Friday, February 25, 2011

Constituent Asks WHEN IS SOMEONE GOING TO SHOOT OBAMA, and Congressman doesn't say shyt

hat tip-ProfGeo

from TPM.com




Town Hall Attendee Asks GA Republican When Someone Is Going To Shoot Obama

An audience member at a town hall hosted by Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) on Tuesday asked the Tea Party congressman who was going to shoot President Barack Obama.



The unidentified town hall attendee's question got a big laugh from the audience, reports Blake Aued of the Athens Banner-Herald.

But Broun didn't exactly condemn the remark, according to the newspaper report.

"The thing is, I know there's a lot of frustration with this president. We're going to have an election next year," Broun said in response to the question. "Hopefully, we'll elect somebody that's going to be a conservative, limited-government president that will take a smaller, who will sign a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare."



Here are his phone numbers:
Phone: (202) 225-4101
Fax: (202) 226-0776
Phone: 706-447-3857
Fax: 706-868-8756
Phone: 706-549-9588
Fax: 706-549-9590
Phone: 706-886-1008
Fax: 706-886-1009


I'm tired of these CAC who think somebody's playing with them.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Some More Updates on the Lying Wisconsin Governor

1. He got punked yesterday.





If you want to read a detailed transcript of the call is right here.

2. He admits what the end goal is, and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with 'FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY'


Let's get this clear about Wisconsin Governor Walker: 1. He's a liar 2. He's a paid stooge of the Koch Brothers, 3. He's a bully.

hat tip-3CHICSPOLITICO.COM and others

1. Governor Walker is a LIAR.

PERIOD.

Wisconsin's Pension Fund isn't in trouble.

In fact, Wisconsin's Pension Fund Among Nation's Healthiest

While Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has painted a dire picture of his state's pension obligations, Wisconsin's pension fund for public employees is among the nation's strongest, according to a report by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

The Pew report, issued last year, concluded that Wisconsin is a "national leader in managing its long-term liabilities for both pension and retiree health care." Walker has cited the fund's lack of sustainability as grounds for his plan to revoke collective bargaining rights for state employees, but that proposal has sparked outrage among state employees and drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the state's capitol.

"We're going to ask our state and local workers ... to pay a little bit more, to sacrifice, to help to balance this budget," Walker said in a Sunday interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, adding that he would be forced to lay off 5,000 to 6,000 state employees if his budget plan was not approved, as well as a comparable number of local public employees.

But the Wisconsin pension fund is simply not in fiscal trouble. Its managers weren't burned by subprime mortgage assets or mortgage-backed securities as the housing bubble collapsed. The fund also relies on an automated dividend system, which pays out benefits in years the system is making gains while restricting payouts in years when it takes losses. And while the pension fund had a rough year during 2008 due to stock market losses, it remains robust, both in terms of fundamental financial stability and in comparison to other state pension programs.

According to the Pew study, Wisconsin had about $77 billion in total pension liabilities in 2008. But according to that same Pew study, those liabilities were 99.67 percent "funded," giving Wisconsin one of the four-highest of such ratios in the nation. Other states had funding ratios as low as 54 percent. For comparison, expert analysts and the Government Accountability Office consider an 80 percent level to be a good benchmark for pension fund stability, while Fitch Ratings considers 70 percent adequate.


He lied about the budget. He inherited a BUDGET SURPLUS that turned into a budget deficit because of TAX BREAKS that he gave to his friends.

2. He's a paid stooge of the Koch Brothers.

Sometimes, you just gotta go 'Old School' with kids

hat tip-Booker Rising



"BLACK MAMAS DON'T PLAY" VIDEO OF THE DAY: Florida Mom Forces Son To Stand On Street Corner With GPA Sign

He had to work a different corner each day last week (hopefully this is being followed up with hands-on instruction since she has significant responsibility for why his grades are bad in the first place). "Ronda Holder is forcing her 15-year-old son, James Mond III, to stand on a street corner with a sign around his neck that says: 'I did four questions on my FCAT [Florida aptitude test] and said I wasn't going to do it...GPA 1.22...honk if I need education.' Holder says her son will appreciate it some day.


