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Saturday, October 31, 2015

The Daily Drift

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Justice Ginsburg’s Warning To A Dysfunctional Nation

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden Hold Koch Killing Meeting To Discuss Money In Politics

sanders-biden
Vice President Biden may not be a candidate, but he held a one on one meeting with Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to discuss getting the Koch billionaire dollars out of our politics.
According to the Sanders campaign:
Among the many issues they discussed was the need to address campaign finance reform so that the wealthy and powerful cannot wield undue influence in the political process. They also spoke about the need to extend public education in the United States through college so every young person in America, regardless of income, will be able to get a college education.

“Under the leadership of President Obama and Vice President Biden, this country has come a long way economically since the shrub left office and we were losing 800,000 jobs every month and the world economy was on the brink of financial collapse,” Sanders said. “Nevertheless,” he added, “we still have a long way to go to create the kind of economy that works for all Americans and not just the top 1 percent.

“I look forward to working with President Obama and Vice President Biden to tackle some to the major issues facing our country,” Sanders said.
The media is a direct reflection of the fact that Bernie Sanders isn’t as far outside the Democratic Party as some of his supporters seem to believe. Sanders has a friendly relationship that goes back decades with the Democratic Party. Senator Sanders is so highly thought of among Democrats that he was given one of the top committee assignments (Budget) in the Senate.
The meeting with Vice President also speaks volumes about the success of the Sanders presidential campaign. Bernie Sanders has become such a force in the Democratic primary that he is invited to one on one meetings with the Vice President. The fact that Sanders and Biden discussed getting the billionaire dollars out of our politics should terrify the Koch oligarchs who are attempting to buy the federal government.
Bernie Sanders is slowly winning the battle against the billionaires. The popular movement of millions that he is building is having an impact at the highest levels of our government. With his political revolution growing, Bernie Sanders is landing blows against the billionaires.

