The WAWG Blog

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Romney Campaigning With Anti-Immigrant Official Tied to Hate – On a day set aside to honor civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., Mitt Romney plans to tout his extreme immigration positions during a campaign stop in South Carolina today — with Kris Kobach, the author of Arizona’s and Alabama’s immigration laws, at his side. He will attack his competitors Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry for their softer immigration stances, which could resonate with South Carolina voters who support that state’s harmful immigration law. Kobach told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that Romney was much farther to the right on illegal immigration than his fellow presidential candidates.

Before he became Kansas’ secretary of state, Kobach worked for Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal branch of Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled as a “nativist hate group.”

Romney’s views on immigration are radical even in a field of candidates who appear to be competing to take the most radical views on this subject. But as extreme as Romney’s immigration stances have been, campaigning with an anti-immigrant official with ties to a hate group on Martin Luther King Day is beyond the pale.

Update on the above: – Romney opposes education benefits for undocumented residents, such as in-state tuition rates, which he calls a magnet for illegal migration. And he has promised to veto the proposed DREAM Act, which would provide legal status to the children of illegal immigrants who attend college or serve in the armed forces.

“I’m so proud to earn Kris’ support,” Romney said when accepting Kobach’s endorsement. “With Kris on the team, I look forward to working with him to take forceful steps to curtail illegal immigration…”

Republicans Boo Mention of Romney’s Father Being Born in Mexico – There were boos from the South Carolina audience when Fox News analyst Juan Williams mentioned that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s father was born in Mexico. Williams went on to note that Romney has taken a hard-line on immigration with a threatened DREAM Act veto and asked whether that would alienate Latino voters “that Republicans will need to win the general election.”

Republicans Boo Mention of the Golden Rule – Republicans in the South Caorlina Fox/Twitter Presidential debate loudly booed the Golden Rule in the context of foreign policy January 16. Ron Paul said:

My point is that if another country does to us what we do to others, we are not going to like it very much. I would say that we maybe ought to consider the Golden Rule in foreign policy. Don’t do to other nations what we don’t want them to do to us. We endlessly bomb these countries, and then we wonder why they get upset with us?

Rep. Paul’s remarks set off some of the loudest “boos” of the evening from the Republican audience, as well as mockery from his Republican opponents.

The Golden Rule is a key part of Christianity and all other major world religions.

But the Same Republicans Crowd Loves a Bullet in the Head – Just in case you sometimes get Mormons and Quakers confused, Mitt Romney cleared things up Monday night.

“Bin Laden got what he deserved,” Romney, a Mormon, said at a Republican debate in South Carolina. “A bullet in the head.”

The crowd, as debate crowds sometimes do, went wild.

Republican Governor Scott Walker Has Violated Wisconsin’s Campaign Finance Laws 1,115 Times since 2009 – One Wisconsin Now is reporting that Walker has violated the state of Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws 1,115 times since 2009. The total contributions in violation of Wisconsin statute 11.60(1) total $518, 096. One Wisconsin Now previously filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Board in September when Walker’s improperly-reported contribution tally was $235, 000 half of what it has risen to in the last several days., “Scott Walker has improperly reported well over $500, 000 in contributions from inside and outside of Wisconsin, ” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “Scott Walker has absolutely no interest in following the campaign finance rules of the state of Wisconsin and we again call for state regulators to address his serial violation of our laws.”

Ban on Sharia Law Not Based on Indiscriminate Fear of Muslims – The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Oklahoma’s ban on Sharia law. The opinion could not be clearer. The fear of Oklahoma courts being overrun with Sharia law was not grounded in reality, but simply an indiscriminate fear of Muslims. Specifically the order states, “Appellants do not identify any actual problem the challenged amendment seeks to solve. Indeed, they admitted at the preliminary injunction hearing that they did not know of even a single instance where an Oklahoma court had applied Sharia law or used the legal precepts of other nations or cultures, let alone that such applications or uses had resulted in concrete problems in Oklahoma.”

And You Think This Recovery is Slow – November 23, 1954 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises 3.27 points, or 0.86%, closing at an all-time high of 382.74. More significantly, this is the first time the Dow surpassed its 1929 peak level reached just before that year’s crash. Yes, a 25-year dip.

Regards,

Jim

The Republican Party’s History With Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – Today, we celebrate the life of a truly great man, who — armed only with his bravery and powerful words — brought Jim Crow to its knees. It’s also important to remember that the political heirs of those who created and enforced Jim Crow for a century — Southern conservatives — who are now running the Republican Party. And that’s why it’s easy to understand why the fiercest opposition to making MLK Day a national holiday was the Republican Party and Conservatives.

The last Republican candidate for president opposed it.
“Mr. Conservative” (Barry Goldwater) voted against the holiday.
Ron Paul voted against the bill that created the holiday — twice.
77 of the 90 nay votes in final bill in the House were cast by Republicans.
18 of the 22 nay votes in the final bill in the Senate were cast by Republicans.
And the Greatest American in the History of America, Ronald “States’ Rights” Reagan, only reluctantly signed the bill into law because it arrived on his desk with veto-proof majorities. Before he signed it, he said, “Congress seemed bent on making it a national holiday.”

That doesn’t sound like an endorsement.

Bank Attempting to Foreclose on Church Hit By Tornado in Dr. Martin Luther King’s Old Neighborhood – BB&T bank is attempting to foreclose on one of the oldest churches in Dr. Martin Luther King’s old Atlanta neighborhood. The Higher Ground Empowerment Center church was forced to take out a loan when a tornado devastated the property in 2008. BB&T bank has repeatedly ignored and refused requests to modify the church’s loan. All this while the bank benefited from a $3.1 billion bailout from the American people. Sign the petition to help stop this foreclosure and demand a fair loan modification for the historic church.

Supreme Court Hands Down More Decisions Favoring Wealthy Businesses Over the Rights of Everyday Americans – The Supreme Court has handed down more rulings that continue the pro-corporate pattern long established by Chief Justice John Roberts and the conservative majority. From AT&T to Wal-Mart, the Court has consistently favored the interests of wealthy businesses over the rights of everyday Americans.

