There is a special place reserved for Governor Scott of Florida

from ThinkProgress:

Today, Rick Scott Will Lay Out Cuts For Developmentally Disabled And Then Attend A Special Olympics Photo-Op
Today, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) will announce deep cuts to programs that help the developmentally disabled in his state. Scott will invoke his “emergency powers” to impose a 15 percent cut to the rates charged by group home workers and case workers that help the 30,000 Floridians with cerebral palsy, autism, and Down Syndrome.

Those who provide services to the developmentally disabled are already decrying the cuts. “This would be a catastrophe,” one advocate told the Miami Herald. “The system can’t take this. Eventually, we will have to cut jobs and reduce services.”

Scott says the cuts are necessary to address a $170 million deficit in the Agency for Persons with Disabilities — but at the same time, he is also proposing $1.5 billion in corporate tax cuts and $1.4 billion more in property tax cuts.

Even more galling, today — the same day his cuts are announced — Scott is scheduled to appear at a Special Olympics Torch Run with his wife and other state officials. The run is designed to promote the upcoming Special Olympics in Florida, and raise money for developmentally disabled athletes along the way:

Some people.......should just burn in hell.

In "They Are Who We Thought They Were" News, GOP Congressman says he's STRUGGLING on salary of 174k

You know, certain things just write themselves.

from TPM.com

GOP Rep: I'm 'Struggling' On My $174K Salary (VIDEO)
At a town hall meeting in Polk County, Wisconsin earlier this year, Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) was asked whether he'd vote to cut his $174,000 annual salary. Duffy sort of hedged, and went on to talk about how $174,000 really isn't that much for his family of seven to live on. Then he went on to say he supports cutting compensation for all public employees, along the lines of what Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has proposed for the Badger State.

The whole thing was caught on tape, and it was posted to the Polk County GOP's blog, along with several other clips from the town hall. Then just that clip where Duffy talks about his salary was taken down and removed from the internet by the county party because, an official said, the YouTube clip "was being republished without our consent."

Here's the clip, obtained by TPM:



Awe, poor baby. He's barely scraping by on 174k a year. He and his brood of SIX have GOVERNMENT FUNDED HEALTHCARE, and he has a home, and someone's supposed to have sympathy for this clown? Nobody told him to have 6 kids....you can't afford them, don't have them...isn't that what they always tell poor folk?

He's paying off student loans....he's probably voted to cut education, so that other folks won't even have the choice to GET a student loan, or he's probably one of those who wants to turn BACK the student loan business BACK to the banks, something the President has stopped.

They continue to be who we thought they were. They could care less and continue to vote time and time again against anything that would help the working man or woman, and he's making almost 4x the average in his district and thinks someone's supposed to actually have sympathy for him.

The GOP is Planning to Shut Down the Government

There's been a lot of ink written on the probable GOP shutdown, but I like this from BooMan Tribune the best:

The Crazy People Will Shut the Guvmint
by BooMan
Tue Mar 29th, 2011 at 10:02:08 AM EST

I've said this once before, but I think it is worth reiterating. I can't imagine that most people can look at the landscape of turmoil in the Arab world and an ongoing nuclear and humanitarian crisis in Japan, and have much patience for another demonstration that our government here at home cannot function at the most basic level. Any government shutdown, for any reason, is going to really anger our citizens. And, obviously, the more petty the reasoning looks the worse it is going to be. Sen. Chuck Schumer is leading the messaging war for the Democrats and it comes down to labeling the Tea Party (freshman Republican class) as a bunch of extremists who Speaker Boehner is afraid to confront.

The message has the advantage of being true, for whatever that is worth these days. Brian Beutler reports that the House Republicans are making two rigid and unreasonable demands. The first is that the HR1 bill serve as the basis for any budget bill. The second is that all the cost savings in the budget come from non-defense discretionary funding. Ezra Klein expresses some puzzlement at the latter requirement:


Funny. I thought this debate had always been about the deficit, or at least cutting spending. Guess not. Rather, the Republican position appears to be: “How do we preserve current tax rates and most current spending while getting Democrats to accept deep cuts to the small fraction of the budget called non-defense discretionary spending?” It's a weird position, but it looks to be what we’re dealing with.

