Former President George W. Bush jumped back into presidential politics this week, endorsing presumptive 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney. He also, according to the New York Times, plans to release a book in two months that will lay out his advice on boosting economic growth.

Two parent chaperones have been accused of spraying Lysol on students during a Colorado high school prom because teen’s “dirty dancing” looked like “they were advertising butt sex.”

Pat Buchanan was fired from MSNBC recently after publishing a book critics called homophobic, anti-Semitic, and racist – and after a long history of homophobic, anti-Semitic and racist comments. But you’d never know that from watching his appearance on America Live yesterday. In fact, host Megyn Kelly deliberately led her viewers to think he’s a mainstream traditionalist she called upon to weigh in on gay marriage.

As the boycott costs Rush Limbaugh’s empire millions, the host claimed that the Sandra Fluke controversy was contrived by Obama to make women miserable.

Louisiana is the world's prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana's incarceration rate is nearly triple Iran's, seven times China's and 10 times Germany's.

Fox News hit a new low today by openly hoping for more pain for the American people in the form of gas prices reaching $5 a gallon before the presidential election.

The accused leaders of a white supremacist group who authorities say were preparing for a race war were given low bails, while eight other accused members faced $500,000 apiece.

Marcus Faella, named as the head of the American Front, posted $50,000 bail while his wife Patricia paid just $5,000 last weekend to leave the Osceola County Jail after their arrests by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, court records show.

Over seven years, the man known by the name Bobby C. Thompson raised $100 million from donors believing they were supporting American Navy veterans and their families. Then he disappeared.

Broun argued that the provision unfairly targeted several states and had become "antiquated."

"As Americans, we pride ourselves in our electoral system. But the integrity of our elections is called into question when this outdated law bars states from ensuring that those who come to the polls to vote are eligible to do so," he said.

Broun's remarks were rebuked by a number of other representatives. Even those, like Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), who thought the amendment could be worth discussing, said a late-night appropriations debate was not the appropriate time to do so.

Lewis, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., took to the floor to denounce Broun's amendment.

In 2007 when the Border Patrol was expanded they were not able to meet their quota. In an effort to get the number of recruits they needed, they started an aggressive recruitment program,but they also lowered their standards including relaxing the training and eliminating a required polygraph test. In addition, they went from 11,000 to 21,000 in 5 years years.The result is an entire force of border patrol officers who are inexperienced in a job that places them in critical decision making positions with no guidelines or supervision.

Since May,2010 there has been 8 deaths from extreme use of force against unarmed or noncombative migrants.

Right wing Israeli and U.S. neocon pundits/think tanks have been promulgating the theory for some time now that the uninformed in the U.S. keep adhering to the faulty reasoning that there exist moderate Muslims and we only need to address the radical terrorist faction of Islam. 

Rather they say the basis of the Muslim faith itself is the culprit. Muslims want to wipe out every Christian and Jew. Muslim believers can not exist with other faiths. Further,they state that the Koran teaches Muslims they must kill all nonbelievers of Islam. These anti-Muslim groups says that we must declare war on anyone who is a Muslim.

 Getting members of the military to understand this is a necessary first step. 

And hence - this article. Look what has been uncovered.

WASHINGTON (CN) - Republicans and Democrats took frequent shots at each other for nearly six hours during a House Judiciary Committee markup meeting to amend the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization.

 

Maggie Gallagher, former Chairman of NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, says that if gay marriage becomes the law of the land it will make any anti-gay person seem “like a racist.” So, it also seems Gallagher has just redefined NOM’s mission, admitting her overriding motivation is not so much “to protect marriage,” but to protect the reputations of people in “the faith communities that sustain it.”

A study released by the Aflac insurance company showed the real reason that Americans hate the healthcare mandate. It also shows the real reason behind Republicanism. It seems that with exceptions for terrorism, Iran, the Bird Flu and the rapture (which, I guess is a good thing), bad things only happen to other people.

Sehar Hekmati (pictured, center), a Republican activist from Georgia who came to the United States from Afghanistan as a child, filed a lawsuit last week (PDF) against several county level Republican officials, accusing them of slandering her as a “terrorist” and a “felon” in a recorded conversation, emails circulated to other Republicans and posts on Facebook.

A top political appointee at the state Department of Natural Resources chose not to send a complaint against an Oconomowoc waste hauler to the Department of Justice for prosecution despite findings by agency staff that the company was treating fields with so much human waste from septic tanks it risked poisoning nearby wells, DNR records show.

There is a party in the pants of “Exodus International,” and nobody wants to come! And that is why the group has canceled its upcoming “Love Won Out” convention, in which ex-gay ladies show off their human male husbands, and ex-gay men show off Michele Bachmann

To bring down the high rate of chlamydia among teenagers in Tennessee, an anti-choice pregnancy center in Athens, Tenn., has proposed spending federal tax dollars on a life-sized version of the Game of Life.

“Dump Starbucks,” a boycott of the coffee retailing giant by NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, is a tremendous failure. After 50 days in action, by their own measurement, NOM has managed to attack only 35,709 “pledges.” That’s a little more than 700 anti-gay people a day — around the world, including some countries where being gay is a crime punishable by death.

To have intense aversion for, or extreme hostility toward, a group or person is uniquely human and undoubtedly the impetus for myriad atrocities on the human race. Since the election of Barack Obama as the first African American President, the level of hate inherent in a specific segment of the population has elevated to such a high degree that one begins to question what kind of country America is becoming that blatant enmity supersedes civility as a matter of course. 