Alliance for Justice’s recent report, How the Corporate Court Bends the Law to Favor the 1% (.pdf download), shows how the Court has not only strained to reach its pro-corporate decisions, but has actively sought out cases that can expand corporate power:

Supreme Court Finds No Federal Remedy for Constitutional Violations by Private Prison Contractors – Already unable to sue the private companies that operate many prisons, prisoners under the Court’s new ruling cannot sue employees of those corporations in federal court for misconduct. The Supreme Court issued its decision on Jan 10th in Minneci v. Pollard (.pdf download), holding that employees of a private corporation operating a federal prison may not be held liable under federal law for committing constitutional violations. In so doing, the Court has left the 16% of the federal prison population that resides in privately-run facilities without a federal remedy when their jailers violate their constitutional rights.

Richard Lee Pollard was incarcerated in a federal prison in Taft, California. The prison was operated under contract by a private company, Wackenhut Corrections Corp. (now part of the Geo Group). In April 2007, Pollard tripped over a cart that had been left in the hallway, fell, and broke both of his elbows. Prison employees forced him to use his broken arms in painful ways, refused to provide the splints recommended by his doctors, and made him engage in prison tasks before his injuries had healed. The Supreme court says, tough luck, there’s nothing you can do about it.

Supreme Court Rules Once Again That Big Business May Force Arbitration – The Court decided that a “right to sue” doesn’t actually mean “a right to sue in court.” The Supreme Court issued its decision in CompuCredit v. Greenwood (.pdf download), ruling once again that corporations may force individual consumers to arbitrate their claims, thereby restricting consumers’ access to the courts.

Plaintiff consumers filed a class action lawsuit against CompuCredit and other credit providers after signing up for a credit card that was advertised to consumers with low or weak credit scores as helping to “rebuild your credit, “rebuild poor credit,” and “improve your credit rating.” Although the credit providers’ promotional materials stated that consumers would immediately receive $300 in available credit, consumers were charged $257 in fees in the first year, plus the interest that would accrue if the fees were not immediately paid. The consumers sued the companies for their deceitful tactics under the Credit Repair Organization Act (“CROA”) and California’s Unfair Competition Law. CompuCredit moved to dissolve the class action and force each plaintiff to settle his or her own complaint in binding arbitration.

Although Congress specifically required companies like CompuCredit to inform their customers: “You have a right to sue a credit repair organization that violates the Credit Repair Organization Act,” the Court held that the arbitration clause in CompuCredit’s take-it-or-leave-it contracts with consumers are enforceable, thereby preventing consumers from filing a class action lawsuit in court.

Regards,

Jim

Real wage growth, related to worker productivity gains, have been diverted to corporations, their boards of directors, and the rest of the ONE%, via stock dividends, for over three decades. Just look at what happened:

Not only did the income and wealth of the ONE% exceed any ethical valuation, the bank accounts of corporations snowballed with the remaining stolen wages, and savings from reduction in benefits, shipping jobs overseas, and automation in the workplace. These growing profits were invested by the banks to generate even more money by loaning them back to the workers. One investment was collateralized loans. Another was millions of unsolicited credit cards to the middle class and poor. The repackaged wages buried in these loans would help appease the workers, who lacked real wage growth and weren’t inclined unionize to get real wage growth.

– Household debt as a percent of GDP –

But repackaging stolen wages and other excessive profits as loans wasn’t enough for the ONE%. They decided to repackage all that loaned money as collateralized debt obligations (CDO) and sell them as a ‘safe’ investment. In addition, they created and sold Credit Default Swaps (CDS), or insurance for all these ‘safe’ asset backed securities, which included mortgage backed securities. They could even sell multiple CDSs for the same derivative. Some, who saw the end coming, even got richer with CDSs. (This was like everyone in your subdivision, buying house insurance for your home – everyone wins if your house burns down, especially if some saw the fire smoldering and bought a second or third policy before the alarm was sounded.)

“… banks invested heavily in subprime mortgage-backed securities to get a greater yield for the same [supposable] amount of risk[ as US treasuries].”

” … subprime lending rapidly grew only after 1995,
when MBS [mortgage backed securities] with subprime-loan collateral become more attractive to investors [ONE%ers].”

“The CDS market was obviously becoming a casino unto itself because total issuance eventually grew to be 6 times the total value of U.S. corporate debt.”

Then the believed value of all that greedy investing collapsed. The middle class and the poor were not only robbed of real wage growth, but left with high unemployment and an empty bag of all those ‘safe’ derivatives that the ONE% had been trading back and forth and insuring against failure.

“During 2006 and 2007 a combined $1 trillion of new CDOs were issued globally, generating tens of billions in underwriting fees alone.”

” … the economy has recovered only 2.6 million of the 8.7 million jobs lost …”

The ONE% owes America, the middle class, and poor – BIG – for their unethical behavior and their grossly excessive greed. The tax rates and progressive tax schedule from 1975 should be reinstated, the Citizens United decision must be declared unlawful, and democracy must be extended from its place in politics to the workplace: abolish boards of directors – the “double high” ONE%ers who orchestrated this destruction of America’s once caring democracy.

Rick Santorum Used $100,000 of Pennsylvania Tax-Payer’s Money to Home School His Kids in Virginia – Santorum has campaigned on the fact that his seven kids have been home-schooled. Between 2001 and 2004, a Pennsylvania cyber charter school allowed the Santorum family to live in Virginia, while sticking Pennsylvania taxpayers with a $100,000 bill.

In 2004, Santorum spawned a minor scandal when news broke that he was no longer residing in the state that sent him to Congress and was living instead outside the Beltway in Leesburg, Virginia. Santorum owned, and still does, a house in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, next door to his in-laws. The Santorums bought the three-bedroom house in 1997 for $87,800. But after Santorum got elected to the Senate in 1994, he bought a much larger home in Virginia that would accommodate his ever-growing family. Some relatives moved into the Penn Hills house, but Santorum continued to use it to claim residency in Pennsylvania, where he voted by absentee ballot.