Given this bargaining position, both Beutler and Klein agree that a government shutdown on April 8th is almost inevitable. Jonathan Chait has a good explanation for why the Republicans are being so inflexible. A new study of conservatives discovers that Tea Party-identifying conservatives think the president is destroying the country (71%) while non-Tea Party-identifying conservatives do not (6%). It's really just a scientific way of documenting what Steven Thrasher said last September:


About 12:01 on the afternoon of January 20, 2009, the white American mind began to unravel.

It had been a pretty good run up to that point. The brains of white folks had been humming along cogently for near on 400 years on this continent, with little sign that any serious trouble was brewing. White people, after all, had managed to invent a spiffy new form of self-government so that all white men (and, eventually, women) could have a say in how white people were taxed and governed. White minds had also nearly universally occupied just about every branch of that government and, for more than two centuries, had kept sole possession of the leadership of its executive branch (whose parsonage, after all, is called the White House).

But when that streak was broken—and, for the first time, a non-white president accepted the oath of office—white America rapidly began to lose its grip.

Go to the link to read the rest of it, but I think it's on point. I don't want the Guvmint to shut down, but I'm ready for it, because these folks need to be exposed for exactly who they are. Period.

Where Do They Get These Kneegrows?

from Religious Right Watch:

Tea Party Leader: African Americans Can’t Be Christian And Support Obama

Ron Miller is the president of the Tea Party group Regular Folks United, and a former Republican candidate for Congress and the Maryland state senate. Miller, who is a black former staffer with the Bush Administration, adamantly defends Tea Party activists from charges of racism, blaming Obama for his “open display of condescension toward ordinary Americans.” But while Miller deplores charges of racism against members of the Tea Party, he claims that African Americans only support Obama because he is black. He told the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow that anyone who backs Obama cannot be Christian, and black Obama voters “place their blackness ahead of Christ”

Sometimes, you come across these fools, and just have to show them for what they are.

African-Americans only support Obama because he is Black.

Barack Obama got 95% of the Black Vote.

Every Democratic Presidential Candidate from Jimmy Carter on has gotten upper 80th percentile to 90+% of the Black vote.

Yet, they were all WHITE candidates.

So, does Barack Obama getting 95% of the Black vote have to do with him being Black, or him being the Democratic Candidate for President?

So, BIG FAIL on that idiot point.

Now, let's get to "place their blackness ahead of Christ”

What does CHRIST have to do
a) Blackness
b) How I vote

You know, this type of Black person gets on my last nerve. Going before White folk, shinning and grinning. He doesn't have the nerve to go down to Mount Olive Missionary Baptist and tell those parishoners this garbage he's telling those White folk. He wouldn't dare take himself before a bunch of Black folk and utter this garbage to their faces. He doesn't have the nerve.

The President Speaks About Libya

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The Slave Catcher Known as Herman Cain Doesn't Understand the Concept of RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

hat tips-GOVCHRIS1988 and SouthernGirl 2

I have tried to ignore Herman Cain and his ridiculousness, but his foolishness is just getting more and more ridiculousness.

from ThinkProgress:

EXCLUSIVE: Herman Cain Tells ThinkProgress ‘I Would Not’ Appoint A Muslim In My Administration

As the Republican presidential nomination process begins, one GOP candidate is making a name for himself as the Islamophobia candidate: Herman Cain.

Earlier this week, Cain gave an interview to Christianity Today in which he declared that, “based upon the little knowledge that I have of the Muslim religion, you know, they have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.”

ThinkProgress caught up with the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza today at the Conservative Principles Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, to discuss his comments further. We asked him, in light of his statements on Islam, would he be comfortable appointing any Muslims in his administration. Rather than skirting the question or hedging his answer, as most presidential aspirants are wont to do, Cain was definitive: “No, I would not”:

KEYES: You came under a bit of controversy this week for some of the comments made about Muslims in general. Would you be comfortable appointing a Muslim, either in your cabinet or as a federal judge?