Since posting the first part of this trilogy, I’ve received many comments; the most prevalent has been “This was written by a straight guy?!” My favorite has been that the “shellfish gambit” is old and worn out. First, I would like to assure you, dear reader, that, yes, I am straight. I just spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs (hur hur hur) of homosexual life. It’s a useful thing to know if you spend a significant amount of time with a significant amount of homosexuals. And second, I can repeat, ad nauseam, that the sky is blue for one hundred years and the sky will not be any less blue and bigots hiding behind religion will not be any less insincere in their “beliefs.”

If you're a state hellbent on turning corrections over to the for-profit prison industry, what do you do when an annual survey shows that private jails are often more expensive than the old fashioned public variety? Especially if, by law, the state may contract for private prisons only if they prove to be less expensive? Simple, just eliminate that pesky study.

News Corps Chief Executive Rupert Murdochlashed out at the incivility of the Twitter medium on Saturday afternoon.

Dear reader, in the course of going about your day today did you somehow manage to forget that we are inching ever closer towards some sort Handmaid’s Tale style dystopian nightmare run by sexist racist morons? First, let us congratulate you, and then shake you out of your reverie by telling you about the latest horrible thing that has happened in (duh) Florida.

Conservatives are taking ideological purity to a whole new level: ideologically segregated email accounts.  Really, I’m not kidding.

Defense Department officials have decided to resume the prosecution of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men for their alleged role in the most deadly terror attack in US history.

Charges accusing the five men of involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were formally referred to prosecutors on Wednesday for trial before a military commission at a special high-security judicial complex at the US Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The military prosecutors have a month to arraign the defendants. All five potentially face a death sentence.

The action was expected, but it marks a sharp reversal by the Obama administration, which in 2009 dismissed military charges against these same men and announced that they would instead be tried in a civilian federal court in New York City.

They don’t call him the Motor City Madman for nothing. Ted Nugent sat down with talk radio host Mike Broomhead today to explain his… unique interview on CBS this morning where he basically tore into his interviewer, Jeff Glor, for telling him he is not a moderate. 

Georgia Bar owner Patrick Lanzo says he isn't a racist, he just chooses to use incredibly racist terms in road signs to make a political point.

A full three months before what police said was his fatal rampage this week, Arizona white supremacist JT Ready spilled his guts to TPM.

Wow. Rarely are we privileged to witness such a moronic convergence of right wing bigotry, as Lou Engle of The Call says the religious right should model themselves after the Confederacy to fight “the homosexual agenda.”

Ted Nugent recently said presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign “expressed support” after the musician made comments that caused the U.S. Secret Service to wonder if he had threatened the life of President Barack Obama.

Six anti-tank grenades designed to be fired from a launcher were discovered on Wednesday at the scene of a horrific Arizona mass murder-suicide, which authorities said was carried out by well known white supremacist JT Ready.

In a letter found among Osama Bin Laden’s correspondence, al-Qaida American spokesman Adam Gadahn demonstrated that even terrorists know Fox News isn’t really news.

Yesterday, J.T. Ready, a neo-Nazi and member of the anti-immigrant Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, reportedly strapped on body armor, grabbed several firearms, and then killed four people in Gilbert, Arizona.

Longtime white supremacist and border vigilante JT Ready saw himself as part of a war that few others would fight. He amassed weapons. He donned a uniform. He formed his own brigade of volunteers to walk alongside him as he hunted what he described as “narco terrorists” flowing across the Arizona-Mexico border.

You guys, Chief Executive magazine, the #1 magazine for Chief Executives by Chief Executives that isn’t Forbes, has studied each and every one of the states of this great union of ours to determine which one is best, for Chief Executives?

George Zimmerman, the man charged with second degree murder in the Trayvon Martin case, has been identified by his lawyers as the creator of a seven-year-old MySpace page that may prove to be damaging in court. The page, last updated in 2005, offers a glimpse into Zimmerman’s low opinions of Mexicans and women.

Nearly eleven years after terrorists brought down the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center can again boast of itself as New York City’s tallest building.

Video of a North Carolina man firing a shotgun at a sign against the state’s proposed amendment banning same sex marriage has gone viral, even after he removed it from YouTube.

SANFORD — "A pit bull named Big Boi began menacing George and Shellie Zimmerman in the fall of 2009."

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"By June 2011, Zimmerman's attention had shifted from a loose pit bull to a wave of robberies that rattled the community, called the Retreat at Twin Lakes. The homeowners association asked him to launch a Neighborhood Watch, and Zimmerman would begin to carry the Kel-Tec on his regular, dog-walking patrol — a violation of Neighborhood Watch guidelines but not a crime."

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A criminal-justice student who aspired to become a judge, Zimmerman also concerned himself with the safety of his neighbors after a series of break-ins committed by young black men.

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"Though civil-rights demonstrators have argued Zimmerman should not have prejudged Trayvon, one black neighbor of the Zimmermans said recent history should be taken into account. "Let's talk about the elephant in the room. I'm black, OK?" the woman said, declining to be identified because she anticipated backlash due to her race. She leaned in to look a reporter directly in the eyes. "There were black boys robbing houses in this neighborhood," she said. "That's why George was suspicious of Trayvon Martin."

The above are comments from the article,,,see article link for more.....

Bryan Fischer, the public face of the certified anti-gay hate group, American Family Association, yesterday on his radio program suggested that homosexuals are inherently immoral, and “it’s perfectly appropriate to discriminate against immoral conduct.” Fischer actually had the gall to quote Martin Luther King, Jr., as the basis for his claim.

Last year, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre made the odd claim that President Obama intentionally avoided gun regulation during his entire first term as part of a “massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment in our country.” 