Despite moving his family to Virginia, Santorum didn’t enroll his children in a local public school. Nor did the Santorums simply home-school the kids. Instead, in 2001, they enrolled five of their kids in the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. When Santorum enrolled his kids there, the local school district in Penn Hills was forced to pick up the tab for the cyber school, which cost the district $38,000 a year for the Santorum children (around $100,000 total).

Republicans Attempting to Shortcut Approval Process for Dangerous Medical Devices – Two years ago, metal-on-metal artificial hips manufactured by the DePuy division of multinational pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson were recalled because they carried the risk of releasing metal toxins into the hip tissue, which caused inflammation and serious internal damage. Just a few years after receiving the hips, which were implanted in 40,000 patients in the United States (and tens of thousands more worldwide), many patients required costly, painful and risky operations to replace the devices. (1)

This is just one of many examples of medical devices that fell through the cracks of our nation’s system for regulating medical devices, injuring or killing thousands of patients. Shockingly, lobbyists representing the powerful medical device industry are trying to persuade lawmakers to make the already-insufficient approval process even weaker than it is.

Their aim is to ram their products through a weakened process and get their products to market as quickly as possible, even without undergoing adequate testing to assure that they are reasonably safe for patients. In other words, profits first.

We’re up against a powerful industry with tentacles of influence that reach deep into Capitol Hill. But with help from activists like you, we can fend of the attempts to weaken medical device regulation.

Please tell your members of Congress that the device approval process should be strengthened to protect the public, not abbreviated for industry profits.

Republican Speaker of the Kansas State House Praying for Death of President Obama – The Republican Speaker of the Kansas State House is praying for President Obama’s death.

And he’s exploiting the Bible to do so, circulating an email that quotes Psalm 109: “May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.” O’Neal said of the violent Psalm “At last — I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president.”1

Sadly, it’s not unusual for Republican politicians to use hate-filled rhetoric when speaking about President Obama. But when they exploit religion to do so, people of faith have a moral responsibility to condemn it.

This isn’t the first time Speaker O’Neal has disgraced his office with his personal behavior. He already got in trouble for forwarding a racist email calling the First Lady “Mrs. YoMama” and making fun of her appearance, which he half-heartedly apologized for only after being confronted with public outrage.

Georgia School is Teaching Racism – In math class, third graders are supposed to learn addition and subtraction. In Georgia, they’re being taught blatant racism.

Does asking kids, “If 8 slaves pick oranges equally, then how much would each slave pick?” sound right to you?

Third grade students from Gwinnett County, GA were blind-sided with the promotion of racist ideas from their teachers. Students were given math problems that said things like “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”

The teachers in question claim that they were attempting to merge social studies and math together. But casually introducing slavery and violence without proper lesson plans doesn’t teach kids social studies or math — it just confuses them.

Worst of all, the school district is refusing to take this issue seriously.

Teachers can use social studies in math problems without invoking slavery or racist violence. Demand the suspension and re-evaluation of teachers responsible.

Is Rick Perry the Most Socialist Public Official in America? – In January he gave himself a $92,000/year pay raise by “retiring” so that he could start collecting retirement benefits while continuing to collect his government paycheck.

He’s virtually always been on government healthcare.

He cut $4 billion for public education funding even though his own education and flight training came via institutions funded by the government.

He also lives in $10k/month taxpayer-funded rental mansion, tried to use eminent domain to seize hundreds of thousands of acres of land from its rightful owners.

He wanted to inject all Texas schoolgirls with a vaccine with or without their parent’s consent.

Oh, and he somehow managed to get rich while drawing a government check.

And, as if Rick Perry didn’t have enough problems, he was greeted at a restaurant in Anderson, S.C., by a young woman who posed for a photo with the Texas governor while saying it is “good to see someone as homophobic and racist as you.”

Regards,

Jim

I guess the authoritarian wars began in 1971 when President Nixon launched the war on drugs to combat the heroine addictions of our Vietnam veterans. This 40 year war has not been won and is only helping make the ONE% more powerful: our prison population has grown (faster than the nation’s population); prison systems have been privatized; and the profit they receive is based on having more prisoners.

Since then, right-wing authoritarians have created more wars against citizens, taken away civil rights, and both militarized our civilian ‘peace keepers’ and increased the ease for using our national military to conduct these wars.

All of these additional wars identify a sworn enemy of the right-wing authoritarians. Most result in the violation or elimination of civil rights of those enemies or moderates their power within American society. Some promote privateering. Some are against institutions and science, while others are pure imagination.

War on Terrorism

In conclusion, Baker and Stack have assembled a thoughtful collection of essays that deal with the difficulty of balancing constitutional rights and security during wartime. The selected essays provide historical background, theoretical insight, and contemporary issues.  This volume would prove useful as a supplemental text in a special topics course or a course on civil rights and liberties. The collection also reminds us of the importance of an informed and vigilant citizenry.

War on Women’s Rights

The 80 abortion restrictions passed this year are more than double the previous record of 34 in 2005 — and more than triple the 23 enacted in 2010. Meanwhile, five states have defunded Planned Parenthood, which one in four American women have relied on for health care. To top it all off, fringe proposals are rapidly seeping into the political mainstream, with several states backing “fetal personhood” laws that effectively outlaw contraceptives like birth control pills and criminalize women who miscarry.

War on Consumers – the poor and middle class

It looks like it’s all a part of “screwflation”, which describes how falling wages and rising costs of basic goods are destroying the middle class. What’s happening is even consumer product companies are preparing for an eventual obliteration of the middle class.

War on voting rights

But since the 2010 election, thanks to a conservative advocacy group founded by Weyrich, the GOP’s effort to disrupt voting rights has been more widespread and effective than ever. In a systematic campaign orchestrated by the American Legislative Exchange Council – and funded in part by David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who bankrolled the Tea Party – 38 states introduced legislation this year designed to impede voters at every step of the electoral process.
Related Article:

War on the ill

The third option is that of the Tampa Tea Party mob: Let the young man go to the devil. You can sugar-coat this, as Ron Paul tried to, by suggesting that private charity will step in to help. But we no longer have an extensive system of charity hospitals. If emergency rooms treat the uninsured, whether because of a legal requirement or because they are good Samaritans, they will be passing the bulk of the cost along to the rest of us—and we’re back to our current system of socializing the costs of treatments for the uninsured.