Bad grades land teen on street corner: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

Just some more FACTS about those ' fat cat' Wisconsin Public Employees

Because too many lies are being told about Public Employees and how they're ' getting over'. Here's a chart of the TRUTH of the matter:

Friday, February 18, 2011

Positive Young Black Male News: Urban Prep Does It Again





Tony Moseley, 18, a Posse Scholar, center, is congratulated by friends James Cole, 18, left and Cedric Hakeem, 17, as he steps to the front of the auditorium to be recognized for his accomplishments during an assembly at Urban Prep on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011. Every senior at Urban Prep Academy in Chicago has been accepted to a four year college and the school held an assembly.
----Nancy Stone/ Chicago Tribune
from The Chicago Tribune:



Urban Prep charter school again beats the odds
All seniors accepted to college for second year in row

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Tribune reporter
9:32 p.m. CST, February 16, 2011

Fire broke out in Cedric Abdul-Hakeem's Englewood home Dec. 31. After making sure everyone was out safely, the 17-year-old re-entered the smoke-filled home to retrieve his laptop.

"My laptop had all my applications, and most college applications are due Jan. 1," explained Abdul-Hakeem. "I figured if my laptop burns, I'm through."

He got his laptop. He got the applications in on time. And so far, he's been accepted to half a dozen colleges, including Grinnell College in Iowa, where most of his tuition will be paid through scholarships and grants.

Abdul-Hakeem is yet another Urban Prep success story. For the second consecutive year, every single senior in Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school has been accepted to a four-year college or university.


In all, the 104 members of the 2011 graduating class have been accepted to 103 colleges, including some of the country's most selective schools. With many acceptance letters still anticipated, the charter school, which has campuses in the Englewood, South Shore and East Garfield Park neighborhoods, is hoping at least one of its students this year will land an Ivy League invitation.

"We would never advocate that anybody run into a burning building to get a computer or essay or application, but what (Abdul-Hakeem's story) speaks to is how much our students are dedicated and focused on getting into college," said Urban Prep's founder and CEO, Tim King. "They recognize that with college they will have very different lives that will be transformative for them and their communities."

On Wednesday, Urban Prep Academy for Young Men celebrated its repeat with a tie-exchanging ritual in which the final three seniors to receive acceptance letters exchanged their red uniform ties for red-and-gold ones as the other seniors did before them. Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Public Schools' interim chief education officer Charles Payne were on hand. So was alum Israel Wilson, a freshman at Morehouse College in Atlanta, who said he has earned a 3.3 GPA and made the dean's list his first semester.

Skeptics last year had questioned whether grads would actually attend college and be able to succeed in higher ed programs. One of the school's missions is to ensure students earn that bachelor's degree, so King and his staff have helped secure money for plane tickets, driven students to college campuses, held workshops for alumni in the summer and winter, and checked up on them. Of the 107 seniors in 2010—the school's first graduating class—101 enrolled in college, King said. Three went into the military and another three joined the work force.


Just some good news this morning. Many blessings in the future for these young men.

Those Horrible Public Workers-The Happenings in Wisconsin



In case you don't know, the new right-wing Governor of Wisconsin is attacking public employees. He wanted to ram through the Wisconsin legislature stripping the public employees of their right to collective bargain. The response from the public employees is that they have been protesting in Madison about this.

The Governor began this threatening to bring out the NATIONAL GUARD against the protesters, but I guess someone clued him in that that would be a bad idea.

Then, today, the Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate left the state. They straight up left the state. Without them, the Governor can't get a quorum to ram his proposals through.

Make no mistake, this is a concerted effort by Republican Governors to demonize public employees, break their unions, and turn them into serfs just like they want for the rest of the workforce. This much is absolutely clear.


Thursday, February 17, 2011

Rachel Maddow Makes it clear- what's going on in Wisconsin is about the future of the Democratic Party

Rachel Maddow does a series of excellent pieces about why this attack on the unions is an attack on the Democratic Party. This attack is about the only institutions that financially help the Democratic Party.


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




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




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

Why I Would Never Cast My Vote for Rahm Emmanuel



There will be a vote for the new Mayor of Chicago on February 22nd. I've already cast my ballot, and as I said before, it was NEVER EVER going to be for Rahm Emmanuel.

I’ve been asked why I would never vote for Rahm. I’ve always said I never needed anything he did as COS to not vote for him, and I meant it. Look to the man’s own commercials. What does he brag about; pretty much how he helped Clinton be ‘ tough on crime’. Well, considering that I believe Clinton created the Prison Industrial Complex, which is on its 2nd if not 3rd generation of young Black men as commodities for said complex, why would I support anyone who brags about being part of the architects for it?

On a local level, they tout Rahm’s ‘ experience’ at the Chicago Housing Authority, while not releasing the memos from the meetings during his tenure at the CHA, where he oversaw the raising of public housing, so that they could get that land for gentrification purposes, all the while dispersing those folks into previously stable Black middle class neighborhoods that have since become destabilized.

