One flew over the GOP nest.

post from field negro on 20 February 2012 07:00:35 PM. © field negro

"Freedom isn't to do whatever you want to do, it's to do what you ought to do" ..."

Huh? I told you all that Ricky [I should be in a] Sanitarium is crazy, but you wouldn't listen.

Folks, make no mistake, A Rick [I should be in a] Sanitarium presidency would be scary for A-merry-ca.

I know all about Rick [I should be in a] Sanitarium, I am from Pistolvania. He was one of our Senators here before we decided to throw his ass out by 16 percentage points. Now that he has a national stage the rest of A-merry-ca is finding out about the guy as well.

Comparing O to Hitler. Wanting to do away with federal AND state involvement with education. (Yes, Ricky would prefer if all the children in A-merry-ca were home schooled like his own. Shhhh, let's not mention the fact that he stole money from the people of Pistolvania while doing it.)Wanting to do away with pre-natal care for pregnant women, and calling the religion of the president of these divided states "phony." Wow! This all makes him declaring contraception harmful to women seem like the norm. I will give Ricky credit; he is doubling down on crazy.

"The idea that the federal government should be running schools, frankly much less that the state government should be running schools, is anachronistic. It goes back to the time of industrialization of America when people came off the farms where they did home-school or have the little neighborhood school, and into these big factories, so we built equal factories called public schools. And while those factories as we all know in Ohio and Pennsylvania have fundamentally changed, the factory school has not."

"Anachronistic" Rick? Oh the irony. Folks, believe me, if there is anything that belongs in another time it's Rick [I should be in a] Sanitarium.

"There's nothing - there's no gift, no Christmas gift, that could be given better than Rick Santorum to the Democrats,"

I know that they don't believe me, but I want to say this to my republican friends in all sincerity: If Donald Trump believes that the guy heading for the nomination of your party is unelectable, just what do you think a normal person in A-merry-ca is thinking about him? Think about it.

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http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2012/02/one-flew-over-gop-nest.html

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Canada fights to have right to pollute the world

post from US Politics | AMERICAblog News on 20 February 2012 07:00:22 PM. © US Politics | AMERICAblog News

How did things go so wrong in Canada? There used to be a day when we could count on our level headed neighbors to the north to be decent and more rational than our own country. And then the Stephen Harper years began. Harper could easily feel comfortable in today's GOP, he's so extreme. Even the Teabaggers would gladly hold a seat for him. Now that the world is waking up (finally) to the environmental cost of the tar sands oil, the EU has been reviewing plans to list this oil as even more polluting than regular oil. Keep in mind that Harper is from Alberta, where the filthy tar sands industry is driving the economy. Europe doesn't need a war of any kind these days, especially a trade war, but that just may happen. The Guardian:

Canada has threatened a trade war with European Union over the bloc's plan to label oil from Alberta's vast tar sands as highly polluting, the Guardian can reveal, before a key vote in Brussels on 23 February. "Canada will not hesitate to defend its interests, including at the World Trade Organisation," state letters sent to European commissioners by Canada's ambassador to the EU and its oil minister, released under freedom of information laws. The move is a significant escalation of the row over the EU's plans, which Canada fears would set a global precedent and derail its ability to exploit its tar sands, which are the biggest fossil fuel reserve in the world after Saudi Arabia. Environmental groups argue that exploitation of the tar sands, also called oil sands, is catastrophic for the global climate, as well as causing serious air and water pollution in Alberta.

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ight-to-pollute.html

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Gov. Mark Dayton Calls Out ALEC By Name, Is A
Model for Other Democrats

post from Crooks and Liars on 20 February 2012 07:00:15 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) specifically called out the American Legislative Exchange Council in a recent speech, taking on one of the key operatives on the right wing in a way that few other Democrats have done in recent years, despite ALEC's rising power in state legislatures across the country. ALEC has repeatedly attempted to push pro-corporate, anti-working family legislation in numerous states and has managed to largely fly under the radar in the media and with the public. The more high profile politicians like Dayton call them out, the more pressure the organization will face from working families and their allies.