The Truth Be Told

Floridians’ Lawsuit Against Jeb, Scott and the Kochs Goes To SCOTUS

The crux of the case against the Kochs, Jeb, and Scott is that they conspired to build what appears to be "an illegally-approved pipeline"…
Koch bush scott
It is nearly impossible to keep up with the dirty tricks and corruption being committed by Republicans on behalf of their masters the Koch brothers. This is particularly true in Republican states where it is not unusual for legislators, and often governors, work to assist the Kochs avoid environmental regulations and laws in exchange for campaign donations and electoral support. It is possible that even with America’s population mired in apathy and ignorance, exposing Republicans’ illegal activities, corruption, and collusion might better inform the error of supporting Republicans.
Fortunately, there is one specific instance of scandal, corruption, and subterfuge that allows the Kochs free rein to dump tons of toxic waste into a Florida river that is finally getting the exposure it warrants. After three years of legal battles, the legal battle is going to the Supreme Court to weigh in on a bona fide scandal in Florida that is likely typical in Republican states working hand-in-hand with the Kochs to sidestep environmental regulations.
After years of effort, there are finally results in an uphill battle to expose the environmental, and political, corruption which has been occurring in Tallahassee and Putnam County, Florida involving the Koch brothers, pretender candidate and former governor Jeb, and current Governor Scott. There are more players involved in the scandalous affair, but part of the corruption is Scott’s refusal to investigate the malfeasance involving his predecessor, his own junta, and his masters the Koch brothers.
For three years the Koch brothers’ company Georgia-Pacific has been dumping tons of toxic waste every day into St. Johns River; a river, incidentally, that is designated as “Florida’s American Heritage River.” Aspects of the deal that was approved by Jeb allowing the Kochs “to massively assault the environment” were misleading, and illegal; as well as being kept secret from local citizens in particular and Floridians in general. Even though Jeb Bush has been out of the governor’s office for years, he is as culpable today as Scott who continues a cover-up to protect the Kochs and allow them to pollute with impunity.
This lawsuit’s origins reach back into the Jeb junta (1999-2007) when, in 2003, then-governor Jeb and his cabinet, over the objection of then-Attorney General Charlie Crist, gave their approval for a Koch-owned Georgia-Pacific pipeline designed specifically to carry and dump toxic waste from a paper mill directly into the St. Johns River.
The crux of the case against the Kochs, Jeb, and Scott is that they conspired to build what certainly appears to be “an illegally-approved pipeline” that current Koch acolyte, Scott, refuses to investigate. Since he is, after all, the chairman of Florida’s Trustees of Internal Improvement Trust Fund as well as governor, it is well-within Scott’s purview, and his duty, to get to the bottom of the corruption and stop the Kochs from despoiling Florida’s American Heritage River. One of the main reasons Scott refuses to investigate the corruption and illegal process approving the Koch pipeline is it will expose the gross corruption in Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection that Scott presides over as governor.
The Kochs, Jeb, and now Scott claim that the one-man approval process is legal and that the public had more than enough warning and time to offer their input about the toxic pipeline. Instead of public hearings, town halls, or meetings with environmental groups or concerned citizens, the Kochs et al claim a legal notice buried in a newspaper replaced any need to alert the public, demonstrate the lack of environmental damage and cost, and get their opinions. Florida citizens and environmental groups however, claim that the approval was “finalized” without their knowledge according to what they say was “a grossly misleading newspaper public notice.” The stealthy notice’s specific goal was blocking any public input or challenges to the toxic pipeline which the Florida Trustees’ agent, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, granted approval for without dispute that the pipeline’s purpose was dumping tons of poison into the river daily.
Besides the fact that Jeb and company gave unwarranted approval to build the pipeline, Floridians claim “the constitutionally-defective” notice published by the Kochs’ Georgia-Pacific Corporation failed to give reasonable Floridians who might have glanced at that paper’s legal ads fair warning that the notice was about not only the wetlands permit, but also about illegally giving easement permission over private property; something that is a blatant due process issue.
It is particularly telling that at the exact same time the public was supposed to happen upon a legal notice buried in the local newspaper, the FDEP issued a notice to Georgia-Pacific alerting them of its “intent to issue an environmental resource permit and easement to use sovereign submerged land.” The deal was already done and it demonstrates the corruption and collusion between the Kochs’ Georgia-Pacific and Jeb; Scott came late to the party, but he has continued the corruption and is as culpable as Jeb and the Kochs.
One might think that despite what Jeb, Scott, and the Kochs wanted, a department created to protect the environment would automatically reject the pipeline, but this is, after all, Republican Florida where corruption appears to be business as usual. This is particularly true, as noted by the citizens and environmental groups behind the lawsuit, because “under Florida’s public trust doctrine, which has constitutional status and is enunciated in the Trustees’ own rules, the Trustees are mandated to make a careful, comprehensive, and full-blown determination of the public interest of the entire project.”
What that rule means is the FDEP and Florida Trust are “constitutionally” required to alert Floridians, well in advance, about the costs and benefits to the public in approving the toxic pipeline, as well as the money the Kochs would save by dumping tons of toxic waste into the river every day. That certainly did not occur when Jeb approved the pipeline in 2003, and has never occurred because the public was not only denied receiving fair public notice, they were never afforded the opportunity to even request a formal evidentiary hearing on the pros, cons, and just compensation to the public for the pipeline. In fact, the first time most Florida citizens learned about the pipeline was after it was completed and Georgia-Pacific started pumping toxins into the St. Johns River early in 2012. It was then they began legal proceedings to get relief and save the St. Johns River.
It is highly doubtful that the Kochs, Jeb, or Scott will be held accountable for their parts in the corruption that threatens the St. Johns river. It is even more doubtful that the conservative Supreme Court would consider inconveniencing the Koch brothers by taking up their time or ruling against them and interfering with their profits. One imagines that the Kochs will include their two favorite Supreme Court Justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, in their next “secret” billionaire confab to recreate and confer with Georgia-Pacific executives and determine exactly what kind of outcome will best serve the Kochs and Georgia-Pacific. It is, after all, exactly what the brothers did prior to the Supreme Court hearing the Citizens United case and there is no reason to believe this will be any different.
One can be hopeful, though, that the details of this decade-long scandal and corruption involving Jeb, Scott, and the Koch brothers will alert voters to the corruption and subterfuge typical of Republicans; particularly if it profits their money machine’s machinations to devastate the environment.