Look at his record in Congress. He voted against CBC Proposals 128 times. He had no qualms in helping create the Prison Industrial Complex, but couldn’t find it to vote FOR measures that would help former inmates find re-entry back into society. Locally, another vote was against funding for the pharmacy school being set up at Chicago State University (a school that serves a predominant Black population).

Ask him for proposals for the Black community, and all he could come up with was that he’d ‘extend the Redline 'el train’. REALLY? ‘Extend the REDLINE’?


Don't ask me why I wouldn't vote for Rahm. What I want to know is why anyone Black WOULD vote for Rahm.
I want someone Black to come and tell me 5 things that Rahm has done in his public life that have ever benefited Black folk – and you can’t use anything that happened as COS. He has a legislative record. Find something in those votes.

But, I stand by what I said – I’d chew ground glass before I’d ever vote for him and never needed anything he did as COS as for the reason why.

Where are the JOBS, John Boehner? Oh yeah, what did you say? " So be it"?



Speaker Boehner, you opened your yap during the campaign season to ask the President ' WHERE'S THE JOBS?'

Now, any thinking person knew that you and your fellow Republicans didn't give a rat's ass about jobs. Only those dumb enough to vote for you actually thought you were sincere in being concerned that there are jobs needed. WHY they thought this, considering that yours is the party which voted against everything in the stimulus, and held up unemployment benefits until you got tax breaks for rich folks, and were the party to challenge that unemployment isn't actually needed...but, there are those delusional souls out there who actually thought you and your party cared about unemployment.

Since you have gotten into office, it hasn't been about jobs. It's been about redefining rape, then letting women die if they actually need an abortion to save their lives, or it's been about repealing Obama CARES, or it's been about reading the 'Constitution', but only the parts that feed into your delusions. What we, the people have not heard from the GOP is an actual plan to CREATE JOBS in America.

What we've heard from you is the following.

From TPM.com:
Boehner: If Jobs Are Lost As A Result Of GOP Spending Cuts 'So Be It'

If House Republicans succeed in cutting tens of billions of dollars in discretionary spending over the next six months, some of the most immediate victims will be federal employees, many of whose jobs will be slashed as their agencies pare back.

At a press conference in the lobby of RNC headquarters Tuesday morning, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) shrugged this off as collateral damage.

"In the last two years, under President Obama, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs," Boehner said. "If some of those jobs are lost so be it. We're broke."

There we go.

First of all, the 200,000 new jobs is a LIE.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Will Be Off The Grid for Awhile

I just took a step closer to homelessness this week. I will be losing my job over the next month or so. A large chunk of the staff has been notified that they will no longer have employment. I have been under-employed at this place for many years (devoted myself for 17 years total). None of that matters.... being let go anyway.
I have worked since I was 16 years old... Have worked pretty much nonstop for the last 18 years. I can't wrap my brain around the idea of not having a job.

But the job I had was not a very good one...so this may be a blessing in disguise (wishful thinking).

I may lose internet access at some point. I have not decided whether I will continue blogging or close the account. Too many unknowns right now. But either way, I appreciate the few readers I had over the past 5 years.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Mubarak out in Egypt

Hosni Mubarak is out as President of Egypt.

Here is President Obama's speech earlier today.

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

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Even Some Conservatives Think Glenn Beck is Nuts

Conservative Stalwart Bill Kristol has called out Glenn Beck on his nonsensical rantings about the situation in Egypt. I have been amazed by the Republican media's talking points over the past week. Basically, the Republican media establishment has come out in support of dictator Hosni Mubarak & his government, all in the name of undermining President Obama. Republican Supreme Leader Rush Limbaugh, along with Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and much of Fox-Non-News have been leading the way in this particular anti-Obama effort. But in the process, they have come away looking absolutely ridiculous.

Finally, some Conservatives are beginning to speak up, unable to deal with the level of crazy coming from their own ranks.

And despite all of this...what does Obama do? He legitimizes Fox-Non-News (a political organization) by appearing on their network over the weekend. This is the kind of nonsense that gives me a headache about Obama & Co.


Related

Glenn Beck - The Biggest Con Artist in America

Tea Party Terrorist Planned to Kill ACLU Staff

Sarah Palin is Clueless about Egypt

...and just about everything else for that matter.

Jack Cafferty let her have it in his commentary yesterday.