Yesterday in Dearborn, Michigan, noted anti-Muslim activists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer hosted a conference promising to advocate for “human rights” in one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States. 

Conservative radio host Matt Barber say that the federal government’s requirement that all health insurance cover contraception for women is comparable to Muslim terrorists forcing you to “kill your family.”

During the war in Iraq, battalion commanders were allocated packets of $100 bills and authorized to use them for anything from repairing a schoolhouse to paying off ex-rebels and paying blood money to the families of innocents killed by U.S. forces. But a new audit finds that in some cases that cash made its way to the pockets of the very insurgents the United States was trying to fight.

Howell, Michigan public high school student Daniel Glowacki gained notoriety when he disrupted teacher Jay McDowell’s Spirit Day presentation with anti-gay hate speech.

Marissa Alexander is another victim of Florida’s infamous Stand Your Ground law, proving that Florida statute 776.013 is not for battered women or people who won’t shoot to kill. When attacked by her husband in her home, with an order of protection in place, Marissa Alexander shot into the ceiling, instead of into his body, to scare him away. She is now sitting in a jail cell, awaiting sentencing for assault with a deadly weapon.

Ms. Alexander is black and a mother of three. She had given birth nine days earlier to a premature infant, allegedly as a result of battering during her pregnancy. She is a licensed gun owner, with concealed carry permit. She was in her own home. Her husband had a documented history of domestic violence. She reasonably believed that her life was in danger and her husband was violating an order of protection.

 

The Newton County Sheriff’s Office is investigating why a couple was confronted at gunpoint by neighbors and then arrested and forced to spend the night in jail when they tried to move into the home they had just purchased, Channel 2 Action News reported.

The Kalonji family had just closed on a foreclosed home and were told by their real estate agent they should go over to the house and change the locks.

But when Jean Kalonji and his wife, Angelica, started working at the home, an armed man and another person who appeared to be the man’s son allegedly confronted them.

 

As part of a new advertising campaign for the candy, ‘Mike and Ike’ have announced that they are divorcing so Ike can pursue a career in the arts and Mike can fulfill his dream of becoming a “music legend.” 

Last week, the order came down from the Vatican. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an organization that represents 80% of the nuns in the US, was chastised for “focusing its work too much on poverty and economic injustice, while keeping ‘silent’ on abortion and same-sex marriage.” The LCWR is having none of it.

If trouble comes in threes, then right-wing singer Ted Nugent’s recent problems may have begun a week ago, when he entered a plea agreement in the illegal killing of an Alaskan black bear.

Richard Parsons, the former chairman of mega-bank Citigroup (who stepped down from his post just a few days ago), said yesterday that the repeal of Glass-Steagall — the Depression-era regulation separating investment and commercial banking — helped precipitate the financial crisis of 2008.

On Tuesday, 50-year-old Francis Grady pleaded not guilty to trying to burn down a Planned Parenthood in Grand Chute, Wis., on April 1. Earlier this month, however, during his first court appearance, Grady sang a different tune, telling the U.S. district judge he did it because “they’re killing babies there.”

Last year, after Hispanic farm workers fled the state because of a far-reaching anti-immigrant bill the Georgia legislature passed, Gov. Nathan Deal (R) suggested replacing them with inmates. The plan only had mixed success, with many inmates walking off the job early, and farmers still lost millions because of crops that rotted in the field before they could be harvested.

The National Organization for Women has announced a campaign to hit Rush Limbaugh in the wallet by pressuring local businesses and radio stations to stop doing business with him.

Ted Nugent isn't backing down from his fiery rhetoric about President Obama.

The Republican rocker and Mitt Romney backer stood by his controversial remarks, in which he called the commander in-chief "vile," "evil" and "America-hating," in addition to saying if Obama is reelected, “I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year."

"I spoke at the NRA and I will stand by my speech,” Nugent told the Dana Loesch radio show on Tuesday, adding he was being unfairly criticized.

"I'm a black Jew at a Nazi-Klan rally," the 63-year-old gun enthusiast griped. "And there are some power-abusing, corrupt monsters in our federal government that despise me because I have the audacity to speak the truth."

The Secret Service also entered the picture following his rant at the National Rifle Convention in St. Louis over the weekend. A spokesman said the organization would conduct an "appropriate follow-up" given the nature of the violent rhetoric.

Team Romney — who sought out Nugent's endorsement — also weighed in after Democratic National Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz called on the Republican presidential candidate to condemn Nugent's remarks.

The presumptive Republican nominee's spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement that "Divisive language is offensive no matter what side of the political aisle it comes from,” adding "Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil."

During the Dana Loesch interview, Nugent also went after Wasserman Shultz, calling her a "brain-dead, soulless idiot."

"I am on the right track and she just encourages me to stand stronger," he said.

WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack  Obama announced an initiative Tuesday to strike at manipulation in the oil  market.

"We can't afford a situation where some speculators makes millions while  millions of Americans get the short end of the stick," Obama told reporters in  the White House Rose Garden.

Among the steps in the administration's proposal, "more cops on the beat to  monitor activity in energy markets," an increase in civil and criminal penalties  for manipulation and a requirement to have a greater margin -- more money -- to  back up trading in oil futures, Obama said.

The Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue Department opened an investigation into a racist post on one of its captains’ Facebook page. According to The Grio, Brian Beckmann, a captain in the Miami-Dade fire department, posted a rant on his Facebook page suggesting that Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman was unjustly accused and that Martin’s killing can be blamed upon poor parenting by “urban” parents who are “welfare dependent”.

When Southwest Dekalb High School (Decatur, Ga.) holds its graduation next month, one of the school’s top students won’t attend because the ceremony is being held in a church.