The Koch Brothers Complain About Buying Low Quality Republicans Who Lack Substance

The Koch brothers have no right to complain about the tone of Republican politics because it is exactly what they paid for and wanted…
Charles_Koch_Billionaire_Boys_Club (1)Prior to 2009, maybe 2010, very few Americans had ever heard of the billionaire oil magnates the Koch brothers; likely by very careful design. Today, their name is synonymous with wealthy fascists attempting to rule America. It is that repute that Charles Koch has spent the past year attempting to transform into something more palatable and he continued the “please love me” campaign this week by opining on the state of the current presidential primary; rather, the dysfunction of the Republican presidential primary. The Democratic primary, and its candidates for president, are polar opposites of Charles and David Koch’s Republican operatives if for no other reason than they are civil and substantive.
In a Wall Street Journal profile of and interview with Charles Koch, the oil magnate and libertarian fascist weighed in on the tenor of the Republican pretender primary and, more revealing, about the nature of “political discourse in general.” What is revealing is Koch lamenting that there is no sense of civility, substance, or issues driving the Republican candidates or the Republican cabal’s primary process. Koch bemoaned that, “It’s mainly about personalities and ‘your mother sucked rotten eggs.'”
It is not that Koch is wrong about the Republican primary race, but he does know that every single one of “the personalities,” every lack of civil discourse, and every Republican void of substance are Koch creations going back farther than the rise of one of the brothers’ crowning achievement; creating the teabaggers. Today Koch is frustrated because he, his brother, and about 450 wealthy donors plan to use Koch’s network of umbrella organizations to spend $750 million on the 2016 election to buy the right “dictate all political outcomes via dark money.” Koch expects results for his investment, but it likely looks out of reach to him with the current batch of “personalities lacking any substance and civility.”
The Koch brothers have no right whatsoever to complain about the tone of Republican politics because it is exactly what they paid for and wanted. Today’s Republicans have driven Washington politics to “Cro-Magnon barbarianism” because the process is polluted and flooded with Koch money and propaganda that elevated rabid wingnuts who have “coarsened the discourse and made compromise impossible.” It is important to note that one of the primary goals of the libertarian fascist Kochs is putting an end to government and they have spent no small amount of time and money to see that end reach fruition.
The Kochs may have made their official public entrance into politics after the 2008 general election, but they began their anti-government crusade over thirty years ago; about the same time Reagan’s “government is the enemy” campaign was off and running. Whether the Kochs conspired with conservative demigod Reagan’s anti-government crusade or not is not important, what is important is that they have used every means at their substantial disposal to advance the agenda including spending millions on Republicans without an ounce of substance or civility because it has worked miraculously well; likely because the Republican base is ignorant and uncivil.
All of the “lack of substance and civility” that Koch is complaining about began in earnest with the rise of the teabaggers packed with “real Americans” lacking substance and civility. That the teabaggers became a centralized movement is only because of a very concerted effort by Koch-funded groups such as Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works that brought much-needed expertise to mobilize angry, racist, religious, and anti-government types Koch is pretending to be disgusted with. As an aside and to demonstrate how long the anti-government Kochs have been influencing Republican politics, both Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks were at one time a single libertarian organization, Citizens for a Sound Economy, which the Koch brothers founded during the Reagan administration in 1984.
It is possible the Kochs did not expect their creation, the teabaggers, to last this long. The Kochs’ “pet project” was designed and created from its inception to disrupt Washington politics after Americans elected a President and Congress conservatives could not tolerate. Despite what the Kochs claim, the tea party anti-government disruption plot was entirely a Koch project because they created the first national website to give the movement national exposure as a “grassroots” populist movement.
As plenty of pundits and political observers have noted for years, part and parcel of advancing what Charles Koch says is his only interest, advancing “free-market, small-government ideals,” entailed manufacturing “a faux-populist movement” to whip the Republican base into a full-blown anti-government frenzy that produced the current crop of Republicans lacking substance and civility. Let’s face it; it does not take substance or civility to disrupt and obstruct governance and if nothing else, Republicans have been fairly successful using “teabaggers” to retard progress and disrupting government operations on myriad levels.
Charles Koch is not concerned about “the personalities” he helped create or the Republican dysfunction in Washington because they are under Koch’s anti-government influence; influence Charles Koch has spent a year claiming is non-existent. This dirty liar has said before that he holds no sway over the Republican cabal or Republican cabal members of Congress, but everything Republicans are doing, attempting to do, or undo aligns perfectly with every anti-government agenda the Kochs want enacted.
In the WSJ interview, Charles Koch cited the Republicans’ recent failure to block legislation extending a series of tax breaks for a wide swath of big businesses as proof that he and his brother have no influence on Republicans and are not getting what they want. But Republicans did not fail from a lack of trying or propagandizing; they failed due to President Obama’s firm hand to sustain America’s economic recovery that more tax cuts would surely retard. Koch has said often that “They say we have all this influence. Well, where?” Koch may claim he is a libertarian, and that may be the case, but he is also a typical Republican liar; he knows where “all this influence” is and what it has produced.
The list of influence on congressional Republicans is too long for one article, but there are several Republican states heavily-influenced by Koch ideology, and money, that are suffering from “all this influence” to shrink government by starving it of revenue and slashing programs and departments. In fact, there is very little that occurs in Republican-controlled states that is not very heavily influenced directly by the Koch’s money and vision, or indirectly by their substantial operatives in Americans for Prosperity and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
Charles Koch is not concerned over the lack of substance or civility among Republicans running for president any more than he is concerned about the dysfunctional religious extremists they bought to control Congress. No, what Koch is concerned about is his public image and what impact the negative publicity the brothers are finally receiving will have on the Kochs’ goal of taking over the government to dismantle it.
If anything, Charles Koch should be proud of his and his brother’s creation because they have given the Kochs control of the House and Senate, a majority of state governorships and legislatures, and they have won with two very potent weapons; no substance and no civility. They are the two most important qualities of what the Koch brothers’ teabagger acolytes claim are “real Americans” that Charles and David are secretly very proud of or they would stop funding them.

