Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Women react after talking to Scott Brown about Blunt amendment



I thought Scott Brown was for women's issues. Put Gail Huff on the air again.

Mitt Romney Stages Fake Hurricane Sandy Donations at 'Storm Relief Rally'


Yesterday, the Romney campaign quickly transformed its Dayton, Ohio political rally into a "storm relief event," which appeared to be a political rally with a change in name only.

The Romney campaign reportedly encouraged people to “deliver the bags of canned goods, packages of diapers, and cases of water bottles to the candidate, who would be perched behind a table along with a slew of volunteers and his Ohio right-hand man, Senator Rob Portman,” reports Buzzfeed.com.

The Romney campaign also spent $5,000 at a local Wal-Mart on food supplies that could be put on display.
When Romney supporters arrived at the event, they watched a 10-minute video about Romney’s life and heard the GOP nominee speak.

The event ended with supporters picking up the food supplies bought at Wal-Mart, by the Romney campaign, and then "donating" the same goods to Romney.

When people gave Romney the donations that his campaign bought, he took them, smiled, and said “thank you.”

The Red Cross said they were grateful for the supplies, but encouraged people to donate blood and/or money to help the Hurricane Sandy relief effort.

NPR White House reporter Air Shapiro tweeted on Twitter.com that the goods would not be going to go the Red Cross, but rather on a campaign bus headed for New Jersey:

"Ppl pointing out that Red Cross wants $ not food. But food donations via Romney aren't going to RC. He's encouraging ppl to give $ to RC."

"Instead, he's putting it on his campaign bus and handing it out: Folks asking where the food is going- days ago the campaign said VA but today Romney said NJ. Campaign bus to hand it out."

Originally here: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2010-elections/mitt-romney-stages-fake-donations-hurricane-sandy-storm-relief-rally

GOP Attention Deficit Disorder


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Mitt Romney Campaign Impeded Hurricane Sandy Relief

Great new ad: Romney vs. Sandy

From Buzzfeed: Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City




Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City" was always one of his darkest hits, a stark acoustic ballad from arguably the most dour album in his catalog. It's a song about a pair of lovers escaping to Atlantic City but not being able to get away from mob violence and a feeling of impending doom. The lyrics sound a bit different today, though. In light of the destruction of Atlantic City's iconic boardwalk in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the mafia context falls away, and it comes off like prayer to this sordid little city on the coast of Springsteen's beloved New Jersey. The words that ring out are the most hopeful, but also the most devastating: "Everything dies, baby, that's a fact, but maybe everything that dies someday comes back." Let's hope so, Bruce.

RT: The potential damage to the nuclear facility in New Jersey

New Video of Damage along Jersey Shore Hurricane Sandy Destruction 'Arie...



Mitt Romney get rid of FEMA. Have a look. Do you want Romney protecting your house?

Daily Kos: Elizabeth Warren pushes for rescheduling post-Sandy debate, Scott Brown doubtful

Daily Kos: Elizabeth Warren pushes for rescheduling post-Sandy debate, Scott Brown doubtful:

'via Blog this'



No word yet whether Harry Reid can make Scott Brown show up. Oh I've heard he has a busy schedule. Of course his schedule is busy, all's you need to know is Scott Brown drives a truck and he's for you. Oh and one more thing, every time he opens his mouth - outside of carefully crafted events, where he where's what he has been told is a middle class truck, and drives a truck.- his poll numbers go down.


