RUJAX!

Union Workers Replaced With Prison Labor Under Scott Walker’s Collective Bargaining Law

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Jul 6, 2011 at 4:57 pm

While Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) law dismantling collective bargaining rights has harmed teachers, nurses, and other civil servants, it’s helping a different group in Wisconsinites — inmates. Prisoners are now taking up jobs that used to be held by unionized workers in some parts of the state.

As the Madison Capital Times reports, “Besides losing their right to negotiate over the percentage of their paycheck that will go toward health care and retirement, unions also lost the ability to claim work as a ‘union-only’ job, opening the door for private workers and evidently even inmates to step in and take their place.” Inmates are not paid for their work, but may receive time off of their sentences.

Labels: Empire, end of, Greedy Assholes, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 11:46 AM |

July 06, 2011 04:00 PM

Republicans Fail the Reagan Litmus Test

By Jon Perr

On July 4, U.S. officials, foreign dignitaries and conservative luminaries gathered outside the American embassy in London to unveil a $1 million statue of Ronald Reagan. As it turns out, the timing was more than a little ironic. Because even as the Gipper was honored in Britain, it's increasingly clear he would have no place in today's Republican Party.

From Grover Norquist's anti-tax promise and the Republican Study Committee's "cut, cap and balance" pledge to the draconian anti-abortion oath of the Susan B. Anthony List, hardline conservative litmus tests are proliferating at a dizzying pace. And Ronald Reagan would have failed them all.

If a reanimated Ronald Reagan suddenly appeared in 2011, there is little question his GOP descendants would brand him a Republican In Name Only (RINO) and cast off him off into the wilderness. (As California Rep. Duncan Hunter put it, "a more moderate/former liberal like Ronald Reagan...would never be elected today in my opinion.") Here's why:

1.Reagan tripled the national debt
2.Reagan raised taxes 11 times
3.Reagan expanded the size of government
4.Reagan supported the "socialist" Earned Income Tax Credit
5.Reagan negotiated with terrorists in Tehran
6.Reagan sought to eliminate nuclear weapons
7.Reagan gave amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants
8.Reagan approved protectionist trade barriers
9.Reagan signed abortion rights law in California
10.Reagan eventually debunked AIDS myths Republicans continued to perpetuate

Labels: Empire, end of, Greedy Assholes, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 11:26 AM |

Richard Cohen Opinion Writer

A grand old cult

July 4

Someone ought to study the Republican Party. I am not referring to yet another political scientist but to a mental health professional, preferably a specialist in the power of fixations, obsessions and the like. The GOP needs an intervention. It has become a cult.

To become a Republican, one has to take a pledge. It is not enough to support the party or mouth banalities about Ronald Reagan; one has to promise not to give the government another nickel. This is called the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” issued by Americans for Tax Reform, an organization headed by the chirpy Grover Norquist. He once labeled the argument that an estate tax would affect only the very rich “the morality of the Holocaust.” Anyone can see how singling out the filthy rich and the immensely powerful and asking them to ante up is pretty much the same as Auschwitz and that sort of thing.

Norquist’s pledge refers not only to tax increases but also to closing any loopholes, no matter how egregious, that would bring the government more money “unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.” Almost all the GOP’s presidential candidates have taken this oath, swearing before God and Grover Norquist to cease thinking on their own, never to exercise independent judgment and, if necessary, to destroy the credit of the United States, raise the cost of borrowing and put the government deeper into the hole.

Yet another pledge concerns abortion. It is called the “Pro-Life Leadership Pledge,” and it was conceived by the Susan B. Anthony List, an antiabortion group. Once again, most — but not all — of the GOP presidential candidates have signed it. In general, it demands a complete antiabortion position, not just personal opposition but opposition to judges, health officials and others who might, totally inexplicably, permit abortion. The pledge is silent about the usual exceptions — rape, incest, etc. — but Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of the Susan B. Anthony List, tells me the intent is to prohibit all abortions — even, say, the early termination of a 12-year-old’s pregnancy caused by incest. This, in other words, is the Pro-Hypocrisy Pledge.