CAIN: No, I would not. And here’s why. There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempt to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government. This is what happened in Europe. And little by little, to try and be politically correct, they made this little change, they made this little change. And now they’ve got a social problem that they don’t know what to do with hardly.

The question that was asked that “raised some questions” and, as my grandfather said, “I does not care, I feel the way I feel.” I was asked, “what is the role of Islam in America?” I thought it was an odd question. I said the role of Islam in America is for those that believe in Islam to practice it and leave us alone. Just like Christianity. We have a First Amendment. And I get upset when the Muslims in this country, some of them, try to force their Sharia law onto the rest of us.

WHAT MUSLIMS are trying to force SHARIA LAW onto us.

name me ONE PLACE IN AMERICA.

Hell, they haven't even tried to do it in Dearborn, Michigan, with the largest concentration of Arabs in America.

So, tell me.

ThinkProgress points out the problems with this:

should check his understanding of the U.S. Constitution, which states in Article 4:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

No less than the CONSTITUTION says what he is proposing is ILLEGAL.

Cain is a slave catcher, who has been plucking my last Black nerve with his shinning and grinning and buckdance that he's been doing for the right wing.

There shall be NO RELIGIOUS TEST for Office in the United States.

PERIOD.

Whatever their flaws, and they had many, the men who drafted the Constitution knew better. They knew from whence they'd fled, and about RELIGIOUS FREEDOM in this country.

Ignorant folks like Cain spit on the Constitution.

In 'THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE' News - Buried Provision In House GOP Bill Would Cut Off Food Stamps To Entire Families If One Member Strikes

from ThinkProgress:

Buried Provision In House GOP Bill Would Cut Off Food Stamps To Entire Families If One Member Strikes

All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking middle class Americans to pay for budget deficits caused mainly by a recession caused by Wall Street; they are attacking workers’ collective bargaining rights, which has provoked a huge Main Street Movement to fight back.

Now, a group of House Republicans is launching a new stealth attack against union workers. GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), Tim Scott (SC), Scott Garrett (NJ), Dan Burton (IN), and Louie Gohmert (TX) have introduced H.R. 1135, which states that it is designed to “provide information on total spending on means-tested welfare programs, to provide additional work requirements, and to provide an overall spending limit on means-tested welfare programs.”

Much of the bill is based upon verifying that those who receive food stamps benefits are meeting the federal requirements for doing so. However, one section buried deep within the bill adds a startling new requirement. The bill, if passed, would actually cut off all food stamp benefits to any family where one adult member is engaging in a strike against an employer:
..............

The bill also includes a provision that would exempt households from losing eligibility, “if the household was eligible immediately prior to such strike, however, such family unit shall not receive an increased allotment as the result of a decrease in the income of the striking member or members of the household.”

Yet removing entire families from eligibility while a single adult family member is striking would have a chilling effect on workers who are considering going on strike for better wages, benefits, or working conditions — something that is especially alarming in light of the fact that unions are one of the fundamental building blocks of the middle class that allow people to earn wages that keep them off food stamps.

This is who they are. Time and time again, they are showing you who they are. They have absolutely nothing but contempt for the working man and woman that doesn't want to spend their lives as serfs to companies, and want to fight for a decent wage. This isn't a shock...because this is just another example of how these lowlifes operate.

The First Family Finishes Up in El Salvador and Returns Home

The First Family cut their visit to El Salvador short, and have returned home.


President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wave prior to boarding Air Force prior to departing San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 23, 2011.
-----AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

The First Family - onto El Salvador

The First Family leaves Chile and continues onto El Salvador.


US President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama along with daughters Sasha and Malia, upon arrival on Air Force One in San Salvador, El Salvador, March 22, 2011.
----SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

Poll Exams...Poll Taxes...Voter ID....same purpose -VOTER SUPPRESSION...the GOP Plans for 2012

There truly is no difference between Poll Tests, Poll Taxes and the hysteria being whipped up by the GOP about ' Voter Fraud'. Under the guise of 'Voter Fraud', the GOP is doing their best to create all these laws that will limit the Democratic Party's voting base. This is a deliberate and concerted effort. They don't care about 'Voter Fraud', because, for all their yelping about 'Voter Fraud', look at the DOJ Statistics. During the Bush years, they couldn't pull together enough of the so-called ' Voter Fraud' cases to fill a schoolbus.