In a Russia Today segment broadcast Thursday, progressive satellite radio host Thom Hartmann confronted Family Research Institute chairman Dr. Paul Cameron and asked him an unusually pointed question: “Does it concern you that many of your colleagues in the anti-gay movement may actually be closeted gays?”

With the (USDOJ) United States Department of Justice coming down hard for racial profiling against folks of Hispanic descent, the latest arrest from tips snagged 31 suspected illegal immigrants at 21st Century Healthcare  in Tempe.  Working on a tip, Deputies from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department investigated and arrested 31 undocumented workers and now the state may put sanctions on 21st Century Healthcare possibly for knowingly hiring  “illegals” thus violating both SB1070 and 18 USC § 4.

Fox News has attacked the struggling Republican presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, after an outburst in which he blamed the network for the failure of his campaign and claimed it was biased in favour of Mitt Romney.

According to several experts in Florida law, Sean Hannity could be compelled to testify about his conversations with George Zimmerman. 

When it comes to America's racial past and present, lies and snake oil are sold in many colors.

In the wake of the Trayvon Martin tragedy, conservatives in media have sought to deflect from the racism and racial profiling that precipitated his untimely death by referencing the broader social malaise of supposed "black-on-black violence."

On last week's episode of This Week on ABC, Washington Post columnist George Will said that despite the Trayvon tragedy, "150 black men are killed every week in this country," and "about 94 percent of them by other black men."

Will parroted arguments made by many conservatives, his intended point being that black-on-black crime remains the real problem our nation should address. The half-truth he spoke went curiously unchallenged by the panel -- including former White House adviser Van Jones -- largely because the meta-narrative of black-on-black violence is widely accepted in journalistic and political circles.

In a Phoenix courtroom filled with fellow lawyers and some of his biggest critics on Tuesday, the former Arizona prosecutor who served for years as Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s right-hand man was stripped of his license to practice law.

Imagine an Internet on which haters didn't hate. Where there were no mean commenters, no stories that hurt people's pretty little feelings. Everyone would virtually hug at the end of a day, congratulate themselves for a job well done, even if that job was essentially just PR, and we'd probably all drink a lot less. The Daily Mail would cease to exist. Bloggers would become extinct. It would be so boring that those of us who hadn't died of boredom would die of sitting. 

The state of Texas wants the discussions their Republican legislators had about passing a voter ID law to stay secret.

Ryan J. Reilly

On This Week, there was a panel discussion on the Trayvon Martin case, as there probably was on every Sunday show this week. It's somewhat ironic that most shows left the discussion to white men, who naturally understand what it feels like to walk down the street, unarmed, with some candy and iced tea and be looked at sideways like they're about to start a riot or rob the little old lady down the street. At least ABC saw fit to have Van Jones join their panel to talk about the Trayvon Martin case.

Internal documents acquired by Climate Progress reveal that the Flatland Institute is planning to indoctrinate infants with a “Baby Inhofe” series of DVDs and videos. Flatland is a right-wing, anti-science think tank funded by the Koch brothers, the Resources Development Administration, and other corporate pollutocrats.

-Joe Romm

WASHINGTON – Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, 62, a U.S. citizen and resident of Fairfax, Va., was sentenced today to 24 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy and tax violations in connection with a decades-long scheme to conceal the transfer of at least $3.5 million from the government of Pakistan to fund his lobbying efforts in America related to Kashmir.

At least 10 people were killed, including a 6-year-old girl, in shootings over the weekend in Chicago.

• Written by  Devin Burghart
• Wednesday, 28 March 2012 11:07

In the month since the tragic shooting in Sanford, Florida of 17-year old Trayvon Martin, sustained pressure by the NAACP and local civil rights advocates has brought national attention to the killing, and the way the incident was handled by local law enforcement. More than two million signatures have been collected on an online petition seeking justice for Mr. Martin. Rallies for justice in Florida have been amplified by scores of rallies in cities and towns across the country. A renewed discussion of race and racism has emerged in this presidential election year.

Into this increasingly complex situation, white nationalists have sought to inject their poison. They have defamed Martin, concocted false allegations and amplified racial stereotypes of young black men—in effect, putting the victim on trial in the court of public opinion. Even before Florida officials started leaking negative "information" about Trayvon Martin, white nationalists were portraying Mr. Martin as a scary black man who deserved what he got.

Whether or not it is truly the case, it appears as if some local and state officials in Florida are following a script written by white nationalists. The official's attempt to deflect attention away from their mishandling of the case has augmented racism and demeaned all those who care about human dignity. In order to more fully understand the circumstances in which justice for Trayvon Martin will be sought, IREHR has examined the white nationalist propaganda campaign. It is not a pretty picture.

The American Civil Liberties Union released records Tuesday obtained from the FBI that it said showed the bureau's San Francisco division used its Muslim outreach efforts to collect intelligence on religious activities protected by the Constitution.

There is a reality in our nation that lies just beneath the surface of what we see. Having seen the documentary "Food, inc", I have come to thoughts about many of our industries in the U.S. And to remain non-slanderous, I will speak about the industries in general.

First reality:The food industry is owned and run by only a handful of companies, which own all of the perceived variety in our stores. Also, one particular crop is used to create a large majority of the food we consume, from the meats down to the cereals. The use of this one crop is known to contribute to diabetes in our nation, as complex sugars are very expensive to avoid. Also, food standards have been deregulated by food industry advocates that have attained positions in our government, having fiscal and business ties to the prevailing companies. The industry as a whole makes massive profits off of lowered standards, and in some cases use legal force through patent law to maintain their hold on particular parts of the industry. This, all from control of basic need: Food.