The final debate of the Massachusetts Senate race was supposed to have been tonight, but yesterday Sen. Scott Brown pulled out of the debate citing the need to focus on Hurricane Sandy, and Elizabeth Warren's campaign shortly thereafter agreed. Brown, however, wanted the debate to be cancelled. Warren believes it should be rescheduled. Here's an emailed statement from her campaign.
"Our focus over the next 48 hours must be on public safety and holding the utilities accountable for restoring power as soon as possible. Elizabeth believes that the final televised debate should occur, and we have contacted the debate organizers and let them know she would be available to participate on Thursday evening."
Brown has not directly ruled it out, but clearly doesn't want to do it, saying it's unnecessary.
“We’ve already had three debates. I had two radio debates that she didn’t participate in,” Brown said in Westport, where he was touring storm damage. He said voters now know where the candidates stand.
“There’s only a few days left and we have a very, very busy schedule,” said Brown, who otherwise referred the issue to his campaign staff. The staff has not returned calls today.
He's sounding just a tad defensive there, no? Of course Brown doesn't want a final debate. The last three haven't helped him at all, and a fourth could cause even more damage. At a point in which Warren is opening her lead in polling (the latest from Suffolk has her leading 53-47, up from 48-44 a month ago), a big gaffe from Brown in a debate could be the final nail.
6:06 PM PT: And Brown says it's no go. The Warren campaign sends this statement:
"It is unfortunate voters will not have the chance to hear from both candidates on the important issues facing Massachusetts.  Elizabeth was working with the debate organizers to move forward on Thursday. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, Scott Brown is again ducking questions about his record voting on the side of big oil and billionaires and against equal pay for equal work, against a pro-choice Supreme Court Justice and against  insurance coverage for birth control.  Elizabeth agreed to additional debates that Brown refused in Worcester and the South Coast as well as a forum hosted by the NAACP. Scott Brown doesn't want to have to talk about his record—plain and simple."

Jon Hamm: "Hey Colorado, Are You Voting Early?" - OFA Colorado



Tough for you opponent when you've got Don Draper on your side.

Rachel Maddow - Is Romney serious about defunding FEMA?

Monday, October 29, 2012

More from Governor self-reliance


Fox is who I turn to for news but then again I like fiction


Always a good time to remind people of Mitt Romney's fore site.


Hurricane goes assure on the eastcoast


  • Oh, just got an update. THIS is happening now!  #Sandy #Hurricane #apocalyse

Manufacturing Corporate Friendly State Legislation



CSG the democratic version of ALEC "take the state out of state universities."

As the east coast gets battered by a hurricane more wisdom from GOP candidate: Romney on FEMA Government Spending

Mitt Romney Parody-The Whitest White Man in the USA

Snookered by Bill Gates and the U. S. Department of Education - Dailycensored.com | Dailycensored.com

Snookered by Bill Gates and the U. S. Department of Education - Dailycensored.com | Dailycensored.com:

'via Blog this'