Wingnuts Lose It Over Budget Deal Between Congress and White House

Trump Gives Women Beauty Advice: Hide Your Gross, Natural Face With A Burqa

Trump Gives Women Beauty Advice: Hide Your Gross, Natural Face With A Burqa (VIDEO)
He started to defend women – but sexism got in the way.
Read more

Carson lying about stabbing people and getting robbed

Ben Carson speaks to WOI (screen grab)
Everybody knows politicians lie sometimes — but we usually assume they’re being dishonest to make themselves look better. So who knows what the hell Carson is trying to accomplish by claiming he tried to stab a guy, attacked people with hammers or sent an armed robber after a fast food cashier?

Carson’s Secret Ties To Hate Group Revealed

Carson is connected to a virulent anti-gay hate group via a super PAC that has supported his Republican pretender campaign. The 2016 Committee has...

Carson’s campaign is suspect, inside and out

Ben Carson, via Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons
Carson’s campaign is suspect, inside and out
One part book tour, two parts grift.

Carson’s budget plan makes absolutely no sense

As Tim Worstall of the Adam Smith Institute wrote in Forbes, Carson’s plan flies in the face of “the simplest of logic and mental arithmetic.”

A Crazy Man's House

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Boy Wonder Set Up To Fail: Ryan Can’t Fix What Is Broken In The Republican Cabal