One part of me hopes that she will run for President. But another part of me knows that the American people are actually boneheaded enough to elect her, so I can't really embrace that idea. I would really like to see the media stop giving this woman coverage, as if she is some who is knowledgeable, relevant or even credible. The free coverage only helps her build a brand that will put money in the bank for her and extend her 15 minutes of fame. No other VP candidate in history (who lost) has received anything remotely close to this kind of coverage...and most of those major VP candidates were actually qualified for the job. Why is the media doing this? All week...I have heard/seen, in one form or another, this constant coverage of Palin in the context of - 'What does Palin think about Egypt'? or 'What does Palin think about Obama's handling of the situation in the Middle East'? As if anyone cares. Why does the media act as if every event has to be validated or analyzed by Sarah Palin? This is a woman who recently forgot to sign her name on a Trademark application. And she thinks she is qualified to be President?

Stop giving this woman coverage.... please.

An Interview with Dr. Yvonne Thornton

Dr. Yvonne Thornton - one of the real-life subjects of "The Ditchdiggers Daughters" - talks about her road to success with NPR's Michel Martin. I still remember that movie (loved it)...one of my favorite films. She also discusses her new memoir "Something to Prove: A Daughter's Journey to Fulfill a Father's Legacy". Listen Here.

The story of Dr. Thornton, in a way, reinforces the point I was making in the post about Amy Chua. The general approach of Amy Chua is not too far removed from the Black American legacy and tradition in this Country when it comes to raising children. So why is it treated as foreign?

Documentary - Battle For Haiti

Caught this interesting documentary from PBS Frontline which looks at Haiti a year after the Earthquake. View here. Corruption is so endemic that I am not sure if elections will have much of an impact. Time will tell. But I have always questioned the aid strategy there. The focus should be on empowering Haitians to build their own economy, to work for themselves, etc...as opposed to relying so heavily on NGO's and the UN.

Also amazed (suppose I shouldn't be surprised) at how fast the World lost interest.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Since 'redefining rape' didn't go well, now the GOP wants to let a hospital LET YOU DIE if you need an abortion

from TPM.com:

New GOP Bill Would Allow Hospitals To Let Women Die Instead Of Having An Abortion

The controversy over "forcible rape" may be over, but now there's a new Republican-sponsored abortion bill in the House that pro-choice folks say may be worse: this time around, the new language would allow hospitals to let a pregnant woman die rather than perform the abortion that would save her life.

The bill, known currently as H.R. 358 or the "Protect Life Act," would amend the 2010 health care reform law that would modify the way Obamacare deals with abortion coverage. Much of its language is modeled on the so-called Stupak Amendment, an anti-abortion provision pro-life Democrats attempted to insert into the reform law during the health care debate last year. But critics say a new language inserted into the bill just this week would go far beyond Stupak, allowing hospitals that receive federal funds but are opposed to abortions to turn away women in need of emergency pregnancy termination to save their lives.

The sponsor of H.R. 358, Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) is a vocal member of the House's anti-abortion wing. A member of the bipartisan Pro-Life Caucus and a co-sponsor of H.R 3 -- the bill that added "forcible rape" to the lexicon this week -- Pitts is no stranger to the abortion debate. But pro-choice advocates say his new law goes farther than any other bill has in encroaching on the rights of women to obtain an abortion when their health is at stake. They say the bill is giant leap away from accepted law, and one they haven't heard many in the pro-life community openly discuss before.

In the case of an anti-abortion hospital with a patient requiring an emergency abortion, ETMALA would require that hospital to perform it or transfer the patient to someone who can. (The nature of how that procedure works exactly is up in the air, with the ACLU calling on the federal government to state clearly that unwillingness to perform an abortion doesn't qualify as inability under EMTALA. That argument is ongoing, and the government has yet to weigh in.)
..............................

Pitts' new bill would free hospitals from any abortion requirement under EMTALA, meaning that medical providers who aren't willing to terminate pregnancies wouldn't have to -- nor would they have to facilitate a transfer.

The hospital could literally do nothing at all, pro-choice critics of Pitts' bill say.

"This is really out there," Donna Crane, policy director at NARAL Pro-Choice America told TPM. "I haven't seen this before."

Crane said she's been a pro-choice advocate "for a long time," yet she's never seen anti-abortion bill as brazenly attacking the health of the mother exemption as Pitts' bill has. NARAL has fired up its lobbying machinery and intends to make the emergency abortion language a key part of its fight against the Pitts bill when it goes before subcommittee in the House next week.




So, did you wrap your mind around that?