Friday, August 02, 2013
GOP Is Still Beating A Dead Horse (ACORN)
It makes no sense, but the House Republicans have once again added a provision to the latest Department of Defense appropriations bill that says none of the money appropriated "may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries".
Why does it make no sense? Because ACORN doesn't exist, and since it doesn't exist, it can't have any subsidiaries. The group disbanded in early 2010 -- which means it has not existed for more than three years now. But that hasn't stopped the Republicans from defunding that nonexistent organization in each of those three years.
When asked why the GOP keeps defunding an organization that no longer exists, a spokesperson for Speaker Boehner said, "These provisions are typically carried every year in appropriations bills."
Frankly, that makes no sense. Does that mean they just "cut and paste" from previous bills without any regard for change or reality? That sounds to me like a pretty silly way to write a bill -- especially a bill as important as an appropriations bill.
I suspect they are just playing to their base voters -- knowing that most of their teabagger base is not smart enough (or is too ill-informed) to know that ACORN disbanded years ago. Hating ACORN was a good tool for the GOP to whip up their base back in 2008 (with false accusations of impropriety), and they're just not willing to give it up.
I'd like to suggest they also consider defunding the Society for the Preservation of Multi-Colored Unicorns (SPMCU), and the Equal Rights for Fairies and Gnomes Association (ERFGA). I'm sure they could save just as much money by refusing to give money to these also imaginary groups.
Green Party Calls For Pardon For Manning
July 31, 2013
Today the Green Shadow Cabinet calls on President Obama to pardon Bradley Manning for his courageous work exposing U.S. war crimes and State Department deception. Thanks to Manning’s revelations of Iraqi deaths and human rights abuses by the American military, Iraq refused to renew immunity for U.S. soldiers, forcing President Obama to pull out at the end of 2011. Thus, Manning deserves much of the credit for ending the immoral, devastating, multi-trillion dollar U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Manning’s leaks also revealed corruption and betrayal in repressive Arab governments – including Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s secret deal with the U.S. allowing drone strikes within his country, and the financial excesses of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidin Ben Ali. These disclosures helped trigger democracy movements of the Arab Spring that continue to this day.
Though Manning has been accused of endangering national security and the safety of intelligence sources, no actual harm was established in court hearings. And in secret testimony previously revealed by Reuters, state department officials acknowledged that the leaks were embarrassing low level secrets but they did not actually damage U.S. interests.
Bradley Manning has already spent three years in jail and months enduring solitary confinement and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, according to the UN special rapporteur on torture. He should not have to spend another day being punished for revealing critical truths that the American people had a right to know. Now Mr. Manning is facing up to 136 years in prison for doing the work that the U.S. press should have been doing, had they not been missing in action on investigative reporting for the past decade.
In fact, Bradley Manning is a hero for telling the truth to the American people – that our government was committing war crimes in Iraq and betraying basic American values of honesty and respect for international law in routine state department operations.
We therefore call on President Obama to urgently pardon this courageous whistleblower. American democracy will be more secure, and the American people will be safer for it.
It Really Is That Simple
It couldn't be any simpler. When workers make a decent wage (and don't have to spend it all for medical care), then they have the money to buy things -- and that creates demand for goods/services, which creates more jobs (which again creates more demand). And this is good for both workers and businesses. The only people it's not good for are Republican politicians, who've been telling us that the way to cure a jobless recession is to take money out of the economy. If the GOP policy wasn't so disastrous, it would be laughable. We need to raise the minimum wage immediately -- to a livable wage of at least $10 an hour.
Thursday, August 01, 2013
GOP Is Out-Of-Step With Public On Budget
The poll results verify what numerous other polls have shown -- that the congressional GOP is out of step with the desires of the American public when it comes to cutting the budget. The congressional GOP would like to cut everything -- everything except military spending, which they want to increase. They even want cuts in Social Security and Medicare, which are working just as designed and keeping millions of American seniors out of abject poverty.
In fact, there is only one budget cut where the American people agree with those congressional Republicans -- foreign aid. Unfortunately, the foreign aid budget is incredibly small (about 1% of the federal budget), and eliminating it entirely wouldn't put much of a dent in the budget deficit.
On several other things the congressional GOP want to cut, they don't even have the support of a majority of their own party. A majority of Republican voters oppose cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Education. And although the Republican base would support cuts to food stamps (SNAP program) and housing assistance for the poor, huge majorities of the general public oppose those cuts also.