Attention people who care about children in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
You’ve been snookered.
The truth of the matter is that we’ve all been snookered by the U. S. Department of Education, working in cahoots with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but the release of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium sample assessment items makes the flimflam obvious to people in the above states. Their leaders gave promissory notes to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.
U. S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the new assessments will be “an absolute game changer in public education.” Translation: They’ll rob you blind, ruin your curriculum, and turn your children into test-taking drudges.
On Oct. 24, 2012, the Vermont State Department of Education issued an enthusiastic  press release trumpeting these sample test items. Acting as an echo chamber for the U. S. Department of Education, Vermont Education Commissioner Armando Vilaseca says, “These sample items will provide Vermont teachers with an early look into the rigor and complexity students will see on the Smarter Balanced assessments.”
It’s sad to see an ed commissioner who actually has a lot of experience working in schools act as a megaphone to power, but certainly it’s no surprise that the U. S. Secretary of Education, a man with no teacher experience,  employs exclamation points to voice his enthusiasm for the new tests. After all, Arne Duncan is the one who handed out $361 million taxpayer dollars to the testing consortia: Smarter Balanced and PARCC. There are two to avoid accusations of politicos forcing a National Test on public education. By the way, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who financed the development of the Common Core as a delivery system for these tests and many millions to outfits ranging from the PTA to ASCD to promote it, kicked in another $743,331 “to support capacity building” at Smarter Balanced.
State Departments of Education across the country echo Vermont in  urging teachers to use these Smarter Balanced test items “to begin planning the shifts in instruction that will be required to help students meet the demands of the new assessments.” Bring on ugly, brain-numbing skill drill worksheets on apostrophe use.
Linda Darling Hammond, professor of education at Stanford University (which is well rewarded by the Gates Foundation) as well as senior research advisor for Smarter Balanced, said thisPerformance tasks ask students to research and analyze information, weigh evidence, and solve problems relevant to the real world, allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in an authentic way. The Smarter Balanced assessment system uses performance tasks to measure skills valued by higher education and the workplace–critical thinking, problem solving, and communication–that are not adequately assessed by most statewide assessments today.
Indeed. I read the released items in English Language Arts/Literacy, and I wanted to vomit.
Smarter Balanced showed their capacity for coming up with new, innovative assessments by hiring CTB/McGraw-Hill to deliver 10,000 test items–bland passages with no authors and no voice–and lots of items requiring copy-editing skills. Now I  know why these Smarter Balanced released items look so familiar: CTB/McGraw-Hill has been selling this stuff since 1926.
I wrote the Smarter Balanced Help Desk, asking why they offered students so many items with no authors and no voice. They replied, “Authors write the items. For passages, internal authors write some of them and others require external permissions.” They invited me to ask any other questions I might have.
The “authors” are work-for-hire freelancers who aren’t allowed to exhibit personality. These Smarter Balanced items don’t qualify as fiction or non-fiction; they are simply test tommyrot. Putting such artificial passages on tests sends a terrible message to teachers, provoking the use of tons of workbook paragraphs–to get kids ready for an ugly test.
In addition to the antiquated copy-editing chores, Smarter Balanced ignores research on how children acquire new vocabulary and asks testees to use context clues to figure out the meaning of words. I summarized the research refuting this notion in a book chapter: Context Clues: Cure-All or Claptrap? Research shows that when students read for pleasure they experience multiple encounters with new words–and it’s those multiple encounters that result in significant vocabulary growth.
Twenty-five states have signed on to this boondoggle.
The examples of  “innovative, technology-enhanced items that take advantage of computer-based administration to assess a deeper understanding of content and skills” provided by Smarter Balanced are hilarious. Here’s one: Highlight the part of the text. . . . Highlighting as innovative technology? Should taxpayers in the Hendrick Hudson School District pay $1.5 million to upgrade their computers so students can highlight text on a test?
In math, the testee sees a silhouetted swimmer’s animated legs before getting to a question that requires rounding swimming times to the nearest 10th, something kids who know anything about racing know would never happen in the real world. In another problem, the testee is instructed to make use of technological innovation to drag a juice bottle into a grocery bag. The Main State Education Department calls this “innovative, technology-enhanced items that take advantage of computer-based administration to assess a deeper understanding of content and skills than would otherwise by possible with traditional item types.”
They are all drinking the Kool-Aid being passed around by Bill Gates.
Twenty-three states belong to the other testing consortium–Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which received $186 million of your tax dollars from the U. S. Department of Education as part of the Race to the Top scheme. A few states belong to both consortia and five states–Nebraska, Minnesota, Texas, Utah, and Virginia–belong to neither.
I hope people understand that this is much much more than just a quarrel over curriculum preference, but  I’ll get to the penultimate concern of the taxpayer: What does all this cost? After the initial infusion of cash from the U. S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top grants, the claim is that most states can expect to spend less on Smarter Balanced assessments than they do on current assessments. But even taking this claim with a truckload of salt doesn’t make it believable. According to an Oct. 28,2012 article in www.loud.com, the Hendrick Hudson School District estimates that it will cost “$1.5 million to upgrade its computers and infrastructure to comply with the Common Core mandates.” This is for the three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school attended by the 2,845 students in the Hendrick Hudson School district.
That’s just computer compliance–to get started.  Gene Wilhoit, Executive Director, Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, makes it clear that states that have signed on for the tests have agreed to pay annual administrative fees associated with the tests. Vermont school administrators were told recently to budget $300 per pupil for each year hereafter to buy the computer platforms to deliver the tests and other technology. That’s just the technology. Nothing said about administrative costs, test prep costs, test tutoring costs, and so on and so on.
There are 50 million schoolkids out there in K-12. You don’t need any innovative, technology-enhanced, computer-based highlighting to do the math. What you need is the grit and stamina to say “No!”