Next reality: Healthcare can and probably should be considered a basic need for a society. There is not a person who lives that, living a full life in whatever capacity, won't need to go to the hospital for one reason or another. The recent healthcare fight comes really on the back of this reality: Insurance companies take advantage of the basic need of the people for healthcare, and make huge profits off the system through manipulation, monetarily and through legalities. Massive profits by the insurance industry lie contradictory to the claims of the poor making costs rise by use of hospitals without being insured. In recent history, attempts to pass a public option for healthcare were denied, though it would alleviate this perceived issue. The claim seems to be that companies do not want to pay for people who are uninsured, but an option to have that covered was denied. Paying, thus, is inevitable, not matter the path we take.

Next reality: Our system of energy is a majority based on oil and coal. Private companies sell their oil and coal to energy companies that receive charters and claims to geographic regions, with little to no competition in their area. Oil fluctuation is blamed on middle east unrest, but the reality is that the nation in question produces 2% of the worlds oil, and doesn't supply our market, but the price of oil shoots through the roof inexplicably, and particularly during this time of political unrest in our nation. Attempts to shift our energy consumption to renewable sources has been blocked in legislation, while numerous oil industry ads are being played across the airwaves, propagating the building of a pipe line that will destroy a lot of land.

Next reality: Pharmaceutical companies buy up the patent rights to certain drugs, and sell them at a premium that is often not affordable by the average American. After taking in massive profits during their monopolization of a drug, the drug is then turned over and sold in generic form, years after it is made, despite numerous side effects.

Next reality: Education has become an industry unto itself. The standard for getting a good job is raised more and more by the year, with high school diplomas and bachelors degrees not having enough weight to get you a career.  Meanwhile, the standardized test craze has created an entire industry unto itself. Student loans put students into debt for a majority of their adult life, while tuition costs continue to rise exponentially, while at the same time, many schools make record profits off of their athletic programs and endowments. The textbook industry charges students exorbitant amounts of money for text books, while selling cheaper, paperback versions overseas. This money making system is juxtaposed with the decline in our public school systems, and a lag in competitiveness by our students, with the quality of their education falling behind the world, with their creative being trained out of them. Our industrial education system falls behind the world instead of leading it.

Five industries, five basic needs. Five situations where profiteering has adversely affected our way of life. True competition in an open market is intended to keep prices down, but the gradual takeover of our industries has created a near monopoly in all of them. Regulation in itself is not the cause of higher prices, as industry leaders suggest. It is the pure greed of our business leaders that drives the prices up.

So the real question is this: should these industries be for-profit industries, or should they fall into the category of non-profit industries that provide a basic need and service to the nation. Profit is a good thing, but at the expense of the stability of our nation, it does not seem to be worth it. So, let's start the debate. Would a non-profit status help balance the system or is that wishful, ill-advised thinking on my part? Is there another way to adjust our system for the betterment of our nation? 

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) on Wednesday morning was asked to leave the House floor after removing his suit jacket to reveal a "hoodie," then putting the hood of his sweatshirt on his head to protest the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida. 

Stormfront, the dumb, white and angry neo-nazi group, has been getting a boner over exploiting the Trayvon Martin case as yet another instance of the white man being brought down and forced to appease those gangsta blacks. Well, it didn’t take Storm front very long to flagrantly twist the perception of the murdered black teenager in order to satisfy its ridiculously racist agenda.

It seems that the neo-nazi group is responsible for circulating a photo of what they contend is Trayvon Martin looking all gangsta and very scary to nice, white block captains.

Just a comment on logic. If Geraldo believes the hoodie being worn by someone is somehow responsible for their death, then could it not follow that, Geraldo wore a hoodie while sitting with Bill O'Riley which was seen by millions so Geraldo was promoting wearing hoodies. With this logic everyone that likes to emulate famous people and what they wear would have taken this as Geraldo's endorsement of the hoodie.

So in this reality, Geraldo is responsible for those that wear them. Sure this is stupid but so was Geraldo's statement. It avoids the real root cause of any-ones death.

As a nation we were not there at the time of this young mans death and much more will have to come out before any of us can make a rational judgement of all the facts. No matter what they are, minimizing the real root cause before it is even known is irresponsible and does not do anything to advance our dialogue in this country.

The next time someone dies wearing a T'shirt do we blame it on the shirt, Fruit of the Loom, or Anderson Cooper? Or can people like Geraldo who's words get spread easily (not sure why in Geraldo's case) focus on the real and hard issues such as prejudice and fear that actually drive these types of tragic events?

So until Geraldo has something well thought out to say on the subject, I will continue to think he is responsible.

T1Truth

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has scheduled a procedural vote Monday on legislation to repeal billions of dollars in tax breaks for the largest oil companies.

U.S. citizens and lawful resident aliens are expressly excluded from section 1022 of the NDAA. The law applies only to a narrow category of foreign al Qaeda members who participate in planning or conducting attacks against the United States and are "captured in the course of hostilities." And although section 1021 of the statute does not exclude U.S. citizens, this provision does not change existing military detention authority. The law specifically states: "Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States, or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States."

Texas ranks in the bottom half of all states for being vulnerable to corruption. That's one of the findings in the extensive State Integrity Investigation which looks at how accountable state governments are to their citizens. 

The report released Monday was compiled by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International. 

The sad news is that Texas nearly flunks the accountability test and has plenty of company. No state gets an A. Twenty-three states receive grades of B or C.

Texas ranks twenty-seventh and receives a D+ when graded in 14 categories designed to measure vulnerability to corruption.