Excuse me if I skip over other pledges and move to other matters. The hallmark of a cult is to replace reason with feverish belief. This the GOP has done when it comes to the government’s ability to stimulate the economy. History proves this works — it’s how the Great Depression ended — but Republicans will not acknowledge it.

The Depression in fact deepened in 1937 when Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to balance the budget and was ended entirely by World War II, which, besides being a noble cause, was also a huge stimulus program. Here, though, is Sen. Richard Shelby mouthing GOP dogma: Stimulus programs “did not bring us out of the Depression,” he recently told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour, but “the war did.” In other words, a really huge stimulus program hugely worked. Might not a more modest one succeed modestly? Shelby ought to follow his own logic.

Something similar has happened with global warming. It has become a conviction of much of the GOP that you and I, with our cars and factories and leaf blowers and barbecue pits, are off the hook — innocent of cooking the atmosphere. That being the case, it therefore is not the case that anything has to be done about it. Only much of science, common sense and your average walrus differ, but the GOP soldiers on. This is a version of Nancy Reagan’s pledge: Just say no.

Not every GOP candidate adheres to all of these cockamamie beliefs. Mitt Romney has not signed the antiabortion pledge (he has some quibbles), and in the Senate, Tom Coburn has broken with Norquist about raising revenue. But the net effect is to establish an intellectual barrier for admittance to the presidential race: Independent thinkers, stop right here! If you believe in global warming, revenue enhancement, stimulus programs, the occasional need for abortion or even the fabulist theories of the late Charles Darwin, then either stay home — or lie.

This intellectual rigidity has produced a GOP presidential field that’s a virtual political Jonestown. The Grand Old Party, so named when it really did evoke America, has so narrowed its base that it has become a political cult. It is a redoubt of certainty over reason and in itself significantly responsible for the government deficit that matters most: leadership. That we can’t borrow from China.

Labels: Dumbasses, Empire, end of, Greedy Assholes, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 11:21 AM |

What if You Held a Class War and No One Showed Up?
By Kevin Drum Fri Jul. 1, 2011 9:20 AM PDT.

National Review's Robert Costa interviews rising right-wing attack dog Marco Rubio:

Rubio tells us that he will respond to Obama’s recent press conference, where the president reveled in class-warfare bluster....“Talking about corporate jets and oil companies,” Rubio says, missed the point. “Everybody here agrees that our tax code is broken,” he says, and he is open to discussing tax reform. “But don’t go around telling people that the reason you are not doing well is because some rich guy is in a corporate jet or some oil company is making too much money.”

Watching Obama brandish such talking points made Rubio wince. “Three years into his presidency, he is a failed president,” he says. “He just has not done a good job. Life in America today, by every measure, is worse than it was when he took over.”

“When does it start to get better?” Rubio asks. “When does the magic of this president start to happen?”

Today is one of those days where I hardly know how to react to things anymore. Part of me shrugs at this stuff: politics is politics. Of course Republicans are going to call a Democratic president a failure. What else would they do?

But then, for about the thousandth time, my mind wanders over the past ten years. Republicans got the tax cuts they wanted. They got the financial deregulation they wanted. They got the wars they wanted. They got the unfunded spending increases they wanted. And the results were completely, unrelentingly disastrous. A decade of sluggish growth and near-zero wage increases. A massive housing bubble. Trillions of dollars in war spending and thousands of American lives lost. A financial collapse. A soaring long-term deficit. Sky-high unemployment. All on their watch and all due to policies they eagerly supported. And worse: ever since the predictable results of their recklessness came crashing down, they've rabidly and nearly unanimously opposed every single attempt to dig ourselves out of the hole they created for us.

