitt Romney believes his effective tax rate—the share of his income he pays in federal taxes—is as he put it, “probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything…” But, under Mitt’s own tax plan, he’d pay only half of what he’d pay otherwise. Under his plan, Romney in 2013 would see his taxes cut by nearly half of what they would be if you use current law as a baseline.

Tennessee Tea Party Demands That the History of Slavery Be Removed From History Textbooks – The Tea Party of Tennessee wants to remove from history textbooks any incidents of slavery and genocide linked to the founders of the U.S. for fear those references would tarnish the image of the Founding Fathers. Regarding education, the material they distributed said, “Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.” The material calls for lawmakers to amend state laws governing school curriculums, and for textbook selection criteria to say that “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”

What Republicans Did in One Year of Being in Charge of the U.S. House of Representatives – [All the wrong things.]

Held 3 votes to roll back workers’ rights
Held 3 votes to end Medicare as we know it
Held 4 votes to restrict women’s access to health care
Held 7 votes to keep unnecessary subsidies for oil companies
Held 10 anti-Consumer votes
Held 14 votes to repeal patient health care protections
Held 191 anti-environment votes

And introduced zero comprehensive jobs bills

House Republicans Included Almost 40 Anti-Environment Riders on the Omnibus Spending Bill – In one of their sneakiest moves yet, House Republicans included almost 40 anti-environment riders on the omnibus spending bill and the payroll tax cut extension. The good news is that most of the riders were cut from the spending bill. However, three survived: a provision to block funding to enforce new light bulb efficiency standard, a provision to exempt an aspect of Arctic drilling from Clean Air Act standards, and a provision that exempts the logging industry from Clean Water Act pollution limits.

There is more bad news. The spending bill also includes reduced funding for the DOE, the Department of the Interior and the EPA. The DOE received $1.5 billion less than fiscal year 2011 levels, but $1 billion more than the original House version and $200 million more than the Senate version. The Section 1705 loan guarantee program for renewable energy projects lost its remaining $181 million, and research and development funds for developing fossil fuels decreases by $51 million. Funding for EPA’s clean air and climate research program is reduced by $14 million. The EPA’s regulatory development office is reduced by $12 million, and the EPA’s air regulatory programs are reduced by $14 million.

Businessman Uses His Money to Control the Content of Public Higher Education – North Carolina businessman Art Pope — a confidant of the Koch Brothers – is trying to control the content of public education. In Pope’s world, the MO appears to be… Step 1: Persuade your politician friends to gut university budgets. Step 2: Give generously to the institutions that your friends recently gutted, so they can establish new programs aligned with your business interests.

At the same time that Pope’s network has been fighting to get university budgets cut, Pope has offered to fund academic programs in subjects that he deems worthwhile, like Western civilization and free-market economics. Some faculty members have seen Pope’s offers as attempts to buy academic control. Bill Race, the former chairman of the classics department at U.N.C.-Chapel Hill, said, “The Pope machine is narrow-minded and mean-spirited and poisoned the university.”

“It’s sad and blatant,” Cat Warren, an English professor at North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, who has been critical of Pope, says. “This is an organization that succeeds in getting higher education defunded, and then uses those cutbacks as a way to increase its leverage and influence over course content.”

Regards,

Jim

Civil Rights Voting Score For Republicans in the First Session of the 112th Congress is Dismal – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights has released their report on the voting record for the first session of the 112th Congress.

The average score for Republican senators was only 3%. 79% of Republican senators earned a score of 0%.
By contrast, the average score for Democratic senators was 97.5%. 76% of Democratic senators earned a perfect score of 100%.

The average score for Republican in the House was only 15%. 15 Republicans in the House earned a score of 0%.

By contrast, the average score for Democrats in the House was 93.4 %. 43% of Democrats in the House earned a perfect score of 100%.

Texas Senate Republican Map Was Pre-Cooked – Senate staffer admits conspiring to write Redistricting Committee report BEFORE a committee hearing.