Next week the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the lawsuits challenging the Affordable Care Act. But is it really the “case of the century,” as pundits have started calling it?

Talk about mixed emotions. On January 17,  Wisconsin unions were celebrating the submission of 1.1 million signatures for Governor Scott Walker’s recall; the very next day they were bemoaning an unprecedented strike settlement at Manitowoc Company (MC) calling for voluntary union dues.  It’s no comfort that, with the recall looming, Walker has rejected so-called “right to work” legislation that would impose voluntary dues on all Wisconsin unions. The Manitowoc deal may be a harbinger of things to come.

The settlement ended a ten-week strike by the 200 members of International Association of Machinists Local 516  at MC’s crane manufacturing facility in Manitowoc, WI. The Local also has a separate collective bargaining agreement, expiring April 1, for 220 members working at MC’s food service division, which makes commercial kitchen and restaurant equipment. Other unions on the property include Boilermakers Local 443, Office & Professional Employees Local 9, and Electrical Workers Local 158, whose contract is up this month. Will these unions also be confronted with “voluntary dues” demands? More accurately, why wouldn’t they? And why wouldn’t other unions in the state or the country for that matter?

The employer’s got its spiel down, however transparent or absurd. In a full page ad published in Manitowoc’s Herald Times Reporter, MC claimed to speak for an unspecified number of anonymous IAM members who have certain “concerns” about paying dues. Fear not, MC says; its “Freedom of Choice” plan would liberate them from that arduous obligation while IAM would remain “the exclusive bargaining representative.” Consequently, “All employees would have the benefits and protections of the collective bargaining agreement” whether they pay dues or not.

Never mind that Machinists rejected the company’s “offer” 180-2 and went on strike over it. Never mind that MC imported scabs during the dispute and raised the specter of “permanent replacements.” Never mind that state and federal labor laws prohibit employer interference with the union and coercion of its members. Never mind that those same laws—as MC pointed out in its ad—give the IAM exclusive authority to bargain for all the workers in the unit. MC asserted an authority of its own to dictate the union’s relationship with its members and, ultimately, the union’s financial bottom line. Fox, meet chicken coop.

MC’s demands, which eliminate dues check-off and require an annual opt-out period for dues, are a slightly less onerous private sector version of Act 10, the controversial legislation Walker and GOP state legislators imposed early last year to defund and decertify public sector unions representing approximately 300,000 state, county, municipal and school district workers. In that instance, however, there was not so much as a phone call between Walker and the unions, not for the latter’s lack of trying.  Walker steadfastly refused to meet, let alone bargain, despite massive protests. Major pay cuts and other economic sacrifices are part of the new law, and most public unions have completely lost bargaining rights.

What saved the Machinists from the same fate is that they (and other private sector unions) are covered by federal labor laws that are still intact and under the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama. To emulate Walker-style union busting would require either (1) new so-called “right to work” laws like those Indiana recently enacted or (2) something less ambitious and less overtly controversial, e.g. contract demands for voluntary dues that would finish off unions one at a time.

IAM and its members admittedly were unprepared for what MC was about to do. They had enjoyed reasonably good labor relations without major incident for decades, and the company had weathered the recent recession well, earning millions in annual profits. Why, then, did MC embark on this path? To follow it requires a dizzying trip down the proverbial rabbit hole of Malice in Wonderland industrial relations.

MC president and CEO Glen Tellock serves on the board of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which hailed Walker and Act 10 for reforms that “diminish the strength and power of public employee unions in Wisconsin." Protesters have repeatedly targeted WMC precisely because of its anti-worker, pro-Walker activities. 

Walker, in turn, has strong ties to the Club for Growth, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and the Bradley Foundation, all of which promote antiunion legislation and get funding from the antiunion oil/energy billionaire Koch Brothers and other wealthy right-wingers. He’s now getting buckets of bucks from several similarly disposed and well-heeled out-of state benefactors to fend off his recall. As this is written, he’s in Washington, DC, at the Conservative Political Action Conference where his pitch included instructions on how to make contributions via text message (quite a feat for a guy who got punked in a phone call from a David Koch imposter).

Serving on MC’s board of directors is Roy V. Armes, president and CEO of Cooper Tire & Rubber in Findlay, Ohio. He presided over a  lock out of about 1,000 Steelworkers who rejected the company’s wage and other concession demands. MC board member Virgis Colbert is from MillerCoors, which has its own labor relations baggage, most recently in Milwaukee where it stalled contract talks with 500 Brewery Workers and then called out police over a peaceful labor protest. Like MC, Cooper and MillerCoors are profitable companies with handsome rewards for executives.

A pivotal player in direct negotiations sits on a lower rung of MC’s corporate ladder. Harry Wayne Bunch is not on the board, nor is he one of the senior management listed on the company’s web site, but Machinists know him well. He was MC’s main mouthpiece during IAM’s crane talks and is again now that the food service unit is in bargaining. 

Bunch is MC’s vice president of Global Labor Relations, a job he’s had for about two years. From 1995 to 2008 he was at Tenneco, a vast auto parts company headquartered in Illinois. He was VP of human resources when the 40 members of United Auto Workers Local 660 struck in 2004 over Tenneco’s demand to eliminate retiree health insurance; the company permanently replaced them. The union was finally busted by a Bush II NLRB ruling in April 2008.  

Between 1979 and 1995, Bunch was busy at International Paper in various HR capacities. He got promoted to manager of employee relations in 1987, right around the time the company locked out and replaced 13,000 workers in Alabama and was subsequently struck by thousands more in three other states, including Wisconsin, over concession demands and toxic working conditions. The most notorious battle was with the 1250 striking members of United Paperworkers Local 14 in Jay, Maine. Just like the Auto Workers under Bunch after them, they, too, were permanently replaced, their union decertified.

