Tag: cheap labor conservative

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Question: How many union protestors in Wisconsin & Ohio voted for the people wanting to take away their rights?

Although I am proud of the efforts in Wisconsin and here in Ohio to prevent the cheap labor conservatives from ending collective bargaining for public employees, I can’t help but wonder how many of those protesting voted for the people who are now wanting to cut their benefits.

Union members don’t all vote in one block even though Union leadership may support or endorse certain candidates.

Union voters responded; they just didn’t have quite the same level of response to the whole Democratic ticket. Lee Fisher got 55 percent of the union vote to Rob Portman’s 43 percent – and Portman heads to Washington. Meanwhile, Ted Strickland’s share of union support: 62 percent, to John Kasich’s 37 percent…. and that race is still too close to call. If Strickland does hold on to the governor’s mansion, he may have union voters to thank.

Exit Polls: Ohio voting patterns

It would be interesting to see how many of that 40% or so who voted GOP in 2010 were in the Statehouse this past week complaining about Kaisch’s attempt to end their collective bargaining. And it’s not like it was out of the blue. Kaisch pointed out he wanted to break public employee unions during the 2010 campaign.

One of these days I hope all people realize that if you vote against your best interests then you get what you deserve. 

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Scalia: “Yes you can discriminate against women…”

US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave another interview that continued to show how much of an ass he really is and made me wonder why he hasn’t been retired yet. He is yet another conservative that is hypocrisy personified.

In a recent interview Scalia actually said:

“Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever thought that that’s what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws. You don’t need a constitution to keep things up-to-date. All you need is a legislature and a ballot box. You don’t like the death penalty anymore, that’s fine. You want a right to abortion? There’s nothing in the Constitution about that. But that doesn’t mean you cannot prohibit it. Persuade your fellow citizens it’s a good idea and pass a law. That’s what democracy is all about. It’s not about nine superannuated judges who have been there too long, imposing these demands on society.”

The Originalist

The problem is the 14th amendment isn’t as open as Scalia thinks:

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Just like if Congress intended God to be in the Constitution it would have put Him in it, probably in 1868 the men who wrote the amendment weren’t thinking of women but don’t you think that if women were not to be protected they would’ve written “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of male citizens of the United States…”

Scalia’s Archie Bunker mentality was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1971 which confirmed women were equally protected.

It’s nice that Scalia falls back on his original intent doctrine but fails to remember that judicial review of laws isn’t specifically in the Constitution and I doubt the framers thought corporations are people covered by the Bill of Rights either.

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In GOP fantasy land, state budget woes due only to spending

It amuses me when cheap labor conservative Republicans blame spending for budget problems. They call for cutting state workers or reducing their pay or cutting programs. In their fantasy land, the Republicans fail to even acknowledge that their beloved tax cuts play a part in shortfalls.

As Media Matters pointed out about a one-sided 60 Minutes report on December 19th:

In 2,600 words about state deficits, you won’t find the phrase “tax cuts.” Instead, CBS adopts the Republican framing that deficits are all about spending — frequently with loaded phrasing like “gold-plated retirement and health care packages.” And throughout the report, CBS allows Christie, New Jersey’s Republican governor, to launch attacks on unions and make unsupported claims about budget problems, all without ever challenging his assertions and without including substantive disagreement from Christie critics.

And here’s how CBS addressed New Jersey’s pension problems:

It’s also the truth that some of the responsibility for New Jersey’s pension woes lie at the doorstep of the governor’s mansion. Christie and his predecessors have failed to contribute to the state’s share of its pension obligation in 13 of the last 17 years, one of the reasons the fund is going broke. Christie says it’s ancient history.

“We spent too much on everything. We spent too much. We spent money we didn’t have. We borrowed money just crazily. The credit cards maxed out, and it’s over. It’s over. We now have to get to the business of climbin’ out of the hole. We’ve been diggin’ it for a decade or more. We’ve gotta climb now, and a climb is harder. Gotta do it,” he said.

You’d never know from CBS’ report that a big part of the reason that “Christie and his predecessors” failed to make required contributions to the pension fund is that they decided to use the money for tax cuts instead. (Like I said, the CBS report takes the GOP-friendly stance that deficits are all about spending, not revenue.)

60 Minutes’ one-sided, GOP-friendly report on state budgets

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Republicans continue to publicly lie about Bush tax cuts

Just amazes me that a sitting Senator of the United States would actually LIE on national TV. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was on Fox “News” Sunday and told the whopper that the Bush Tax cuts would pay for themselves. I understand why Fox “News” didn’t challenge him but why do they still lie like they do in public?

In fact, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found that the Bush tax cuts accounted for almost half of the mushrooming deficits during his tenure. As another CBPP analysis forecast, over the next 10 years, the Bush tax cuts if made permanent will contribute more to the U.S. budget deficit than the Obama stimulus, the TARP program, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and revenue lost to the recession put together. Predictably, the Bush tax cuts didn’t come anywhere close to paying for themselves. And as Congressional Budget Office projections revealed in June, making them permanent is the very worst thing the so-called deficit hawks could do to reduce the U.S. debt. 

Lindsey Graham Regurgitates the GOP’s Tax Cut Whopper

As I always ask a GOP friend of my, where are the jobs the Bush Tax cuts were suppose to provide. Here are some other truths about the Bush Tax cuts:

Here, then, are the 10 Epic Failures of the Bush Tax Cuts:

1. Dismal Economic Growth
2. A Decade of Budget Deficits
3. Red Ink as Far as the Eye Can See
4. Disastrous Job Creation
5. Declining Incomes
6. Increasing Poverty
7. A Massive Windfall for the Wealthy
8. Record Income Inequality
9. A Sagging Stock Market
10. Jeopardizing Future Economic Growth

10 Epic Failures of the Bush Tax Cuts

There are some rich people who do get it. One, a billionaire hedge fund manager named Tom Steyer puts it better than I can:

“I think anyone who doesn’t give credit to the system that they are born into is taking an awful lot onto themselves. I mean, I really think that people have sacrificed a lot more than a little tax money to make that system available for all of us. And I would be ashamed of myself if I didn’t give some credit to them,” Steyer said, choking up and pausing to regain his composure.

Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Chokes Up At The Wealthy’s Lack Of Contribution To This Country

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Republican John Boehner’s Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior

House Minority Leader John Boehner is a primo douchebag leading the tea party and its minions into the November elections. Why does Boehner hate regular Americans? Being bought and paid for by Big business makes you hold some ridiculous political positions.

karoli over at “Crooks and Liars” put it all in perspective:

John Boehner has vowed to shut down the government to stop this from happening. The entire government. He justifies it this way:

“Our goal is to have a smaller, less costly, and more accountable government here in Washington, DC,” Boehner told reporters. “Our goal is not to shut down the government.”

A less costly government? Pretty laughable coming from the man who wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent at a greater cost than the entire 10-year bill for “Obamacare”.

Democrats have to stop running from the Affordable Care Act and own it, straight up. On September 23rd — 7 days from now– insurers will no longer be able to terminate policies when people get sick. They’ll have to cover emergency services without prior authorizations that leave patients in ER hallways. Women will have access to OB/GYN care without a referral from a primary doctor. Children under the age of 19 may not be excluded for pre-existing conditions. Lifetime dollar limits are a thing of the past, policies cannot be rescinded, and preventive health coverage is included at no additional cost. 

Boehner vows to do everything he can to “prevent Obamacare from being implemented”

In my world special people like John Boehner ride in the short bus. Bless his heart.

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