Minnesota?s Governor, Mark Dayton, is doing a really good job. As we have reported in the past months, he is trying to stimulate the state?s economy via expanded infrastructure and local hire and he has vowed to fight the newly radicalized Minnesota GOP by reaching across the aisle for bipartisan support. But what is going to really get progressive panties in a bunch is Dayton?s latest move: calling out the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) by name.
Referring to four now-vetoed tort reform laws as ?partisan political ploys,? Dayton told the press that, ?The real impact would be to reduce the rights of law abiding citizens and businesses to seek justice from the wrongdoing of others.? At one point during his remarks (video below), he held up the ALEC manual that the tort reform laws came from:
?So exactly who did the Republicans in the legislature listen to?? Dayton asked, as he held up a thick document.
?Three of the four bills come right from this manual. Tort Reform Boot Camp, published by the American Legislative exchange council, or ALEC.?
The organization often holds seminars for conservative state legislators across the nation, and provides model legislation that reflects a public policy agenda.
?It is an extremely conservative group funded largely by large corporations, big business associations, insurance companies and very wealthy individuals,? Dayton remarked?
?I?ve found that Minnesotans do not want their laws written by the lobbyists of big corporations.?

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http://crooksandliars.com/kenneth-quinnell/gov-mark-dayton-calls-out-alec-na

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Gold and Silver Stocks Wild Ride Ahead: Greg
McCoach

post from Jutia Group on 20 February 2012 07:00:06 PM. © Jutia Group

The Gold Report: You last spoke with The Gold Report in October 2010. A lot of things have happened since then. You were predicting that the Fed would start printing money to pay its debts, thereby creating a Ponzi scheme, which it had, sort of, been doing all along. So, have things played out the way you thought they would? And, what are you expecting is going to happen in the rest of 2012?

Greg McCoach: I think we’ve been very accurate in that we’d see additional quantitative easing (QE) events. I remember saying when QE1 came out that they’d be doing QE2 and QE3. Of course the Fed denied that and the media said that’s not going to . . . → Read More: Gold and Silver Stocks’ Wild Ride Ahead: Greg McCoach

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The I.W.W. Fight for Free Speech

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 20 February 2012 07:00:00 PM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

By @KYYellowDog

February 19th marked the 100th anniversary of the great fight by the International Workers of the World to establish Free Speech Rights in San Diego.

It is a timely reminder that union fights have never been about just pay and benefits, but about forcing the plutocracy to recognize the human and civil rights of working human beings everywhere.

From the AFLCIO blog:

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the fight for free speech in San Diego after the city-in response to an organizing drive by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)-banned public speaking in a popular downtown area. In this cross-post from the California Labor Federation's Labor's Edge blog, Lorena Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer and CEO for the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, looks at the 100-year-old fight for workers' rights and today's struggle for worker justice.
It started as an organizing drive for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). But 100 years ago in San Diego, when the Wobblies took to their soapboxes, it turned into a battle to defend free speech that mobilized thousands across the country.
A city ordinance banned public speaking in a downtown area, and protesters were jailed, beaten, tarred and feathered, tortured and even killed for demanding their right to stand on a soapbox and speak. The fight attracted the likes of Emma Goldman, who was nearly attacked by a mob when she arrived in San Diego, and stretched until legal picketing was finally established three years later.
Free speech itself is on stronger footing today. We've seen across the country and right here in San Diego that the fight for real freedom continues every day. The freedom of earning a living wage and being able to afford a decent place to live, as well as the freedom of building a secure retirement and having access to basic health care.
Thanks to great work by AFT Local 1931 and our other partners, we've enjoyed a monthlong retrospective celebrating those who stood up against the rich and powerful to protect the basic rights of all.
Our celebration has included a fantastic museum exhibition, music, film screenings and readings. Just last week, we partnered with other community groups to commemorate the mass jailing of free speech advocates by occupying the same downtown intersection that saw pitched battles in 1912. It featured music, speeches and readings from atop our own soapboxes (constructed by union carpenters of course), remembering the fight one hundred years ago and the battle for basic rights that continues. Click here to view photos.
This month of celebration-especially our commemoration from atop our own soapboxes-has provided a fantastic launching pad for the latest round of challenges in this election year. Extremist mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio is hoping to make San Diego the "Wisconsin of the West," with endless attacks on working families.
At the ballot, we're up against attacks on public pensions, on project labor agreements and even the rights of workers to bargain for themselves. Not to mention our statewide effort to stop the Corporate Deception Initiative just like we did in 1998 and 2005.
Then as now, the fight pits the power of people standing up for our basic rights against rich corporate interests that want to strip those rights away. Then as now, the fight may be hard and may be bitter, but standing for basic dignity will prevail.