Also working on behalf of Manitowoc Company is the law firm of Buelow Vetter,  which—like Bunch—specializes in  “union avoidance,” decertification and such, a.k.a. union busting. Located in (where else?) the Republican enclave of Waukesha, the firm was formed in March 2010 by some lawyers from another law office who wanted to work in a “flexible business model,” according to firm president Robert Buikema. Business has been brisk.

The firm’s web site lists a host of services in the arena of labor law, mostly how to get around it. It has helpful hints in how to maintain a “union-free workplace,” including advising employers on “what they can lawfully do to prevail when an election occurs.” How else can this be interpreted but busting a union after it’s been certified? They also have services for “public sector labor relations” and “strikes & picketing.” MC has recently taken steps to discipline at least one striking IAM member for activities while he was off both the company payroll and the company property.

Whatever the relationships on the bosses’ side of the bargaining table—and just from what pops up on Google, they are complex and formidable—one thing is abundantly clear: The unions at Manitowoc Company and everywhere else in the known universe had better hope for the best but prepare for the worst as employers, private and public, will undoubtedly press for so-called “right to work” by other means—and by any means necessary.

It is an irony of our current national malaise that Republican politicians consider themselves, and tend to be uncritically regarded by the media, as "strong" on issues like national security and fiscal responsibility. But reality is otherwise; on closer examination, their strength on national security boils down to knee-jerk belligerence and profligate spending combined with invincible ignorance of the intractable complexity of the world. One sometimes wonders, on hearing the latest fusillade from a Republican politician about which country we should bomb or invade, if he or she could accurately identify those countries on an unlabeled world map.

WASHINGTON -- On any given day, Congress is likely to be considering some type of legislation that would funnel taxpayer cash to a handful of rich men. Tuesday will be no exception when the Senate looks to shovel heavy subsidies at backers of the natural gas industry, including four billionaires: T. Boone Pickens, Aubrey McClendon, Stephen Schwarzman and George Soros.

This morning's Washington Post-ABC poll shows that President Obama's poll numbers are falling in tandem with rising gas prices. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they disapprove of how he's handling the situation at the pump. Could gas prices end up swaying the 2012 election after all?

 by Brad Plumer

By 56 yeas to 42 nays (Vote No. 34), Hoeven Amendment No. 1537, to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project and provide for environmental protection and government oversight. (Pursuant to the order of Wednesday, March 7, 2012, the amendment having failed to achieve 60 affirmative votes, was not agreed to.)

In its latest quarterly publication “The Year in Hate and Extremism” (Issue 45, Spring 2012) the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, names Men’s Rights Activists as a hate group, citing the MRAs’ — alternately known as “Father’s Rights Activists” — virulent misogyny, spreading of false anti-woman propaganda and applauding and even encouraging acts of domestic terrorism and extreme violence against women and children, up to and including murder.

The Republican "War on Women" ® continues, this time in Georgia where eight state senators walked out in protest over more asinine legislation which looks like it'll soon be law..

Video of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on the speculation in the commodities future markets. Seven minutes.

As always Bernie tells it like it is and Jim Cramer agrees.

With some results still yet to come in, reports confirm that at least 55 towns in Vermont approved municipal resolutions calling for an end to big money's dominance in US politics and calling for a Constitutional amendment to reverse the Supreme Court's 'Citizens United' decision that has opened the floodgates for secretive, unlimited campaign spending in US elections.

You are going to have to stick with me to understand the title of this article although I think you may even agree at the end. From 1962 through 1981, Walter Cronkite anchored the 6:00 News for CBS. During that time he brought the news to us of the JFK Assassination, nightly accounts of Vietnam, landing on the moon, Watergate, the deaths of RFK and MLK, the Iran Hostage situation, several presidential campaigns, and hundreds of other stories that riveted us to the set each evening. In addition Walter hosted several series on the future of the human species, innovation, and how world politics were changing our world. Before anchoring the nightly news Walter reported on World II, the Nuremberg Trials, and many other important issues of the time. Walter was only 1 of 8 journalists selected to fly in a B-17 over Germany in a bombing raid during WWII.

During this time Walter was considered the most trusted man in America by many polls. I am not indicating in any way that I agree with all of Walter's views or how he reported the news. I will say that for the most part Walter did work within the confines of the news division of the time while trying hard to always present the news in a way that did deliver the facts the best he could.

Since Walter's departure in 1981 there are a few things that happened that can be directly attributed to his departure. Since his last show in 1981, Americans have never watched the news and been as hopeful, inspired, or trusting. (The trusting part may be a good thing in some senses.) Walter inspired a generation of scientists with his enthusiasm for the space program. He made us all a little more human from his coverage of the deaths of JFK, RFK, and MLK. He made us think about the future and dream of the possibilities of our future in his specials.

Walter's views on society and people in general were not always consistent nor were they always right. (Many times he was though.) The one thing in all of this, is that he made us think and dream of something better. He understood for our species to survive we would one day need to put away our petty nature to protect what is, for what could be, and that someday our world would need to become just that.

"It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty. That would be a bitter pill. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith in the new order. But the American colonies did it once and brought forth one of the most nearly perfect unions the world has ever seen."

Although Walter was a religious man, he acknowledged the dangers of religion and how it can make us smaller than our potential.