But despite the fact that this is all recent history, it's treated like some kind of dreamscape. No one talks about it. Republicans pretend it never happened. Fox News insists that what we need is an even bigger dose of the medicine we got in the aughts, and this is, inexplicably, treated seriously by the rest of the press corps instead of being laughed at. As a result, guys like Marco Rubio have a free hand to insist that Obama — Obama! The guy who rescued the banking system, bailed out GM, and whose worst crime against the rich is a desire to increase their income tax rate 4.6 percentage points! — is a "left-wing strong man" engaged in brutal class warfare against the wealthy. And Rubio does it without blinking. Hell, he probably even believes it.

We are well and truly down the rabbit hole. The party of class warfare for the past 30 years is fighting a war against an empty field and the result has been a rout. I wonder what would happen if the rest of us ever actually started fighting back?

Labels: Empire, end of, Greedy Assholes, Obama Administration, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 11:17 AM |

Let’s Unveil One for the Gipper

Posted on Jul 4, 2011

This Fourth of July, during a transatlantic Age of Austerity, roughly 2,000 people paid to attend a private celebration near the American embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square, where a memorial statue of Ronald Reagan was unveiled. British Foreign Secretary William Hague and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were among the event’s distinguished guests.

It was not popular demand that brought an immortal image of the 40th president of the United States to the English capital. The event was organized by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation as part of a two-year-long Reagan Centennial Celebration marking what would have been his 100th birthday. —ARK

BBC:

But this is the Age of Austerity. The party is now a scaled down event for the creme de la creme. This year, the big 4 July event in London was held in Grosvenor Square just across from the American embassy and it was a private affair not hosted by the US government. A statue of Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States, was unveiled.

... The creation of the statue—total cost $1m—did not grow out of a public clamour for a fitting memorial to the late president (though Westminster City Council made an exception to its usual rule refusing permission for statues until 10 years have passed since the subject’s death).

The event is part of a year-long series of big occasions to mark the centenary of Reagan’s birth, organised by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. In the weeks prior to the London unveiling, statues have been unveiled and conferences convened in Krakow, Budapest and Prague.

Labels: Empire, end of, Greedy Assholes, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 11:14 AM |

During Sean Hannity's special last week, featuring Republican propagandist and professional turd-polisher Frank Luntz, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint joined the show and took questions from Luntz and audience members in one of his focus groups.

During this segment DeMint repeated what has become one of the right's big lies they like to tell on taxes, that half of Americans don't pay any federal income tax, as though that's the only tax anyone pays.

This reminded me of an article I recently read at AlterNet where Joshua Holland did a nice job debunking that talking point last year.

Fox and Drudge Sucker Tea Partiers with a Big Lie About Taxes:

Labels: Dumbasses, Greedy Assholes, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 11:07 AM |

Cantor could rake in windfall if debt ceiling isn’t raised

By David Edwards Thursday, June 30th, 2011 -- 4:35 pm

Economists have said that failing to raise the debt ceiling could be catastrophic for the U.S. economy, but at least one lawmaker stands to gain financially if the country defaults on its debts.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-VA) latest financial disclosure statement indicates that he owns up to $15,000 of ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury EFT, a fund that will likely skyrocket as U.S. debt becomes less desirable.

"If the debt ceiling isn’t raised, investors would start fleeing U.S. Treasuries," Motley Fool's Matt Koppenheffer told Salon. "Yields would rise, prices would fall, and the Proshares ETF should do very well. It would spike."

"Cantor's involvement in the fund and negotiations is not ideal," he added. "I don’t think someone negotiating the debt ceiling should be invested in this kind of an ultra-short... It looks pretty bad."

Cantor pulled out of negotiations to raise the debt limit last week saying, "Now is the time for these talks to go into abeyance."

Since that time, ProShares ETF is up 3.3 percent.

"Cantor's office claims the investment is simply part of a balanced portfolio," noted Washington Monthly's Steve Benen. "It's hardly a stretch, though, to suggest prominent officials should avoid these kinds of conflicts of interest."