But, DELIBERATELY went about IGNORING the ACTUAL voter suppression of minorities and young people through voter caging and other GOP schemes- the repeated challenges and attempts to gut the Voting Rights Act.

Think it's not deliberate, take a look:

from ThinkProgress:

REPORT: In 22 Statehouses Across The Country, Conservatives Move To Disenfranchise Voters

In statehouses across the country, Republican lawmakers are raising the specter of “voter fraud” to push through legislation that would dramatically restrict the voting rights of college students, rural voters, senior citizens, the disabled and the homeless. As part of their larger effort to silence Main Street, conservatives are pushing through new photo identification laws that would exclude millions from voting, depress Hispanic voter turnout by as much as 10 percent, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars. In the next few months, a new set of election laws could make going to the polls and registering to vote significantly more difficult — in some cases even barring groups of citizens from voting in the communities where they live.

The First Family Comes to Chile

hat tips-The Obama Diary, The Only Adult in the Room,3CHICSPOLITICO:

The President and First Family Come to Chile, on his economic goodwill tour.

About Libya and the No-Fly Zone

about Libya:

my whole thing is, from the beginning - this is NOT our problem.

I know enough about politics and Geopolitics, especially OIL-based politics.

here's the thing - this is NOT ' our' oil.

this is Europe's oil.
this is China's oil.

we BARELY have diplomatic relations with Libya, and somehow, it's OUR problem?

puleeze.

I was watching Roland Martin's show, and how come it's up to the Black folks to break it down. NOWHERE ELSE did I hear it broken down like it was on his panel today.

1. why is this US's problem?
2. How come the ARABS can't enforce the NO-FLY ZONE? they have enough weapons...how do we know this? WE SOLD IT TO THEM.
3. how is it with us barely having diplomatic relations with Libya, does it fall on THIS President.

Cynthia Tucker said it - we only have diplomatic relations with Libya because of George W. Bush...so, if this is anyone's problem, it's HIS.

I am disappointed in our involvement in this, but I don't blame the President, and I'm not going crazy like other folks, mainly because everything that had to happen in order for this President to actually AGREE to this - happened. So, what's the man supposed to do?

I think that the Arab League was shocked that folks took them seriously...AND AT THEIR WORD that they wanted a NO-FLY ZONE. IMO, they thought that the old reliables - CHINA and/or RUSSIA would provide the objecting vote on the Security Council, and then they'd be able to go ' oh well, we wanted a NO-FLY ZONE, but it didn't make it out of the Security Council'. When the abstentions happened, and the NO-FLY Zone passed, they went ' OH SHIT'. Now, we have these suckers trying to do the backtrack to which I say - HELL TO THE NAW on that.

I am not happy, but there are some things in which I'm tired of folks trying to hang on this President, especially when it comes to foreign policy. I don't want no damn Cowboy. I want someone who gets that folks in the rest of the world should have the option for self-determination, even if it's messy. I believe this President understands that.

The First Family is in Rio

The First Family accompanied the President on his economic goodwill tour - now up, Rio.


US President Barack Obama (L), First Lady Michelle (back-R), and their daughters Malia (R) and Sasha (back-L) descend from the presidential airplane as they arrive in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 19, 2011. Obama arrived in Brazil Saturday, calling for bolstering economic ties between the United States and Latin America to open new markets and create more jobs.
---- VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images

The President and First Family visited the CITY OF GOD area in Rio.



 


U.S. President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Sasha (L) and Malia tour the Christ the Redeemer Statue on Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro late March 20, 2011.
-----REUTERS/Jason Reed

Mixed-Race Marriages in Mississippi

I have a small quote in this NY Times article. That is the insignificant part. The bigger question is, how important do you think this story is? What does is it say about Mississippi that it's not until 2011 that a reporter can do a story about this topic in a (mostly) positive light?