And the congressional GOP is even out of step with the American public on military spending. While the Republicans want to increase the already bloated military budget, Democrats and Independents would not -- although the slight edge opposing an increase in military spending among the general public is undoubtably within the margin of error. Suffice it to say there is as much support among the public for decreasing the military spending (or leaving it a the current level) as there is for increasing it.
The one slightly disappointing result from the poll came when people were asked if they would support a government shutdown by Republicans to defund Obamacare. Although a plurality (48%) opposed that and only 34% said they would support it, about 19% (or about 1 out of 5) said they were unsure. It seems that a significant portion of the public still has not made up their minds about Obamacare yet.
I suspect they would quickly turn against the GOP if that defunding of Obamacare was successful, and they lost some of the good things Obamacare is bringing -- like letting kids stay on their parents insurance until age 26, the eliminating of caps on spending for illnesses by insurance companies, the requirement that 80%-85% of insurance premiums go to spending on patient medical care (which is reducing premium cost), the elimination of pre-existing conditions for insurance coverage, the creation of state exchanges to provide low-cost insurance, and the providing of free contraceptives to women.
Frankly, I hope the Republicans keep pushing for these cuts to the budget -- especially for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Education, food stamps, and housing assistance. Because the more they oppose these programs, the more the general public will see that the Republicans don't have the best interests of Americans in mind -- and the more that public will be interested in voting them out of power.
Is Rand Paul Stupid Or Just Lying ?
Frankly, I'm amazed that he can say such a stupid thing without hanging his head in shame. Up beside our bloated military budget, the money spent to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy are a drop in the bucket. Let's look at that defense budget that doesn't have enough money.
According to defense spending figures from the Swedish International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the United States spends nearly $700 billion a year on its military budget. That's more than four times what the nation spending the second most spends (China at about $166 billion). In fact, it would take all of the nations from 2nd place to 12th place added together to equal the spending of the United States -- because the United States spends about 40% (or more) of all the money spent in the entire world on military matters.
If there's one thing the United States doesn't need to do, it's spend more money for the military. We spend too much as it is, and no one can convince me all that spending is necessary just for self-defense. Consider this. According to Global Research, the United States has between 700 and 800 military bases in other countries (several times the number of countries in the world (and since those are 2007 numbers, the number is probably larger now).
We simply don't need anywhere near 700-800 foreign military bases to defend ourselves. In fact, half that number would be too many. Those bases aren't for self-defense. They are for intimidation, to force the rest of the world to bow to our corporate power -- and let those corporations rape those nations to enrich a few hundred people who already have too much money (and don't pay nearly enough in taxes).
And we don't need to be spending nearly as much as we do to keep the military-industrial complex running. Many times the money spent is on items the military doesn't need or want (like continuing to spend money on two engines for the F-35, after the military has already decided that it only needs one and has decided which one they want). We are throwing money away on military spending -- money that could be spent helping the people in this country.
But spending money to help hurting Americans offends Republicans like Rand Paul. He and his cohorts would much rather throw more money at the military -- because it is easy to scare voters into thinking it is needed (even though we long ago passed the amount that's really needed). The only people stealing and wasting taxpayer money is the U.S. Congress, not the victims of hurricanes (and other hurting Americans). And it's people like Paul doing it.
In fact, Paul's statement is so outrageously untrue that I doubt even stupid people would say it in public, and liars would be embarrassed to tell that big a whopper. That makes me think he must be both stupid and a liar. Nothing else would explain it.
Belief In Evolution In The United States
It is interesting though to see the rise in the number of people in the last decade who believe in evolution without any help from a god. It has jumped from 13% in 2004 to 21% in 2013. This closely mirrors the rise in the number of Americans who say they are not religious -- which a Pew Research Center survey puts at about 20% (or 1 out of every 5 Americans).
NOTE -- The figures in the middle chart for some religions (Mormon, Orthodox, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, and Hindu) are compiled from an extremely small samples -- and therefore could have a large margin of error.
An Incredible Level Of Hypocrisy
Do you think this fool had any idea of the incredible hypocrisy that he exhibited with his inane statement? He and his GOP cohorts certainly don't mind the state telling a woman what she can and cannot do with her body. In fact, they campaign on their belief that the government has the right to control a woman's body. To publicly state that the government doesn't have that same right over a man simply cements the GOP belief that women shouldn't have the same rights as men -- that they are, and should remain, second-class citizens.
Any man who loves the women in his life should be horrified at this -- and make sure they vote against those holding this ridiculous belief in 2014.
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