paul-ryan-speakerHis victory speech after becoming Speaker demonstrated that Ryan has no idea what he is getting into, and he is being set up to fail, because no one person can fix what is broken inside the Republican cabal.
During his speech, Ryan said, “Let me be frank. The House is broken. We are not solving problems. We are adding to them. I am not interested in laying blame. We are not settling scores. We are wiping the slate clean. Neither the members nor the people are satisfied with how things are going. We need to make some changes starting with how the House does business. We need to let every member contribute, not after they’ve earned their stripes, but now.”
Ryan wants the committees to take the lead in writing the legislation. Ryan said, “A neglected minority will gum up the works. A respected minority work in good faith. Instead of trying to stop the majority, they might try to become the majority. In other words, we need to return to regular order.”
Boehner made similar points when he took the gavel in 2010, “For too long – under Democrats and Republicans alike – Congress has been too closed and too insular. Both parties are guilty. I want to change it. I’ve wanted to change it for a long time. And now we have a chance to do it…Reform should be an ongoing and inclusive effort. I don’t have all the answers, and wouldn’t pretend to. I welcome ideas and helping hands from any lawmaker, expert, or citizen about how we can make this institution function again.”
Boehner failed miserably, and the same forces that doomed the Ohio Republican are likely to take down Ryan.
Ryan is dealing with a caucus that isn’t united. The cabal doesn’t control the House Republican caucus because most of the members only have to answer to their donors. They reside in gerrymandered districts that are safe from any consequences. In short, House Republicans can do whatever they want with nothing to fear. They don’t need Ryan for fundraising, and since many of them occupy safe districts, passing legislation isn’t a priority.
House Republicans have no incentive to get things done, and Ryan has no power to make them do anything. Ryan has taken up an empty post that ironically, thanks to Citizens United, has no real power outside of committee assignments and controlling the House floor.
What is broken in the Republican cabal is that there are two or three parties operating inside the House Republican caucus. They will play nice with Ryan for a while, but old tensions will soon surface, and the same forces that sent Boehner running back to the Buckeye State will have their way with Ryan.

Ryan Trashes Republican Cabal ‘Vision’ He Helped Craft


Paul Becomes A National Joke After Budget Deal “Filibuster” Lasts For 18 Minutes

paul-filibuster
Paul (R-KY) told viewers of the CNBC Republican cabal 'debate' to watch him filibuster and fight the budget deal on the Senate floor, but his filibuster consisted of an eighteen and a half minute speech that was really only 15 minutes long.
This is not what Rand Paul promised viewers during the Republican 'debate' when he said, “I will stand firm. I will spend every ounce of energy to stop it. I will begin tomorrow to filibuster it.” When Paul made that statement, he knew he couldn’t filibuster the bill because McConnell had already filed a cloture motion.
His Senate colleagues, who have grown tired of the Republican senators who are running for president using the floor of the Senate as a tool for publicity, largely ignored Paul and did not join with him.
What Sen. Paul was trying to call a filibuster was time that  McConnell had already set aside for such dramatics. McConnell fully intended not to hold the final vote until after midnight. A filibuster is intended to slow down or halt the Senate. What Paul was doing was not a filibuster.
Paul’s filibuster was as lifeless as his pretender campaign.
His filibuster was a joke, and this time, people were not fooled. The budget deal passed as scheduled. Paul didn’t get the media attention, or the donor dollars that he desperately needed.
Paul has seemed disinterested in his pretender campaign since the rise of Trump and Carson buried him in the Republican field, and his attempt to sell a speech as a “filibuster” was as lazy and halfhearted as the candidate himself.

Here’s why Jeb is struggling

In 1994, when a voter asked gubernatorial candidate Jeb what he would do for black Floridians if elected governor, the young politician replied, “Probably nothing.”

Rubio Argues That The Immigration System That Got His Parents Here Should Be Changed

At the Republican cabal 'debate', Rubio argued that the policy that brought his parents here should be changed to meet the realities of the 21st century.…

Major Florida Newspaper Releases Editorial Calling For Rubio To Resign

Featured image by Gage Skidmore. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/8566788436/
Do you think Rubio should resign if he hates his job so much?
Read more 

Not Good Enough

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The Xenophobia Of Some Republican Cabal Candidates Is Making Latino Voters More


Cruz' daddy warns that the next fight for the LGBT movement will be legalized pedophilia

Rafael Cruz, via Gage Skidmore / FlickrCruz' daddy warns that the next fight for the LGBT movement will be legalized pedophilia
That’s news to sane people.

Cruz Says ‘Climate Change Is Not Science, It’s Religion’

Drowning in evidence, Cruz denies there is evidence, and then claims if we say he "denies" it we're proving climate change is a religion…

House Republicans vs. The Weather

Global climate change, via Creative Commons
House Republicans vs. The Weather: Part 845742
Smith is mad that climate data doesn’t say what he wants it to say.