War on homeownership

Implicit in all this – not stated plainly in polite company, but lurking just under the surface – is the idea that things were fine until the wrong people started buying houses. On right-wing blogs the accusation is often more explicit, blaming government programs for putting people of color into homes.

War on Occupy

In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.

War on the young

There is a war is raging in the classrooms, on the street corners, and throughout communities across the United States.  This war is particularly pointed at low-income young people and young people from communities of color.  It is a War on Young People, … and the abandonment of a generation. 

War on LGBT life styles

The Religious Right’s mean-spirited and frequently vicious attacks on LGBT Americans are well-known and well documented.

War on a Black President

Now, with the Republican presidential debates producing no clear favorite or obviously strong candidate, many on the extreme right may be hunkering down for another four years under a relatively liberal black president. And that may be simply too much for them to bear.

Conservatism’s ‘War of the Words’

Some people make the mistake of underestimating the importance of these wars, because they’re fought with words and not actions. But people’s actions are shaped by what they believe, and what they believe is shaped by words.

Nobody understands that better than the corporate interests and their minions. That’s why Newt Gingrich wrote a political memo in 1996 entitled, “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.”

Now there’s a word that should strike fear in the heart: “Control.”

Some of these wars have the common goal of privatizing public spaces so that governance becomes corporate and accountability is no longer to the citizen.

War on Worker Rights

This was a banner year in the right-wing media’s campaign to belittle working Americans. In the early part of the year, media conservatives promoted anti-union laws in Wisconsin and Ohio, transitioned to attacking the National Labor Relations Board, and spent the entirety of the year demonizing union workers, low-income Americans, and the unemployed.

War on education

Wisconsin is on the leading edge of a national assault on public education. Walker made a big name for himself with his explosive move to bust public employee unions and take away teachers’ bargaining rights. Now comes the next phase.

War on Drugs

A high-profile group of global leaders declared the “war on drugs” a failure on Thursday and urged governments to consider decriminalizing drugs in a bid to cut consumption and weaken the power of organized crime gangs.

When they aren’t starting wars against other Americans, they are declaring war on institutions they don’t like or science they don’t agree with.

War on The Muppets

How the hell do conservatives find time in their day to get outraged about all the things they insist they need to be outraged about? The War on Christmas, fine, whatever. Oh, and Spongebob might be gay. Also Teletubbies. And the Muppets are godless damn communists, and all of this is an elaborate Hollywood and/or gay and/or atheist and/or communist plot to “indoctrinate” your children.

War on NPR

While most Republicans steered clear of saying that the content of NPR’s programming was the reason they supported restrictions on funding, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) delivered a carefully crafted message along those lines to his base.

War on Global Warming

When scientific findings have big consequences for policy and politics, anti-science ideology and denial flourish. Religious ideology led the Church to deny Galileo’s scientific findings about the motion of the planets and stars and has fed the continuing denial of evolution in favor of fundamentalist claims of creationism. Stalinist ideology denied the science of genetics and led to a crippling of Soviet agriculture and biology for decades. And a mix of anti-government, pro-fossil fuel, and anti-environmental ideology underlies current denial of human-caused climate change.

War on Evolution

This project of teaching evolution in America, some variation of which I have been engaged in for more than two decades, looks increasingly impossible. Polls show no progress of any sort, with about half of the country continuing to reject evolution in favor of young earth creationism — the view on display in the country’s various “Creation museums,” based on a literal reading of the first chapter of the Bible. Only Turkey, with a strong Muslim commitment to creationism, lags behind the United States in accepting evolution.

The war mentality of the right-wing authoritarians is so strong, they even imagine wars against them by their enemies. Authoritarians are such a persecuted lot.

War on Christmas – Jon Stewart

After receiving PolitiFact’s lowest grade for his report on the founding fathers’ attitudes toward Christmas, Jon goes straight to the source.

Not only were issues of child hunger, health care for the elderly and education mentioned, but also the quality of the environment, access to technology and the need for a world summit of the 99 percent. The message overall was that it was time to think big – this global crisis demands a global response, and the suffering of one population in one spot on the globe connects intimately with that of others.

Another Galveston County Republican Elected in 2010 Now in Hot Water (It’s Like a Bad Parade) – A League City lawyer elected as a county court judge lost a libel lawsuit against his then-estranged wife’s attorney, but the attorney’s counter lawsuit accuses the judge of “practically everything evil under the sun.”

The saga of Christopher Dupuy began before he was elected the Galveston County Court at Law No. 3 judge during a 2010 Republican sweep at the polls. Dupuy filed a Feb. 16, 2010, libel lawsuit against Danbury attorney Savannah Robinson, who was his estranged wife’s attorney in a divorce proceeding, according to court documents.

Robinson’s counter lawsuit levels vast criticism against Dupuy, accusing him of engaging in a “perverse, iron-fisted rule of domestic terror.”

“Christopher Dupuy’s reputation is such that he is simply incapable of being defamed,” Robinson states in the counterclaim. “Any possible damage which could result to such a poor reputation would be of minuscule quantity incapable of being measured.”

Robinson leveled many other accusations against Dupuy in her 22-page counterclaim filed April 10, 2010, in County Court No. 1, including one that accused him of having a long-standing sexual addiction.

It claims Dupuy’s wife, Adrienne Dupuy, fears for the safety of her children during Dupuy’s visitation. She made calls to police, state child protection services and crisis counseling. She also sought psychological counseling for her children, the counterclaim states.

“Christopher Dupuy’s reputation is such that he is simply incapable of being defamed,” Robinson states in the counterclaim. “Any possible damage which could result to such a poor reputation would be of minuscule quantity incapable of being measured.”

Robinson leveled many other accusations against Dupuy in her 22-page counterclaim filed April 10, 2010, in County Court No. 1, including one that accused him of having a long-standing sexual addiction.

It claims Dupuy’s wife, Adrienne Dupuy, fears for the safety of her children during Dupuy’s visitation. She made calls to police, state child protection services and crisis counseling. She also sought psychological counseling for her children, the counterclaim states.