Koch Brothers and the Road to "Citizens United"

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Song For the Night: Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush -Don't Give Up




Don't give up

In this proud land we grew up strong
We were wanted all along
I was taught to fight, taught to win
I never thought I could fail

No fight left or so it seems
I am a man whose dreams have all deserted
Ive changed my face, Ive changed my name
But no one wants you when you lose

Dont give up
cos you have friends
Dont give up
Youre not beaten yet
Dont give up
I know you can make it good

Though I saw it all around
Never thought I could be affected
Thought that wed be the last to go
It is so strange the way things turn

Drove the night toward my home
The place that I was born, on the lakeside
As daylight broke, I saw the earth
The trees had burned down to the ground

Dont give up
You still have us
Dont give up
We dont need much of anything
Dont give up
cause somewhere theres a place
Where we belong

Rest your head
You worry too much
Its going to be alright
When times get rough
You can fall back on us
Dont give up
Please dont give up

got to walk out of here
I cant take anymore
Going to stand on that bridge
Keep my eyes down below
Whatever may come
And whatever may go
That rivers flowing
That rivers flowing

Moved on to another town
Tried hard to settle down
For every job, so many men
So many men no-one needs

Dont give up
cause you have friends
Dont give up
Youre not the only one
Dont give up
No reason to be ashamed
Dont give up
You still have us
Dont give up now
Were proud of who you are
Dont give up
You know its never been easy
Dont give up
cause I believe theres the a place
Theres a place where we belong

Colbert takes on retiring Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniel

  • The best line of the bunch:

    “We had a surplus when Bill Clinton left office, and you were George W. Bush’s Director of Management and Budget. Who chloroformed you and stole all the money?" 

    It was also a good comment when he just accepted a job to run Purdue and institution that he made decisions to cut a lot of money from.



The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Mitch Daniels Pt. 1
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogVideo Archive
The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Mitch Daniels Pt. 2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogVideo Archive

Looking forward to it. We need this strong will now more than ever. Lincoln - Unite


Clement Larid Vallandigham: one of the first bi-partisan northerners. A copperhead who supported the south against the north during the Civil War



Born in New Lisbon, Ohio, 29 July 1820, Vallandigham studied at the New Lisbon Academy, attended Jefferson College in Pennsylvania in 1 837 afid 1840, taught at a Maryland school in the intervening period, then privately pursued legal studies in Ohio, passing the state bar in 1842. A noted New Lisbon attorney, he won election to the state house of representatives in 1845 and 1846, moved to Dayton in 1847, bought a half-interest in the Dayton Empire, edited it until 1849, and was the defeated Democratic candidate in the 1852 and 1854 congressional elections. A candidate again in 1856, he contested his third defeat and won his seat in the U.S. House May 1 858. Narrowly reelected that autumn, Vallandigham made a national reputation as a conservative and as a contentious states-rights advocate. He became brigadier general of Ohio militia in 1857, met with the captured abolitionist John Brown in 1859, subsequently spread rumors of a national abolitionist conspiracy, then supported a moderate course in the secession crisis, backing Democratic presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas in 1860.

        Vallandigham opposed the Federal government's prosecution of the Civil War, publishing a letter in the 20 Apr. 1861 Cincinnati Daily Enquirer stating his belief that the South could not be coerced into reentering the Union. Supported by vocal immigrant and farm constituencies in Ohio, he blamed the war on Pres. Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party, voted against national Conscription, refused to cooperate with congressional war measures, and alienated the powers within his own political party. A Copperhead, falsely believed to belong to the Knights Of The Golden Circle, he was abandoned by the state's War Democrats in a fight to keep his original congressional district intact. It was gerrymandered to contain a minority of his supporters, and he was not reelected in 1 862. Determined to run for the governorship in 1863, he began an unofficial campaign in spring 1862, following Democratic victories in Dayton, and tried to rally support for his candidacy over that of Democratic elder-statesman Hugh J. Jewett. The preliminary Ohio Democratic convention met 28 Apr. and rejected Vallandigham's bid for the gubernatorial nomination.