Even better, I've only received one racist/hate email. After posting this, though, I might get more. I have not and will not respond to the emailer:

Look Marvin

I am sure you are a good person, who is intelligent as evidenced by your PHd; but I just wanted to let you know that your marriage to a white woman is wrong in some ways.

Firstly, say you have kids - those kids will likely have identity issues their whole lives - not really being able to subscribe to 'being black' or 'being white'. Do you really want that?

And secondly - why couldn't you just marry a nice black girl? I mean are you ashamed of yourself, to the point that you thought that you would try and mix your genes so that your kids would have to be a black man/woman?

I'm a mild mannered, sensible person; but there's something about seeing a black man and white woman which is so wrong.

I could be wrong and I hope you can respond.

Cheers

In THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE News-now, Black folks need to go back to picking crops

hat tip-Monie

Davis' comments shock GOP leaders
By Jerry Zremski
March 15, 2011, 8:17 AM

Congressional candidate Jack Davis shocked local Republican leaders in a recent interview when he suggested that Latino farmworkers be deported -- and that African-Americans from the inner city be bused to farm country to pick the crops.

Several sources who were in the Feb. 20 endorsement interview with Davis confirmed his comments, which echo those he made to the Tonawanda News in 2008, when he said: "We have a huge unemployment problem with black youth in our cities. Put them on buses, take them out there [to the farms] and pay them a decent wage; they will work."

When Davis repeated those sentiments in the recent interview, the Republican leaders -- who later delivered the party endorsement for the vacant seat in the 26th Congressional District to Assemblywoman Jane L. Corwin of Clarence -- said they couldn't believe what they were hearing.

"I was thunderstruck," said Amherst GOP Chairman Marshall Wood. "Maybe in 1860 that might have been seen by some as an appropriate comment, but not now."

Davis spokesman W. Curtis Ellis acknowledged that Davis' comments "may not be politically correct and ... may not be racially correct."

the only 'SHOCK' here is that he went public with his comments. Nobody is going to get me to believe they didn't know which way was up with this guy.

THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE.

Why does the GOP hate veterans?

Because they aren't rich corporations?

Homeless veterans could lose 10,000 housing vouchers

By Rob Hotakainen | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Top Senate Democrats raised loud objections Thursday to a plan by Republicans in the House of Representatives that they said would eliminate 10,000 housing vouchers for homeless veterans this year, an effort to save $75 million from the 2011 federal budget.

"I believe it's immoral," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, urging House Republicans to abandon the plan.

Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., called the proposal "astounding" and said no federal budget should shortchange the most vulnerable Americans. She wants to eliminate homelessness among U.S. veterans.

"We owe it to our veterans to provide them with the resources and support they need to put a roof over their heads," Murray said. "And this is just one more example of the Republicans' reckless budget that puts politics and ideology over families, communities and even those who have served and sacrificed for our nation."

Republicans defended the plan by noting that thousands of vouchers have gone unclaimed this year.

"The fact of the matter is there will not be a veteran, a homeless vet, that will not get a voucher," Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, said during a debate on the House floor. "The fact of the matter is there are 30,000 vouchers available today. Only 19,000 of those have been used. There are 11,000 vouchers waiting."

But Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, cited a recent federal report that said that more than 76,000 veterans were homeless on any given night in the United States and that veterans were 50 percent more likely to be homeless.

"Yet the majority's bill turns its back on our homeless vets, leaving them literally out in the cold," Dicks said.

Black Moses Barbie

hat tip-PostBourgie:

The Shenanigans in Wisconsin - they reveal themselves...it was NEVER about 'FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY'. It was ALWAYS about UNION BUSTING

I thought it was all about ' fiscal responsibility'. After all, that's what the Republicans said it was about . I told you that was a lie, but that's what they said it was all about. That the collective bargaining rights of the unions had to be taken away, for the 'fiscal responsibility' of the state.