"Even as with the American rejection of the League of Nations, our failure to live up to our obligations to the United Nations is led by a handful of willful senators who choose to pursue their narrow, selfish political objectives at the cost of our nation’s conscience.They pander to and are supported by the Christian Coalition and the rest of the religious right wing. Their leader, Pat Roberstons, has written that we should have a world government but only when the messiah arrives. Any attempt to achieve world order before that time must be the work of the Devil! Well join me… I'm glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan."

For all of you that are old enough (even if you do not wish to say so), I think you can remember how comforting it was to watch the news and feel that there was still hope. On March 6th, 1981, Walter left the nightly news due to the CBS policy of mandatory retirement at age 65. His departing message was this:

 "This is my last broadcast as the anchorman of The CBS Evening News; for me, it's a moment for which I long have planned, but which, nevertheless, comes with some sadness. For almost two decades, after all, we've been meeting like this in the evenings, and I'll miss that. But those who have made anything of this departure, I'm afraid have made too much. This is but a transition, a passing of the baton. A great broadcaster and gentleman, Doug Edwards, preceded me in this job, and another, Dan Rather, will follow. And anyway, the person who sits here is but the most conspicuous member of a superb team of journalists; writers, reporters, editors, producers, and none of that will change. Furthermore, I'm not even going away! I'll be back from time to time with special news reports and documentaries, and, beginning in June, every week, with our science program, Universe. Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is: Friday, March 6, 1981. I'll be away on assignment, and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night."

If it had not been for the mandatory retirement policy of CBS how much longer would Walter have continued to enlighten and inspire us? How many more kids would have decided to be scientists? How might we look differently at our future? How much further as a species may we have come? We need a new breed of news anchors that look at what is, and then say how may it be if...... The current crop of anchors on both network and cable shows do the same as our politicians. They sensationalize today and discard the future for profit.

As a species we are just pathetically petty. Five hundred years from now it will be almost inconceivable we may have almost destroyed our planet fighting for oil or a piece of dirt in the desert. In just about every corner of the planet the same tenants apply for acceptable behavior. Our basics beliefs in good and evil, helping our fellow travelers through life, and making a better life for our children is pretty much the same. We all believe in rewards and punishment although our methods are different. It is the belief that a piece of ground, a way of doing something, or just plain greed that separates us and may be our down fall as a species. We need people and news anchors to explore our commonalities and not our differences so that just maybe we can learn to live together. We need people and anchors to recognize the important things and not the trivial.

How do you think the current political debates would be different if Walter were still around?

T1Truth

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You wake up - you can't take a shower.
 
You can't brush your teeth.
 
You can't use the bathroom.
 
You can't cook.
 
You can't clean.
 
You can't do laundry.
 
You can't really do anything.

Luckily - this isn't really a problem facing most Americans...but it might be soon.   

That's because it's not just our roads and bridges that are deteriorating across the nation - it's also our water pipes. A new study by the American Water Works Association reveals that America's underground water pipe infrastructure is rapidly deteriorating - and needs to be revamped to the tune of one trillion dollars. Most water pipes were laid down more than fifty years ago. And today - after more than 30 years of "starve the beast" Reaganomics that didn't invest one dime in our infrastructure - those pipes are past the end of most of their lifespans. The study also called for replacement of wastewater pipes - which will cost another trillion dollars. So here we are - the richest nation on the planet - with rotting, third-world water pipes underneath us. But that's not all...our entire infrastructure - from our roads to our schools to our dams - desperately needs repair or replacement.

The American Society of Civil Engineers puts out a report card on America's Infrastructure - and the latest grades are from 2009 - America's Infrastructure GPA is D! 

Now, we are now entering what Washington calls "the silly season," a presidential election year where serious governance falls by the wayside. Any credible column on reforming a part of the federal government would fade away as the news media discusses the latest in verbal gaffes and who is up and who is down in political process stories. Therefore, the Solutions column will spend the rest of this year, until the election, following the money that keeps realistic reform from succeeding and concentrate on exposing and explaining how self-dealing is the No. 1 problem that is preventing our government from working. In the past, using your government position for self gain has been described as influence peddling, conflict of interest or going through the revolving door. However, the rash of new money in the system has led to an unprecedented era of self-dealing with most restrictions washed away with the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and other efforts to disable any checks and balances in the system.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) expressed raw frustration from the Senate floor Wednesday night accusing his GOP colleagues of throwing roadblocks in front of the highway bill which has been pending in the Senate since early February. 

Private property rights advocates rallied Friday in Austin in support of a Northeast Texas landowner who was in court in Paris to defend the taking of her land by pipeline company TransCanada Corp.

The Calgary-based TransCanada is in the process of trying to secure land in East Texas through the use of eminent domain to possibly run pipeline that would bring Canadian crude to the Texas Gulf Coast through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

By Tim Eaton

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) delivered her fifteenth speech on the House floor condemning the pervasive problem of sexual harassment and rape in the U.S. military.

To call attention to the problem, she has been telling the stories of women who were sexually harassed and assaulted while serving in U.S military.

“This morning I’m going to tell you the story of U.S. Marine Stephanie Schroeder who was raped in a public rest room by a fellow Marine,” she said. “He shoved her down, beat her, and force her on her back. He ripped down her pants and raped her. Then he ejaculated on her thigh and spit on her.”

When she reported the incident to her commanding officer, Schroeder was laughed at and told to stop “bitching” about it.

(CN) - A federal judge in San Antonio, whom Newt Gingrich bashed as "un-American" for enjoining prayer at a high school graduation, fought back in his settlement order, writing: "To those in the executive and legislative branches of government who have demagogued this case for their own political goals: You should be ashamed of yourselves."

The White House will announce a retreat from its controversial rule requiring religious organizations like charities and hospitals to include contraception in their healthcare plans.