As a defense to Dupuy’s libel lawsuit, the countersuit claims Dupuy is “universally despised within the legal community for his lack of professionalism, his lack of common civility and his unjustified legal posturings. …”

It accuses Dupuy of frequently taking positions contrary to law, says he is seldom prepared and hostile to being corrected.

Dupuy refuses reasonable attempts at communication or courtesy, delays matters, abuses the discovery process and has little grasp of his duties as an officer of the court, the counter claim states.

Dupuy has been frequently reported to the State Bar of Texas Grievance Committee and to the Texas Attorney General’s Office by his peers and clients, the lawsuit claims.

When Dupuy filed as a candidate for judge, he was under a six-month probated suspension from the state bar, which found he committed professional misconduct. Dupuy’s websites contained misleading statements, according to documents obtained from the bar’s Grievance Committee. (But Republicans, the uninformed and those who didn’t vote elected him anyway. -JLV)

Mitt Romney Promises to Kill More Jobs – Mitt Romney promised that, as president, he would cut federal workers’ pay and slash the number of federal government jobs saying, “Federal employees, we’ve got too many of them, and they’re paid too much.”

Romney’s argument that federal workers are paid more than private sector workers distorts the facts. At the top end of the pay scale, federal workers are often paid less than their private sector counterparts, so much so that the government has “found it increasingly more difficult to attract and retain high-skill workers.” If Romney wanted to bring federal pay in line with the private sector as he suggested, he’d have to provide many government workers a raise.

Romney’s claims that there are “too many” government jobs, meanwhile, ignores the state of the American jobs crisis. While the private sector continues to grow, federal, state, and local governments have shed more than 500,000 jobs in the last two years, negating the positive effects of private sector growth and dragging down the economic recovery. If public sector employment was at its 2009 level, the unemployment rate would have been down to 8.4 percent last August., and even lower now. Also, the sharply reduced incomes of former teachers and and other government workers lead them to spend less in their local communities, thus further slowing economic growth.

Under-Regulated Mining and Austerity Measures Causing Great Wall of China to Collapse – China‘s rapid push to develop the country’s resources is now threatening its most iconic landmark. According to recent reports, both legal and illegal mining near the Great Wall are causing parts of the ancient, 4,000-mile-long structure to crumble away.

“The Great Wall of China may have survived the Huns and Mongol hordes, but widespread neglect, underfunding, and mining means that it is now falling down,” The Telegraph reported earlier this month, citing photographs that show “huge holes…punched through the wall in some areas” and entire sections up to 100 miles long in ruins.

“We have no idea how many enterprises are engaged in mining along the Great Wall,” the British newspaper quoted Guo Jianyong, an engineer from the provincial architecture protection agency, as telling the People’s Daily.

The stability of the centuries-old wall is threatened by prospecting for copper, iron, molybdenum, and nickel, with some mining operations coming within 100 meters of the famous structure, Reuters reported. It said the country’s Land Resources Bureau is not required to consult with the Department of Cultural Heritage before issuing mining permits.

Villagers in Hebei Province told the Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency that “about 700 meters of the wall, which was built during the reign of Emperor Wanli during the Ming Dynasty (1573-1620), had already collapsed, and more walls and even towers are likely to collapse if the mining continues unchecked.”

According to both The Telegraph and Reuters, maintenance of the wall has focused on the most-visited segments near Beijing, with other parts neglected and left to fall into disrepair. Xinhua quoted an engineer as saying that resources are so limited, many segments of the wall are only inspected once a year.

China Wants to Build More Dirty Coal Plants: Occupy China Stops Construction of Dirty Coal Plant – Tens of thousands of residents in China’s southern Guandong Province gathered in the streets last week, occupying a highway to demonstrate against the development of a new coal plant near Shantou city. The residents say existing coal plants in the area are fouling local air and water, and are making people sick.

Each year, protests spring up to counter the construction of dirty coal plants. But this appears to be the biggest yet. Officials now say they will abandon plans to build a new coal plant in the area.

Remember to Pay Your Lockheed-Martin Tax This Year – Last year, just one defense contractor, Lockheed-Martin, brought in $45.8 billion in revenue, mostly from taxpayer-funded contracts.1 That huge amount of money means that the average American family pays $260 of their income taxes to Lockheed Martin.2

1 Lockheed Martin’s 2010 Annual Report (.pdf).

2 Hartung, William. Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, p. 29. New York: Nation Books, 2011.

A Thought About the New Year
Our government has traditionally been an essential actor in the nation’s economy, a guarantor of fair rules of competition, a countervailing force against excessive private power, a check on the inequalities that capitalism can produce, and an instrument that can open opportunity for those born without great advantages.

I would like to see dramatic change to assure a fair and just economy right now, this year, just like most of you. However, Republican roadblocks won’t let that happen. The way to make that kind of change happen is from the grass roots up, starting with electing good people in 2012.

The Republican Party is engaged in a wholesale effort to redefine our government to create a radical new society. Republicans have two real goals: redistributing your wealth upward, and establishing a permanent Republican Regime of one-party rule, and they are willing to work to make that happen. Are we ready to work to make sure it doesn’t happen? The clock is ticking; time is shorter than you think. Early voting for the general election is a little over nine months away. We need to ask ourselves everyday, “What did I do today to elect the right people? What will I do tomorrow?”

Regards,

Jim

93-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Who Cleaned State Capitol for 30 Years Denied Voter ID – A 93-year-old Tennessee woman who cleaned the state Capitol for 30 years, including the governor’s office, says she won’t be able to vote for the first time in decades after being told this week that her old state ID failed to meet new voter ID regulations. Thelma Mitchell was even ac­cused of being an un­doc­u­mented im­mi­grant be­cause she couldn’t pro­duce a birth cer­tifi­cate.

ALEC-Linked Group Revealed as Major Secret Donor in Referendum on Maine Voting Rights – Ear­lier this year, Maine leg­is­la­tors passed a bill re­peal­ing the state’s 38 year-old law al­low­ing cit­i­zens to reg­is­ter at the polls on elec­tion day. Tens of thou­sands of Main­ers re­sponded by pe­ti­tion­ing for the mat­ter come to a ref­er­en­dum. Issue 1 was one of the most-an­tic­i­pated votes on elec­tion day this year, with pun­dits watch­ing closely to see how cit­i­zens would react to the Re­pub­li­can-led war on vot­ing, which ramped up in states across the coun­try this year.