That was, of course, absolute utter bullshyt.

As tonight's maneuverings by the Wisconsin Senate have proven.

From TPM.com

Wis. State Senate Passes Anti-Union Bill, In End-Run Around Dem Boycott
Eric Kleefeld | March 9, 2011, 7:50PM

Capping a dramatic turn of events, the Wisconsin state Senate on Wednesday night passed a new, stripped-down "budget repair bill" -- which now excludes all the fiscal elements of the original budget repair bill, and simply includes the original's provisions to roll back the collective bargaining and organizational rights of Wisconsin's public employee unions.

With all 14 Democrats absent, having fled the state weeks ago in order to block the three-fifths budget quorum, the bill passed by an 18-1 margin, with only moderate Republican Dale Schultz voting no.


...................................

State Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D) who has been in Illinois, released this statement:

"In thirty minutes, 18 State Senators undid fifty years of civil rights in Wisconsin.

"Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten.

"Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people.

"Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government."

The move is likely to have an enormous political impact in the state, as unions remain an important base of the Democratic Party organization in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the unions and Democrats have been actively organizing recalls of Republican state legislators -- leveraging the power of the tens of thousands of people who have protested the bill, and numerous opinion polls showing that Wisconsin voters oppose breaking the unions.

So, it really wasn't about fiscal responsibility in the least - AT ALL.

This is about hurting the Democratic Party, and the President for 2012.

In fact, the Senate Majority Leader revealed that on Faux Noise:

from ThinkProgress:

WI Senate GOP Leader Admits On-Air That His Goal Is To Defund Labor Unions, Hurt Obama’s Reelection Chances

In an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly moments ago, State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), one of Walker’s closest allies in the legislature, confirmed the true political motive of Walker’s anti-union push. Fitzgerald explained that “this battle” is about eliminating unions so that “the money is not there” for the labor movement. Specifically, he said that the destruction of unions will make it “much more difficult” for President Obama to win reelection in Wisconsin:

FITZGERALD: Well if they flip the state senate, which is obviously their goal with eight recalls going on right now, they can take control of the labor unions. If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.

You really have to watch it to believe it. Rachel Maddow has the clip:

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

HERE'S THE WEBSITE FOR THE RECALL OF THE WISCONSIN 8.

Illinois becomes 16th State to Ban the Death Penalty

From BBC News

Illinois abolishes the death penalty
Illinois has become the 16th US state to abolish the death penalty, after the governor signed a bill making permanent a 10-year-old moratorium on executions.

Governor Pat Quinn signed the bill after spending two months consulting with victims' families, prosecutors, religious leaders and others.

Former Governor George Ryan ordered a moratorium in 2000 amid concerns innocent people could be executed.

Thirty-four states still have the death penalty.
'Right thing'

In the state capital Springfield, Mr Quinn, a Democrat, said he had followed his conscience, the Chicago Tribune reported.

"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history," he told reporters. "I think it's the right, just thing to abolish the death penalty."

In a statement accompanying the bill signing, he wrote the Illinois death penalty system was flawed and could lead to wrongful convictions.

Mr Quinn also commuted to life in prison the sentences of 15 death row inmates.

Mr Ryan's move in 2000 came after more than a dozen condemned inmates were freed from Illinois death row, some when journalists showed they had been wrongly convicted.

His successors, former Governor Rod Blagojevich and Mr Quinn, kept the moratorium in place.

The Illinois legislature approved the ban two months ago, and it takes effect on 1 July.

As a citizen of the state, I must reiterate that the moratorium came to be because it was found that 13 men on Death Row were freed, not because of any technicality, but BECAUSE THEY WERE INNOCENT OF THE CRIMES.

13 men.

That's not a 'glitch' in the system.

That means the whole damn system was corrupt, and that's why George Ryan instituted the moratorium.

I'm glad the Death Penalty is gone from my state.

Bravo, to Gov. Quinn for doing the right thing.

You know, I've just about heard it all. Newt Gingrich cheated on his wives, because he loves his country

I kid you not. This came out of the man's mouth.