Via Lawyers, Guns and Money.

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ww-fight-for-free-speech

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The Moving of the Overton Window on Fiscal Policy

post from Firedoglake on 20 February 2012 06:36:04 PM. © Firedoglake

I liked this Mark Thoma piece about the shifting of the Overton Window. I think I alluded to this with my story on a new round of tax cuts being humped by the GOP, and the new bipartisan consensus on the virtue of tax cuts as a stimulus measure. With the[...]

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LER Heart Health Month

post from Where's the Outrage? on 20 February 2012 06:32:44 PM. © Where's the Outrage?

I was on Local Edge Radio last Thursday. Blake and I called up Dr. Elizabeth Perry from the[...]

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Mitt Romney doubles down on claim that Rick
Santorum is a secret Democrat

"He's a Democrat, dammit! Why can't you people see that!" (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Mitt Romney today:

Romney told the small audience he had run "four enterprises" and could better attack Washington's ballooning federal debt than Santorum.
"During his time in the senate, only two terms, the size of the federal government grew 80 percent," Romney said. "When Republicans go to Washington and spend like Democrats, you're going to have a lot of spending."
Romney said that unlike Santorum, he was a "budget hawk."

This is pretty much the same lame garbage Romney was spewing last week in Idaho, and he's going to have a hard time convincing conservatives that it's true, not just because it's hard to trust anything Mitt Romney says, but also because conservatives strongly approve of Rick Santorum's fiscal record.

But even though Mitt Romney is full of crap when he accuses Rick Santorum of being a Democrat on fiscal policy, it is true that Rick Santorum supported the policies that created the long-term fiscal problem we face today. And so does Mitt Romney, because those policies are the Republican policies that President George W. Bush put in place: irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy, a wasteful war in Iraq, and a disastrous financial regulatory environment that led to the worst recession since the Great Depression?and a corresponding dramatic decrease in tax revenue.

Democrats are by no means perfect, and too much of what Bush Republicans put in place remains in effect. But by and large, if Democrats had gotten their way in the first place we wouldn't be facing the challenges we face today. And that's something that neither Mitt Romney nor Rick Santorum will ever accept. Instead, they'll make absurd accusations about how the other one is a Democrat in disguise.

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own-on-claim-that-Rick-Santorum-is-a-secret-Democrat

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Occupy Atlanta, CWA and Jobs With Justice Stand
Up to AT&T Job Cuts

Occupy Atlanta, the Communications Workers of America, the Teamsters and Jobs With Justice held a rallies last week to prevent AT&T from laying off hundreds of workers at a time when they are making record profits and paying their CEO $27 million. The company plans to lay off 740 workers in Atlanta. The company says they have offered the workers other jobs with the company, but they all appear to be lower-paying jobs with no benefits. The organizations rallying against AT&T demand that the current jobs be kept.

Michael Dawson, a service representative, was laid off last year, but got another job with the company. Dawson said worrying about losing his job again is draining.
?I may be axed with no opportunity for a job,? Dawson said. ?We?re scared because the company will flip a switch and decide ?we no longer need you.??
Kim Ball, a maintenance administrator, knows what it?s like to face the layoff guillotine. Ball has been part of a downsizing effort before. She doesn?t want to go through that again.
?AT&T is making enough money to keep people on the payroll. Stop the layoffs. We want them to stop the layoffs,? Ball said.

12 protesters were arrested at a related rally earlier in the week.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/kenneth-quinnell/occupy-atlanta-cwa-jobs-justice-s

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Taking a Wrecking Ball to Rick Santorums
Candidacy

“We all know that this country was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic but the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant Judeo-Christan ethic, sure the Catholics had some influence, but this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic,[...]

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