        On 13 Apr. 1863, Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, Commmander of the Department Of The Ohio, had issued General Order No. 38, forbidding expression of sympathy for the enemy. On 30 Apr. Vallandigham addressed a large audience in Columbus, made derogatory references to the president and the war effort, then hoped that he would be arrested under Burnside's order, thus gaining popular sympathy. Arrested at his home at 2 a.m., 5 May, by a company of troops, he was taken to Burnside's Cincinnati headquarters, tried by a military court 6-7 May, denied a writ of habeas corpus, and sentenced to 2 years' confinement in a military prison. Following a 19 May cabinet meeting, President Lincoln commuted Vallandigham's sentence to banishment to the Confederacy. On 26 May the Ohioan was taken to Confederates south of Murfreesboro, Tenn., and there entered Southern lines. Outraged at his treatment, by a vote of 411 -11 state Democrats nominated Vallandigham for governor at their 11 June convention.

        Vallandigham was escorted to Wilmington, N.C., and shipped out to, Bermuda, arriving there 1 7 June. He traveled to Canada, arrived at Niagara Falls, Ontario, 5 July, and from there and Windsor, Ontario, conducted his campaign for the governorship. Candidate for lieutenant governor George Pugh represented Vallandigham's views at rallies and in the press. Lincoln interested himself in the election, endorsed Republican candidate John Brough, downplayed the illegalities of a civilian's arrest and trial by military authorities, and claimed that a vote for the Democratic contender was "a discredit to the country." In the election of 13 Oct. 1863, Brough defeated Vallandigham 288,000 - 187,000.

        With the election crisis passed, Lincoln and the military ignored Vallandigham's return to the U.S, in disguise 14 June 1864. Here established residence in 0hio, attended the August national Democratic convention in Chicago, and helped construct the disastrous "peace" plank in presidential candidate George B. McClellan's platform.

        In postwar years the Democratic party declared him persona non grata at its 1866 Philadelphia convention, a meeting of old Federals and recently reconstructed Southern Democrats, where it was felt his presence was disruptive. After he lost a bid in 1867 for election to the state senate, he resumed his law practice. In a Lebanon, Ohio, hotel, 16 June 1871, a gun went off while he was demonstrating to other attorneys how a defendant's supposed victim may have accidentally shot himself. He died there the following day.

        The Ohioan is best remembered for the Feb. 1864 Supreme Court decision, Ex Parte Vallandigham, which decreed that the Court could not issue a writ of habeas corpus in a military case, and for a Democratic campaign slogan he created May 1862: "The Constitution as it is, the Union as it was." Inspired by the story of Vallandigham's banishment and his remark at that time that he did not care to live in a country where Lincoln was president, Edward Everett Hale wrote "The Man Without a Country" (1863).

Originally posted here: http://www.civilwarhome.com/vallandighambio.htm

Warning moment of truth breaks out momentarily on network tv the villagers don't no how to react

PHOTO: 'This Week' Roundtable


SULLIVAN: If Virginia and Florida go back to the Republicans, it's the confederacy, entirely. You put the map of the Civil War over this electoral map, you've got the Civil War.
IFILL: I don't know. (LP: Gwenn apparently doesn't want to challenge her seat at the table. She gets to meet a lot of important people and has a great lifestyle.)
STEPHANOPOULOS: You're rolling your eyes, George. (LP: professional Disney hack who is on tv weekly to deny the obvious)
SULLIVAN: Am I wrong?

Let's put it on the map. Apparently not.


(CROSSTALK)
WILL: You are, and I'll say why.
(LAUGHTER)
Democrats have been losing the white vote constantly since 1964, so that's not new. (LP: Will is actually right about that. They've been losing the white vote in the south when the anti-MLK vote switched from the Republicans, to the third party candidate George Wallace. Then to Republicans)
IFILL: John Kerry lost the white vote.


1968 map. You have George Wallace taking the deep south after abandoning the Democratic party over civil rights.