Newt's got White House ambitions. Yet, he's got alleycat morals, and no amount of prostrating in front of the Holy Rollers is going to erase what he did.

But, here are his latest comments about his MULTIPLE adulteries.

From TPM.COM:

Gingrich: Past Adultery 'Partially Driven By How Passionately I Felt About This Country' (VIDEO)
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is in the early stages of a presidential campaign, spoke in an interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network about his history of adultery and divorces. And as Gingrich told it, he sought God's forgiveness -- and as for the events themselves, they were driven by how hard he was working and his great passion for America.

"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate," said Gingrich. "And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them.

"I found that I felt compelled to seek God's forgiveness. Not God's understanding, but God's forgiveness. I do believe in a forgiving God. And I think most people, deep down in their hearts hope there's a forgiving God. Somebody once said that when we're young, we seek justice, but as we get older, we seek mercy. There's something to that, I think.

G-T-F-O-H with this mess.

I won't put up the videos, if you want to see them, click on the link.

Gingrich can have one of these ' confessionals' per week until November 2012, and it won't make a difference.

Republican David Frum explains why.

Five Things Unions Have Done For All Americans

Just in case you need reminding

From ThinkProgress:

Over the past few weeks, right-wing legislators have unleashed a torrent of radical legislation upon the American electorate designed to gut collective bargaining rights and attack the middle class. As these conservatives have launched their assault, a Main Street Movement consisting of ordinary Americans fed up with living in such an unequal country has fought back.

Conservatives have sought to malign this movement by claiming that it is simply defending the parochial interests of labor unions, who they claim are imposing huge costs on taxpayers with little benefit. Yet the truth is that America’s public and private unions have been one of the major forces in building a robust and vibrant middle class and have fought over the past century to improve the lives of all Americans in a variety of ways. ThinkProgress has assembled just five of the many things that Americans can thank the nation’s unions for giving us all:

1. Unions Gave Us The Weekend: Even the ultra-conservative Mises Institute notes that the relatively labor-free 1870, the average workweek for most Americans was 61 hours — almost double what most Americans work now. Yet in the late nineteenth century and the twentieth century, labor unions engaged in massive strikes in order to demand shorter workweeks so that Americans could be home with their loved ones instead of constantly toiling for their employers with no leisure time. By 1937, these labor actions created enough political momentum to pass the Fair Labor Standards Act, which helped create a federal framework for a shorter workweek that included room for leisure time.

2. Unions Gave Us Fair Wages And Relative Income Equality: As ThinkProgress reported earlier in the week, the relative decline of unions over the past 35 years has mirrored a decline in the middle class’s share of national income. It is also true that at the time when most Americans belonged to a union — a period of time between the 1940′s and 1950′s — income inequality in the U.S. was at its lowest point in the history of the country.

3. Unions Helped End Child Labor: “Union organizing and child labor reform were often intertwined” in U.S. history, with organization’s like the “National Consumers’ League” and the National Child Labor Committee” working together in the early 20th century to ban child labor. The very first American Federation of Labor (AFL) national convention passed “a resolution calling on states to ban children under 14 from all gainful employment” in 1881, and soon after states across the country adopted similar recommendations, leading up to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act which regulated child labor on the federal level for the first time.

4. Unions Won Widespread Employer-Based Health Coverage: “The rise of unions in the 1930′s and 1940′s led to the first great expansion of health care” for all Americans, as labor unions banded workers together to negotiate for health coverage plans from employers. In 1942, “the US set up a National War Labor Board. It had the power to set a cap on all wage increases. But it let employers circumvent the cap by offering “fringe benefits” – notably, health insurance.” By 1950, “half of all companies with fewer than 250 workers and two-thirds of all companies with more than 250 workers offered health insurance of one kind or another.”

5. Unions Spearheaded The Fight For The Family And Medical Leave Act: Labor unions like the AFL-CIO federation led the fight for this 1993 law, which “requires state agencies and private employers with more than 50 employees to provide up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave annually for workers to care for a newborn, newly adopted child, seriously ill family member or for the worker’s own illness.”