Rec­og­niz­ing the ref­er­en­dum’s im­por­tance, vot­ing rights op­po­nents poured money into the cam­paign to re­peal elec­tion day reg­is­tra­tion. In fact, just two days after the state’s cam­paign fi­nance re­port­ing dead­line, a se­cret con­ser­v­a­tive donor fun­neled $250,000 into the race, al­low­ing the No On 1 cam­paign to make sig­nif­i­cant TV ad buys in an in­ex­pen­sive media mar­ket.

Per state law, how­ever, the iden­tity of donors must be re­vealed within 45 days after the elec­tion. In fact, the en­tire $250,000 worth of late money came from a sin­gle source: the Amer­i­can Jus­tice Part­ner­ship. Though the AJP doesn’t dis­close where its fund­ing comes from, the Ban­gor Daily News notes that it has part­nered with the Amer­i­can Leg­isla­tive Ex­change Coun­cil (ALEC) in the past, a group that has been in­stru­men­tal in the pro­lif­er­a­tion of voter ID laws across the coun­try. The AJP’s se­cret $250,000 con­tri­bu­tion ul­ti­mately ac­counted for over 78 per­cent of all the money raised by the No On 1 cam­paign. In other words, over three-quar­ters of the fund­ing for op­po­nents of elec­tion day reg­is­tra­tion in Maine came from Michi­gan. (This money was then used to run ads de­cry­ing “out­siders from other states” who were in­flu­enc­ing the Maine elec­tion.)

Though AJP’s web­site cor­rectly warns that “Your right to vote is at stake”, it’s groups like AJB and ALEC that are threat­en­ing that right in the first place.

Wall Street Tells Boehner What to Do, and He Listens – In No­vem­ber Pres­i­dent Obama said, “enough is enough” to China’s cur­rency ma­nip­u­la­tions. China ma­nip­u­lates its cur­rency to keep it “un­der­val­ued.” This means that things made there cost less in world mar­kets than things made in other coun­tries. The re­sult is that man­u­fac­tur­ing moves there, bring­ing them en­tire in­dus­tries, sup­ply chains, and the “in­dus­trial com­mons” of ex­per­tise, sup­pli­ers and cul­ture that brings with it new busi­nesses and in­dus­tries. Many econ­o­mists say that China’s cur­rency is un­der­val­ued by 25 to 40% mean­ing prod­ucts made there have a 25-40% pric­ing ad­van­tage be­fore any other ad­van­tages, sub­si­dies, ma­nip­u­la­tions, etc. are con­sid­ered.

In Oc­to­ber the Sen­ate passed a bi­par­ti­san bill — on a vote of 65 to 35 — a bill re­quir­ing the ad­min­is­tra­tion to label China a cur­rency ma­nip­u­la­tor and begin the nec­es­sary steps to rem­edy the prob­lem. The House Re­pub­li­can lead­er­ship has re­fused to allow this to come up for a vote – be­cause it will pass. House Speaker John Boehner has made it clear he wants noth­ing to do with the leg­is­la­tion that has al­ready raised heck­les in Bei­jing., And for now he seems to be in con­trol de­spite loud protests in­clud­ing from within his own party.

Even though many Re­pub­li­can mem­bers of the House say they sup­port the bill, none of them will sign a dis­charge pe­ti­tion to force Speaker Boehner to allow a vote. Wall Street op­poses ad­dress­ing the cur­rency im­bal­ances, and has made it clear through their front-group Club For Growth that Wall Street will op­pose House mem­bers who help bring this up for a vote. And right now Wall Street has more in­flu­ence in DC’s on­go­ing in­flu­ence scheme than those who want to man­u­fac­ture in the US, thereby bring­ing jobs, fac­to­ries, in­dus­tries, in­no­va­tion and money back to the US.

Rick Perry Thinks Canada is Part of the U.S. – “Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source,” — Rick Perry (12/28/2011) [All Canadian oil will go on the world market to the hightest bidder – regardless of which seaport it is piped to. It will not necessarily help the U.S. market.]

Republican Presidential Candidates Year in Review on YouTube –

Merry Christmas …

and Happy New Year!

Regards,

Jim

Fox News Guest’s Ugly Racist Remark About President Obama – Fox News continued its pattern of directing attacks with racist undertones at President Barack Obama on Thursday night when Brent Bozell of the conservative Media Research Center said that “you might want to say” that the President is a “skinny, ghetto crackhead.”

A few months ago, Fox’s Eric Bolling came under fire for his racially charged criticisms of Obama, including his claims that Obama was “chugging 40′s in IRE while tornadoes ravage MO” (which he latertried to amend), and that Obama was hosting “hoodlum[s] in the hizzouse” when he welcomed Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba and rapper Common to the White House.

Bozell is also on the record for saying that former President Jimmy Carter is “like that proverbial college freshman who spouts neo-Marxist pablum after one too many hits on the bong.”

Ron Paul Walks Out Of Interview After Facing Questions About Racist Content In Newsletter – Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-TX) newsletters from the 1980s and 1990s, published under his name, included content claiming that African-Americans are trying to give white people HIV, suggested that Washington, DC is “anti-white and proud of it,” provided instructions on how to murder African-Americans, and warned of “malicious gay(s)” who spread HIV.

Wednesday, Paul walked out of an interview after CNN’s Gloria Borger pressed him on his role in publishing the racist content

Indiana’s Republican Sec. of State Charged With Voter Fraud; Removed From Office – Indiana’s Republican Sec. of State Charlie White has been found not eligible to have been a candidate on the ballot in the November 2010 election. A Marion County Circuit judge has ordered him removed from office and replaced by his Democratic challenger Vop Isili, the second highest vote getter in that election. White still faces seven criminal felony charges, including three of them for voter fraud, related to the fact that he did not live at the address where he was registered to vote in the 2010 election. As he was not a properly registered Indiana voter, he was not eligible to be a candidate on the ballot, Rosenberg has ruled. Moreover, at the time of his election, White was a member of the Fishers Town Council — a town in which he no longer lived since separating from his wife and moving out of her house, where he remained registered to vote, several years earlier. Democrats charge he retained his registration at the house so that he could continue to collect his salary as a Council Member.