Billionaire-Backed IUD Is Fighting the republican Cabal War on Women's Bodies

Anti-Choice Republicans Crusading To Ban Life-Saving Research

The Republican cabal is jumping on the Dark Age bandwagon to stop scientists from finding cures to myriad infirmities and debilitating and deadly diseases…
laboratory
The term “pro-life” should be self-evident, and indeed if a person is pro-life, one might tend to think they would support any agenda protecting and sustaining the life of all human beings; especially those already breathing. The American pro-life movement is not the least bit concerned about existing citizens’ lives, but they are laser-focused on single-celled zygotes and fetuses and will go to any length to protect what their bible says are clearly not living beings. Now there is a movement in several Republican states and the United States Congress to ban medical and scientific research that saves existing lives to demonstrate just how pro-life the anti-Planned Parenthood Republican movement really is.
One of the primary obstacles that Republicans and evangelicals faced when they sought to destroy Planned Parenthood based on heavily-edited and despicably fraudulent videos was that it is not against any law for the organization to donate fetal tissue for scientific research. In fact, as this column continually states, the most ardent opposition to Planned Parenthood’s tissue donation activities is from Republicans in Congress who voted for 1993 legislation allowing tissue donations and research as a means of saving existing life. As is their wont, since Republicans cannot impose their will and destroy Planned Parenthood for donating tissue for research, they are pushing legislation to make donating and researching human tissue illegal.
It is stunning, but there are already some states that ban any scientific or medical research using fetal tissue, and now several others are jumping on the Dark Age bandwagon to prevent scientists from finding cures to myriad infirmities and debilitating and deadly diseases; all to push a Catholic-inspired “pro-life” religious dogma. Of course, the hypocrisy of the ‘pro-life’ movement is well-documented since they have either murdered medical professionals, called for their assassination, or closed abortion clinics to return to a time when thousands of women died because they did not want to give birth and chose a dangerous option. But the life of the woman, as always, is insignificant to the hypocritical “pro-life” movement that only cares about the fetus that their bible, and their dog, says is not a living being.
In Wisconsin, where scientists in the 1990s pioneered research with human embryonic stem cells‚ religious Republican lawmakers are pushing a ban on the using fetal tissue that will certainly hinder cutting-edge and life-saving research; including major ongoing efforts to find new antibiotics as existing ones grow ineffective. The bill’s lead sponsor, Jacque (R), proposed the legislation that would make it a felony to sell, donate, or even experiment with fetal tissue in any capacity.
When one researcher learned about the legislation banning her life-saving medical research she said, “Oh, I’m going to have to move the lab. Because you can’t stop—you really want to do the research.” However, if Republicans in Congress are successful there may be no place in America to locate a lab doing research using human tissue. After the congressional Republican assault on Planned Parenthood for adhering to the fetal tissue law, Republicans in nine other states are proposing bans similar to the one in Wisconsin, and more are expected to follow suit. That is the opinion of a state policy expert at the Guttmacher Institute, Elizabeth Nash, who noted that a prominent anti-women’s choice group, Americans United for Life, already issued a tissue research ban in its model legislation for Republicans to take up and pass in 2016.
However, the evangelical states’ proposed bans on tissue research may be redundant if the Republican Congress has its way. There is a House bill sponsored by Sensenbrenner (R-WI) Republicans will take up very early next year that outlaws all fetal-tissue research across the nation. This is despite the 1993 legislation that made it legal to donate fetal tissue for the sole purpose of finding cures to save lives; what any sane person would regard as “pro-life.”
One of the veteran researchers at the University of Wisconsin who uses cell lines derived from donated fetal tissue as an important part of her work, Gail Robertson, said the proposed bans are anti-progress. She said,
We’re in a fight for the future of cures to the diseases that will affect us all. I would ask the public to reflect on family members, people you care about who have been saved by this technology. Think about the unanticipated implications of supporting these kinds of legislation.”
Robertson’s primary focus is preventing the greatest natural threat to life in the United States; sudden cardiac death. These “kinds of legislation” will also undermine potentially life-saving research on diseases including diabetes, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. But those pro-life efforts do not fit into the evangelical pro-life movement that has already celebrating shutting down fetal-tissue donation programs essential to such pro-life saving research. Their machinations have been successful in shutting down supplies of the tissue to labs and has already “hindered cutting-edge scientific studies.”
Another scientist at Birth Defects Research Lab at the University of Washington, Theresa Naluai-Cecchini, said that pro-life activism has already “hurt the work at her lab” which is funded by the National Institutes of Health and supplies other medical researchers with fetal tissue. She said:
We are in the last year of funding, and if we are unable to supply tissue to the research community we would have to close. We may be able to obtain an extension, but the climate in DC does not look favorable in an election cycle. If that trend continues, promising research to save lives would stop and new findings would take considerably longer.”
Whatever it is that drives these phony pro-life fanatics, it has nothing to do with protecting or preserving life. Placing state or nation-wide bans on using fetal tissue will not, in any conceivable way, put Planned Parenthood out of business or stop women from seeking elective abortions. If there is a law against donating fetal tissue, as a legal entity religiously following the law, Planned Parenthood and any other provider will just stop donating. Subsequently, these Dark Age religious laws will put scientific and medical researchers at a distinct disadvantage to do real “pro-life” work and the phony pro-life evangelicals will have to revert to their other pro-life activities like murdering abortion doctors and burning Planned Parenthood clinics.