By 1988 the transformation is complete. The south has converted solidly Republicans. It didn't hurt that Reagan kicked off his campaign in Cleveland Mississippi where three Civil Rights workers were murdered. Reagan gave the South the old wink, wink, nod, nod...we're all for state rights you know





WILL: Here's -- right. Here's what we're trying to talk about. 2008, from Obama, gets that many white votes. This time, the polls indicating may get this many. We're trying to explain this difference. Now, there are two possible explanations. A lot of white people who voted for Obama in 2008 watched him govern for four years and said, "Not so good. Let's try someone else." The alternative, the confederacy hypothesis, is those people somehow for some reason in the last four years became racist. (LP: it is also  that the racist strain effects more than just the south and their is a backlash by believed to be disenfranchised whites and foreigners. The natural advantage a person gets from just being born white is actually being threatened.)
SULLIVAN: No, that's not my argument at all, George.
WILL: It sounds like it.
SULLIVAN: Please. No, no, no. I'm just pointing out the fact that the white people who've changed their minds happen to be in Virginia and Florida. And if you actually look at the map... (LP: In that there is enough of them to tip the election map. Plus do not, discount the old chestnut of using the modern Jim Crow laws to make sure you're side can vote and the other side can't, Southern whites had a solid one hundred years of that.)


Old Jim Crow

As is this.




WILL: But that is not true.
SULLIVAN: ... they were the only two states...
(CROSSTALK)
SULLIVAN: Let me just point...
(CROSSTALK)
SULLIVAN: ... Republican Party. They were the only two states in 2008 that violated the Confederacy rule.
WILL: Andrew has made an empirical statement that is checkable and false, which is that the people moving -- or the white people moving away are in those two states.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: And a lot them were Republicans.
(CROSSTALK)
SULLIVAN: Which Confederate state is for Obama right now?
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: ... this could be Ohio, because that's where President Obama is focusing on now, the white male vote in Ohio. We'll see if that holds up. We've got to take a break. We're going to talk about the Senate when we come back.

The modern Jim Crow law






Reality Check: Can Ohio Voting Machines Be Hacked? The Facts Behind The...



Why should you be concerned by the people who own the machines tallying the vote?

Anon2Rove

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Song for the night: tammy wynette stand by your man



In honor of all the women who continue to support the GOP politicians who said all those stupid things about rape, planned parenthood, and access to health care.

From the animator of The Simpsons: Why Obama Now

Pres. Obama pokes fun at doubts about his birth certificate at campaign ...

Thirty Seconds to Name All of Mitt Romney's Massachusetts Taxes and Fees



As somebody who lived in Massachusetts I can attest to all the fees and seeing we were near last in the state in job creation. Not too much of a record to run on there. Particularly, when you're going to replace the only decent thing you did in the state on day one.

The new GOP tax plan


Powell sees Rice in a whole new light


Conan O'Brien sends a correspondent to last debate

Great Image on last debate


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Cartoon: Very funny. It's all up to who the president of Ohio

"Life is a Pre-existing Condition" - Mike McCready (Pearl Jam)

Daily Kos: This week in the War on Workers: $500,000 from Rhee group against Michigan collective bargaining

Daily Kos: This week in the War on Workers: $500,000 from Rhee group against Michigan collective bargaining:

'via Blog this'

When she's trying to preserve her credibility as anything but a mouthpiece of Republican governors like John Kasich and billionaires like the Walmart heirs and Rupert Murdoch, Michelle Rhee claims she supports collective bargaining rights. She claimed it while her StudentsFirst organization collaborated on Michigan bills limiting collective bargaining for teachers and lowering the standard for demoting teachers from requiring "reasonable and just cause" to allowing anything that's not "arbitrary and capricious." She claimed it while StudentsFirst spent $70,000 defending a state representative who championed those bills from recall, even though he was also a horrendous gay-baiter. Now, StudentsFirst's PAC has contributed $500,000to oppose the Michigan ballot measure that would put collective bargaining rights in the state's constitution.
That's an awfully big financial investment in opposing something you claim to support. It's a financial investment Rhee and StudentsFirst wouldn't be in a position to make without the support of people like the Waltons and Murdoch. And, by the way, it's the sort of position StudentsFirst uses Change.org—which recently announced it would be taking money not just from organizations that, like StudentsFirst, claim to be nonpartisan or bipartisan or whatever BS it is this week, but from corporations and avowedly right-wing groups as well—to campaign for.