Yesterday, under cross examination in federal court, Doug Davis, the map drawer for the Republican Senate leadership, was forced to admit under oath that he worked secretly to get the Senate Committee report on redistricting written and the bill prepared BEFORE a single committee hearing had been held. Also, the scheme was underway before the public had been given an opportunity to view and comment on the plan.

Davis’ efforts were exposed by an email written from Texas Legislative Council lawyer David Hanna responding to the scheme by writing “No Bueno” and warning that such an effort would create a “paper trail” exposing the bill’s violation of the Voting Rights Act. The email was written only hours after the Republican redistricting plan had been posted to the State’s redistricting website. It confirms that Texas Republican leaders had no intention of listening to or responding to any comments from the public or accepting any substantive amendments from Senate Members. It further acknowledges their worries that the plan does not comply with the Voting Rights Act and may not survive legal review.

Privately-Run Prison Bankrupts Texas Town – The GEO Group, along with CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) are the two largest private prison and immigrant detention operators in the country. At an average rate of $200 per night/per inmate, private prison operators profit over $5 billion a year. How do they do it? Like con-artists, they lure town councils and local government officials with promises of easy money and increased revenue. However, what they don’t tell them is at what cost!

Littlefield, Texas found out the hard way. The GEO Group promised increased “product” (aka detained immigrants) and alleged prosperity for a town that was struggling with an economic crisis. Instead, what Littlefield got was a mega-complex private facility, an additional $10 million contractual debt, and a fleeing population.

CCA and the GEO Group have spent more than $20 million lobbying local, state and federal officials and in campaign contributions to candidates running for these offices. They do so to have more facilities built and to increase their already bloated profits – even if these immigrant detention centers are not needed.

Rick Perry’s Presidential Run Wasted Nearly $2.7 Million Taxpayer Dollars on Airfare, Baggage Fees, Food and Parking – According to records from the Texas Department of Public Safety, we can project Perry’s security-related travel costs from the day he officially announced his candidacy to when he suspended his campaign on January 19. The $2,651,429.14 in Texas tax dollars he’s wasted on jet liners and fancy hotels is money we’ll never see again unless Perry pays us back.

Luckily, Rick Perry can pay taxpayers back today. According to Rick Perry’s latest ethics report, his state PAC has $2.47 million in the bank. He could repay 93% of what he owes us today by writing one simple check.

Texas Releases More Climate Pollution Than Any Other State in the Country – A major report released last week by the Environmental Protection Agency showed that Texas releases more climate pollution than any other state in the country. In fact, Texas’ annual emissions are more than the next two most polluting states combined.

The four biggest pollution sources in Texas are all coal-fired power plants, and they’re owned by the same two companies: Luminant and NRG Energy.

It’s clear that Governor Perry has no intention of addressing this problem2 — so we need to make sure Luminant and NRG know that Texans want major reductions in air pollution.

Click on the link above and tell Luminant and NRG Energy: Texans deserve clean air. Invest in clean energy and stop dumping climate pollution into the atmosphere.

Regards,

Jim

What changed many of the promises of candidate Obama into either inaction or the adverse actions of President Obama? Here’s how I put it to the President recently.

RE: The Obamas by Jodi Kantor

Mr. President,

While listening to an interview of the author of The Obamas on Jon Stewart, I was reminded of another book by Phil Zimbardo.

In his book, The Lucifer Effect, Dr. Zimbardo details his research into what makes good people do evil things. He discusses how the environment contributes to the actions of the individual. How a “bad barrel” creates bad apples. How systemic causation works for, or against, one’s success.

Based on comments during this interview, I see The White House, as well as the broader U.S. Capital, as bad barrels, which have diverted you from your campaign promises and moral values.

That’s why I was also glad to also hear that Mrs. Obama has tried to keep you focused on why you ran for and became president.

Please Mr. President, during the final year in your term, please recognize that you are working in a “bad barrel” that is intent on changing you for the worse and adversely affecting the future of America for decades.

The “bad barrel” inside “the beltway” has been created by, for, and of the ONE%.

President GWB strengthened this bad barrel and President Obama has had difficulty resisting its enhanced capabilities.