Alabama admits it has never been in compliance with the 1993 National Voter Registration Act

Register, via ShutterstockAlabama admits it has never been in compliance with the 1993 National Voter Registration Act
Better 22 years late than never, I guess.

O'Reilly Wants All You Lazy Moochers To Vote For A Tax Cutting Republican, Or Else

Hannity Throws Massive Tantrum On Air After Earning Yet Another ‘Pants On Fire’ Rating

Hannity Throws Massive Tantrum On Air After Earning Yet Another ‘Pants On Fire’ Rating (VIDEO)Watching Sean Hannity frantically try to cover up his lies is must-see TV.

ESPN Host Calls Out Teabaggers For Being Like ISIL

Tea Party politics cartoon by Daryl Cagle via Cagle Comics. http://www.cagle.comIt didn’t take long for ESPN host, Tony Kornheiser, to note how similar the Teabaggers are to ISIL after Howard Fineman described the “Freedom” Caucus of 40 House Republicans.

Friday, October 30, 2015

The Daily Drift

Welcome to the Friday Edition of The Truth Be Told.
Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  
 
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What you do to a Republican's house... !
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We're dis-investing in infrastructure, and it's going to hurt us big-time

From Robert Reich
Today I talked to a friend who just moved into a rental unit that's eating 40 percent of his paycheck. He says he has no choice. It's the smallest apartment he could find within ten miles of where he works.
My friend isn't alone. Since 2001, the median monthly rental price in the US has climbed much faster than inflation, while the typical renter’s pretax income has fallen 11 percent. Result: The typical renter is now paying way more than 30 percent of his or her income for rent, and that percentage is rising. In some cities – San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, New York – it’s 40 to 50 percent. What’s the solution? Part of it is better public transportation – so people can live further away from where they work, in affordable housing. But rather than invest more in public transportation, America is disinvesting. We're spending a smaller percentage of our GDP on public transit now than at any time since World War II. Why? Ask Republicans in Congress and in state legislatures.

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Hell Experiences Cold Day As Teabagger Endorses Obama’s Climate Change Plan

Image via FlickrA member of the cabal of ‘No’ is saying yes to President Obama’s Clean Energy Plan, making Hell cold as the rest of the world deals with rising temperatures.

After Lois Lerner Cleared, Republicans Move To Impeach IRS Commissioner

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President Obama Blasts Fox News For Lying About His Position On Guns

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President Obama pulled no punches when he called out Fox News and other conservative media outlets for spreading the lie that he is out to take away guns.
The President said:
So, look, I understand we won’t all agree on this issue. But it’s time to be honest — fewer gun safety laws don’t mean more freedom, they mean more danger. Certainly more danger to police, more fallen officers, more grieving families, more Americans terrified that they or their loved ones could be next. So I’m going to keep calling on the folks in Congress to change the way that they think about gun safety. And if they don’t, I’m going to keep on calling on Americans to change the folks in Congress until they get it right