Since divorcing his wife White had remarried and purchased a condominium in a different town, but claimed the reason he stayed registered at his former wife’s house was because he had hoped to move back some day.

Galveston County’s Republican Redistricting Plan Lacks Basic Information Needed for Approval – The U.S. Department of Justice said Galveston County’s proposals to redraw the boundaries for county commissioners, justices of the peace and constables are wanting. On Monday, the chief of the voting section of the department’s Civil Rights Division sent a letter to the county asking for clarification and supporting documents.

“Our analysis indicates that the information sent is insufficient to enable us to determine that the proposed changes have neither the purpose nor will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color or membership in a language minority group,” the justice department letter reads.

In August, a divided commissioners court approved a map for county commissioners precincts that drastically reshaped precincts 1 and 3. Another map reduced the number of precincts for justices of the peace and constables from eight to five. (Republican Commissioners voted for the new maps without criteria; Democratic commissioners voted against them.)

T. Christian Herren Jr., the chief of the voting section of the justice department’s Civil Rights Division, asked for a copy of the criteria the commissioners court approved for the redistricting process or explain why it doesn’t have a criteria.

The county, at the recommendation of its redistricting attorneys, chose not to adopt criteria for the process.

Democratic Commissioner Stephen Holmes, who voted against the redistricting maps, maintained early on that, without setting criteria, the county risked running afoul of the justice department.

“We never adopted criteria, even something simple, which to me was one of the most important steps by the court to take,” Holmes said.

Failed Tea Party Politician Posts Facebook Page Calling For Obama Assassination – California libertarian and Tea Party darling Jules Manson called for the assassination of President Barack Obama and his children. The Ron Paul supporter posted on his Facebook page, “Assassinate the (expletive deleted by examiner editors) n****r and his monkey children.” Manson ran for and lost a seat on the City of Carson’s City Council last March.

Regards,

Jim

Contributor to Republican National Committee Faked Military Record to Obtain More Than $6 Million in Government Contracts – The United States Attorney’s Office District of Kansas indicted 69-year-old Warren K. Parker, a contributor to the Republican National Committee, for faking an impressive military record to obtain more than $6 million in contracts.

“[H]e falsely claimed to have reached the rank of major in the U.S. Army, completed three tours in Vietnam, to have been awarded three Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, four Bronze Stars with Valor, eleven Air Medals with Valor (claiming 300 hours of combat air time), three Purple Heart Medals, a Presidential Citation, a U.S. Army Citation, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Vietnam Service Medal with (79) Battle Stars and to have been Awarded over (32) Citations for Heroism,” a U.S. Attorney’s Office press advisory explained.

While Parker did serve in the Missouri National Guard for five years, he was honorably discharged in 1968 without ever leaving the state. His only decoration was a shooting badge.

Republican Congressman Makes Remarks About Michelle Obama’s “Big Butt” – Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (Wis.) was overheard talking about the first lady’s healthy food initiative — and her “large posterior” — on Wednesday in the Delta Crown lounge at Reagan National Airport. The representative was recounting a recent conversation he’d had at a Wisconsin Episcopal church and said loudly on the phone that Obama “lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself,”

Sensenbrenner had made his initial comment about the first lady at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in Hartford, Wis. on Dec. 10. Ann Marsh-Meigs, a 72-year-old member of the church, said the congressman sat with her and several other parishioners for some small talk during the church’s Christmas bazaar.

Then, he noticed cards on the table advertising the church’s upcoming food-packing project for Haiti and began speaking about a recent charity event in Washington that Sensenbrenner’s wife and Michelle Obama attended. “And then he got on the topic of first ladies and their special interests, and he said most first ladies have serious projects,” Marsh-Meigs said in an interview. “He implied that Michelle Obama being interested in childhood obesity, was not serious, he sort of made fun of it and then he made fun of her. He said something like, look at her big butt.”

The 10 Worst Republican Bad Deeds of 2011: –

• Bring Back “Pre-Existing Conditions”: Health care reform is one of President Obama’s signature achievements. No longer can children born with health conditions be denied insurance. No longer can insurance companies deny care for “pre-existing conditions.” About 2.5 million young adults who lacked health insurance now are covered by their families’ plans. So what did Republicans do? Try to repeal “Obamacare” and put control back in the hands of insurance companies.
• Kick Grandma Off Medicare & Give Her a Coupon: Republicans all lined up in favor of Republican Rep. Paul Ryan’s extreme budget plan earlier this year that would kill Medicare as we know it and turn it into a voucher program. Thank goodness the Democratic Senate was there to stop them and keep our promise to seniors.
• Hand Over Cash to Corporations and the Wealthy: Another part of Paul Ryan’s plan: Give huge tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy. While the middle class struggles to get ahead, Republicans tried to make things worse by reducing taxes on the wealthiest – and sticking everyone else with the bill.
• Rip Away Workers’ Rights: When Republicans won the governorships in Wisconsin and Ohio, among other states, one of the first things they did was go after public workers, including taking away the rights of teachers and prison guards to bargain for better pay and benefits. Bad move. They clearly overstepped their bounds, and voters will remember at the ballot box in 2012.
• Prevent You From Voting: Republicans this year decided that when it comes to elections, if you can’t beat, then cheat. From Florida to Wisconsin to Ohio, Republicans passed laws that will have the effect of suppressing Democratic turnout in these crucial swing states. The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that more than 5 million voters will be affected by these laws – a number higher than the margin of victory in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. Senate Democrats are holding hearings on the Florida laws in January.
• Declare War on Women: It was bad enough that Republicans tried to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood and other family planning programs. Then they tried to change federal law to redefine rape and to allow hospitals to deny lifesaving care for pregnant women. So much for the Republican promise to have a “laser focus” on jobs. The Republican War on Women is alive and well.
• Shove Gay Soldiers Back Into the Closet: It was a huge victory for civil rights and basic human dignity when President Obama signed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell into law. Finally, all Americans could serve openly in the military. Or not. This year, Republicans tried to bring back the policy, and some Republican presidential candidates have said reinstituting discrimination is one of their top policy priorities.
• Launch Assaults on Sesame Street and Lake Wobegon: I don’t know what Republicans have against Big Bird and Garrison Keillor, but they will do almost anything to shut off their microphones. In fact, earlier this year, Republicans vowed to shut down the federal government if NPR and PBS weren’t defunded. Luckily, Senate Democrats were there to stop the nonsense, and “Sesame Street” and “A Prairie Home Companion” were given a reprieve – for now.
• Let Consumers Fend For Themselves: One of the most important reforms passed by Democrats in decades was the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to prevent big banks from ripping off their customers with dangerous financial products – some of the same products that contributed to the Great Recession. But Republicans hate anything that puts customers ahead of corporations. So they’ve fought the bureau – and people chosen to lead it – tooth and nail.
• Increase Taxes for Middle Class Families: And last but certainly not least, this week House Republicans refused to support tax relief for the middle class, even as they demand it for billionaires and huge corporations. If your taxes go up next year, you’ll have nobody but Republicans to blame.