Col Lawrence Wiklerson "My Party Is Full Of Rascists."


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Republican rape chart


  • Photo

In honor of the war on women: Carole King 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow'



Song For the night. I've always loved the tone of her voice and with the way the war on women is being carried out it seems to have even more added meaning. After the night, will you have health care tomorrow.

Republican Party Rape Advisory Chart

Texas’ Greg Abbott Threatens UN-Affiliated Poll Watchers | TPMMuckraker

Texas’ Greg Abbott Threatens UN-Affiliated Poll Watchers | TPMMuckraker:

'via Blog this'


Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott made it clear this week he does not want international elections observers anywhere near the polls in his state.
In a letter dated Tuesday to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Abbott threatened to prosecute any of its monitors who step within 100 feet of a Texas polling place on Election Day. The threat came even though U.S. State Department officials earlier this year had invited the monitors to observe the election.
“If OSCE members want to learn more about our elections processes so they can improve their own democratic systems, we welcome the opportunity to discuss the measures Texas has implemented to protect the integrity of the elections,” Abbott wrote. “However, groups and individuals from outside the United States are not allowed to influence or interfere with the election process in Texas.”
The letter provoked a swift response on Wednesday from Janez Lenarcic, the head of the international group’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, who wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing his concern that the threat of prosecution was contrary to the U.S.’s obligations as an OSCE participant.
“The threat of criminal sanctions against OSCE/ODIHR observers is unacceptable,” Lenarcic said in a news release about the letter. “The United States, like all countries in the OSCE, has an obligation to invite ODIHR observers to observe its elections.”
Lenarcic added the observers were “required to remain strictly impartial” and they were in the United States “to observe these elections, not to interfere in them.” State Department officials have invited the monitors to observe the process in five elections since 2002.
The OSCE, which has a partnership agreement with the United Nations, had been pressed by a coalition of voting rights organizations to focus its monitoring efforts on states they believed were most likely to be impacted by voter restriction efforts.
Abbott’s letter stated OSCE representatives “are not authorized by Texas law to enter a polling place” and their opinions of voter ID laws were “legally irrelevant in the United States.”
While Abbott claimed the Supreme Court “has already determined that Voter ID laws are constitutional,” Texas’ voter ID law was blocked by a panel of federal judges in August and will not be in effect on Election Day. The judges found that the law would “almost certainly have retrogressive effect: it imposes strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor, and racial minorities in Texas are disproportionately likely to live in poverty.”
Abbott also attacked Project Vote, one of the organizations asking for the focus, writing that it was “closely affiliated with ACORN, which collapsed in disgrace after its role in a widespread voter-registration fraud scheme was uncovered.” Project Vote’s Michael Slater said in a statement on Wednesday that it appeared Abbott “is ashamed of Texas’s voting rights record or he would welcome observers with open arms.”
Other conservatives like Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL), who is running for the U.S. Senate, have also attacked the international elections monitors.
“The very idea that the United Nations — the world body dedicated to diminishing America’s role in the world — would be allowed, if not encouraged, to install foreigners sympathetic to the likes of Castro, Chavez, Ahmadinejad and Putin to oversee our elections is nothing short of disgusting,” Mack said in a statement on Monday.
Late update: Abbott sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday afternoon asking for assurance that OSCE poll watchers would obey Texas’ election laws in addition to federal statutes. He wrote that it seemed the OSCE was “under the misimpression that the State Department can somehow help its representatives circumvent the Texas Election Code.”
Correction: The OSCE is an independent organization that has a partnership agreement with the United Nations. A previous version of this report incorrectly said the organization was created by the U.N.