And please do not — some of you watching certain television stations or listening to certain radio programs, please do not believe this notion that somehow I’m out to take everybody’s guns away. Every time a mass shooting happens, one of the saddest ironies is that suddenly the purchase of firearms and ammunition jumps up because folks are scared into thinking that Obama is going to use this as an excuse to take away our Second Amendment rights. Nobody is doing that. We’re talking about common-sense measures to make sure criminals don’t get them; to make sure background checks work; to make sure that to make sure that we’re protecting ourselves.
So supporting law enforcement and having a budget that backs it up, not just — because talk is cheap, but actually following through to make sure you’ve got the resources you need. Reforming our criminal justice system so it is smarter and we can reduce crime while still reducing the incarceration rate. Restoring trust between communities. Refusing to give up on gun safety. We can take those steps. That’s within our reach.
When Obama referred to certain television stations, he was talking about Fox News.
Obama is right. The gun industry’s favorite propaganda tool is to warn that the President is coming for their guns, but when pressed they can’t name a single gun that Obama has confiscated.
The myth that Democrats are out to take away guns has been around for decades. Fox News has spread this lie all through the Obama presidency. It is great to see Obama pushing back, and highlighting the hypocrisy of Republicans who claim to be pro-law enforcement, but oppose common sense steps that could make it safer for cops to do their jobs.
The issue is about gun safety, not gun confiscation, and the President realizes to gain support to change the law, he must first debunk the Fox News lies.

Strong In Victory, Obama Warns Republicans Not To Play Games With Budget Deal

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President Obama has a message for Republicans in Congress. The President warned the Republican cabal not to play ideological games with the budget deal.
The President spoke about the budget agreement while addressing the 122nd Annual IACP Conference and Exposition in Chicago.
President Obama said:
I am pretty happy about that because it reflects our values, growing the economy and the middle-class by investing in things like education and job training that are needed and it keeps us safe by investing in our national security. It’s paid for responsibly in part with a measure to make sure hedge funds and private equity firms pay what they owe in taxes. It’s the right thing to do.
…..

I hope both parties come together to pass this agreement without delay. They’ve got a few days to do it. And I hope Congress gets right to work on spending bills to advance America’s priorities, and they don’t get sidetracked by ideological provisions that have no place in America’s budget process.

Republicans who oppose the deal will no doubt try to attach attacks on Planned Parenthood to the spending bills, but they have been warned. The country may have a budget deal, but if Republicans start playing games this president will veto their spending bills.
The President was cutting Republicans off at the pass. He isn’t about to let the dysfunction in the House sink a two-year deal that will finally end the chaos of crisis governing. The majority of Republicans in Congress hate the deal, but they have few options.
President Obama is at the height of his presidential powers, and there is little that the extremist elements in the Republican Congressional majority can do in the face of his latest overwhelming victory.

Liberal Support For The Budget Deal Signals A Big Democratic Victory

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An indicator of the size of the Democratic victory on the budget deal is the speed with which liberal members of Congress are coming out in support of the deal.
Republican members of Congress were outraged as soon as the deal was announced, but the reaction on the Democratic side has been much more supportive.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination, and serves as co-Chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said, “My biggest concern was how it was going to treat Social Security disability, and the questions I got answered so far have allayed some of my concerns. So I’m going to keep studying it, but at this point I don’t have any fire alarms going off.”
House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) said that Democrats avoided the worst case scenario on the disability program, “We avoided the worst proposal on disability to eliminate the availability of UI to those who are on disability” Levin pointed out that the changes to the disability program that Republicans are trying to sell as reform are nothing more than the closing of a loophole.
Republicans appear to have only gotten some symbolic face-saving gestures out of the deal. There is nothing in the major points of the agreement that is at the top of the Congressional Republican wishlist.
In the past, when these sorts of agreements were in the discussion stage, liberal Democrats were quick to voice their opposition to any cuts to programs or entitlements. The fact that Congressional Democrats are so quick to support the deal indicates that the agreement is a sweeping victory for Democrats.
The agreement is going to pass Congress with a coalition of Democratic voters and votes from the Republican leadership. The Republican extremists in the House and Senate who specialize in making sure that government doesn’t work have been comprehensively defeated by an agreement that is good for the country.
No matter what perspective this agreement is viewed from, it is clear that Democrats have won big.

Boehner Makes A Budget Deal With Obama, Screws The 'Freedom Caucus' On His Way Out

Boehner is set to tell the 'Freedom Caucus' where to go as he is working a deal with other congressional Republican leadership groups, the Democrats...