Click the link above to vote on the No. 1 Worst Republican Action of 2011.

Regards,

Jim

Boehner’s Office Cuts Off C-SPAN Cameras as Republicans Take Verbal Beating – As Rep. Stenny Hoyer (D-MD) attempted to call for a vote to extend a payroll tax cut to middle class and working Americans, his Republican colleagues adjourned the House and walked out of the chamber. And if that weren’t odd enough, it got even stranger: As Hoyer railed against them for failing to help working Americans, footage from C-SPAN went silent, then cut away.

Moments later, C-SPAN took to the Internet to explain that it wasn’t their doing, but someone working for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

The incident occurred mere moments after the House went into session. Hoyer made a motion for a vote on the Senate’s payroll tax cut extension, which would extend the lower rates for another two months, but the Republican presiding over the House did not acknowledge the motion. He instead adjourned the House, then got up and walked out.

“As you walk off the floor, Mr. Speaker, you’re walking away, just as so many Republicans have walked away from taxpayers, the unemployed, and very frankly, as well, from those who will be seeking medical assistance from their doctors, 48 million senior citizens,” Hoyer can be heard saying.

“We regret, Mr. Speaker, that you have walked off the platform without addressing the issue of critical importance to this country, and that is the continuation of the middle class tax cut, the continuation of unemployment benefits for those at risk of losing them, and a continuation of the access to doctors for all those 48 million seniors who rely on them daily for help.”

And that’s when the audio cut out. Seconds later, footage faded to a shot of the capitol from outside.

Moments later, someone at C-SPAN took to Twitter and explained: “C-SPAN has no control over the U.S. House TV cameras – the Speaker of the House does.”

It’s for reasons just like this, one might infer, that Boehner told C-SPAN back in February it would not be allowed control its own cameras.

Mitch McConnell Blocks More Than 50 Judicial and Executive Branch Nominees to Protect Big Corporations That Caused Our Economic Crisis – Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Saturday afternoon blocked more than 50 judicial and executive branch nominees, demanding assurances that President Obama not make recess appointments during Christmas break… Republicans are wary of Obama appointing a director to the new agency tasked with implementing Wall Street reform during the congressional recess. With America’s judicial vacancy crisis growing worse by the day, Senator McConnell blocked votes in order to protect the big corporations that caused our economic crisis.

John Boehner Goes Back on His Word – Once again, John Boehner is moving the goal posts. After the Senate overwhelmingly (89-10) passed a deal to extend the payroll tax cut, in a deal Boehner himself had previously supported, Boehner suddenly pulled a flip-flop, and announced his House Republican members would vote against it.

This move is extreme, even for Boehner. An overwhelming majority of Senators — including an overwhelming majority of Republicans — voted to support the deal. And for the first time, even Republican Senators are openly speaking out against the intransigence of their House counterparts:

Republican Sen. Scott Brown ripped into House Republicans on Tuesday after Speaker John Boehner vowed that his caucus would reject the short-term payroll tax cut extension that nearly 90 percent of senators voted for over the weekend. “The House Republicans’ plan to scuttle the deal to help middle-class families is irresponsible and wrong,” Brown said in a statement. At least two other Senate Republicans facing reelection in 2012 – Dean Heller of Nevada and Dick Lugar of Indiana – also called on the Republican-controlled House to pass the Senate plan. (source: Politico)

The Republican Party is splitting. More rational Republican members of Congress (what few remain) realize that Boehner’s move could be a disaster for the party. They understand that Boehner and the Republican party will be seen by voters as having been responsible for effectively increasing tax rates for the middle and working class.

If Boehner wants to be so foolish as to walk off this electoral cliff, the President should let him.

Tell President Obama: “Don’t back down to Boehner.”

Far-Right Blogger Incites Violence – Mike Vanderboegh is a far-right blogger[and part of the national “bad barrel”]. When Obama’s health care reform bill passed in March 2010, Vanderboegh encouraged readers to throw rocks through the windows of Democratic Party headquarters, writing:

[I]f you wish to send a message that [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and her party cannot fail to hear, break their windows. Break them NOW. Break them and run to break again. Break them under cover of night. Break them in broad daylight. Break them and await arrest in willful, principled civil disobedience. Break them with rocks. Break them with slingshots. Break them with baseball bats. But BREAK them.

A few people heeded his call, smashing the windows of a handful of congressional offices, including the Tucson office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot and seriously wounded last January.

In November, Vanderboegh made national news again, this time for his alleged role in inspiring a domestic terrorism plot. The FBI alleged that a handful of Georgia senior citizens had met at a Waffle House to plot a domestic bioterrorism attack. When they were arrested, word leaked that they’d been inspired by Vanderboegh’s unpublished novel, Absolved, in which underground militia groups plan to assassinate law enforcement and judicial officials to protest gun control and gay marriage. Vanderboegh has called the book “a combination field manual, technical manual, and call to arms for my beloved gunnies of the armed citizenry.”

Regards,

Jim