While Fighting To Block SEC Investigation Of Goldman Sachs, Rep. Darrell Issa Bought Goldman Sachs Bonds

By Lee Fang on Jun 29, 2011 at 9:30 am

Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) raised hell last year to stop the federal government from investigating Goldman Sachs regarding allegations that the company defrauded investors. In April 2010, shortly after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a civil suit against Goldman Sachs, Issa sent a letter to SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro demanding to know if there was “any sort of prearrangement, coordination, direction from, or advance notice” between the SEC and the Obama administration or congressional Democrats over the timing of the lawsuit.

Issa’s investigation of the SEC’s investigation into Goldman Sachs stole the headlines and reinforced Goldman Sach’s claim that they had done nothing wrong. Explaining his defense of Goldman Sachs, Issa said he was representing the views of ordinary Americans who are worried about the “growth of government and the growth of government wanting to become more complex, with more agencies and more control over our lives.”

However, recent personal finance disclosures reviewed by ThinkProgress paint a different picture of Issa’s motivations. According to documents filed recently with the House Clerk, Issa went on a buying spree of high yield Goldman Sachs bonds at the same time he was running defense for the investment bank in Congress. From February to December of 2010, Issa bought 12 Goldman Sachs High Yield Fund Class A bonds, each worth up to $50,000 (view page 10 the disclosure here). Many of the bonds were purchased in the months after he filed his letter to the SEC. The $600,000 in new Goldman Sachs investments added to Issa’s multimillion dollar accounts managed by the company, valued from $5.1 to $15.5 million.

Labels: Dumbasses, Greedy Assholes, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 12:19 PM |

Jim DeMint – Fuck You – Raise Taxes on Billionaires and Corporations

Posted on the June 26th, 2011 by All Facts Support My Positions

Fuck You Jim DeMint

Fuck you Jim. You want to slam the poor, the sick, and the elderly to “balance the budget” and won’t even consider cutting corporate welfare, or having the billionaires, or the companies they own stock in pay their fair share. I pray that there is justice in this world and some day you will be looking for meals in dumpsters, instead of flying around in corporate jets spewing your psycho economic lies. It’s freaks like you that are destroying this nation, and the sooner we cut corporate welfare, and start taking care of “regular” Americans, and creating jobs instead of pain the better.

So DeMint. Tell us why making sure the filthy rich doesn’t pay their fair share of taxes is good for America? Tell me why my paying more in income tax than Exxon, or BofA is good for America? Tell me why promoting drilling for oil is better than green energy?

Labels: Dumbasses, Greedy Assholes, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 9:55 AM |

Thu Jun 30, 2011 at 07:30 AM PDT.

Under fire for not doing their jobs, House Republicans go on vacation by Jed Lewison

House Republicans have nothing on their legislative calendar until July 7, 2011

So even as pundits call President Obama a dick for calling out House Republicans for taking too much vacation and failing to get their jobs done...
...no House Republicans were available for comment because they were all on vacation.

Labels: Dumbasses, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 9:08 AM |

Bachmann stands by claims that ‘Founding Fathers’ ended slavery

Posted on 06.28.11 By Kase Wickman

Rep. Michele Bachmann, who officially announced yesterday in Iowa that she is running for president, appeared on “Good Morning America” Monday, where George Stephanopoulos attempted to clarify some of her previous statements.

Among them: Bachmann’s claim that “the Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence worked tirelessly to end slavery.”

“Now with respect, Congresswoman, that’s just not true,” Stephanopoulos said. “Many of them including Jefferson and Washington were actually slave holders and slavery didn’t end until the Civil War.”

Bachmann dodged the question, answering, “Well, you know what’s marvelous is that in this country and under our Constitution, we have the ability when we recognize that something is wrong to change it. And that’s what we did in our country. We changed it. We no longer have slavery. That’s a good thing. And what our Constitution has done for our nation, is to give us the basis of freedom unparalleled in the rest of the world.”

She goes on to claim that John Quincy Adams, who was a small boy during the Revolutionary War and did indeed eventually work to abolish slavery, should be counted as a “Founding Father.”

Watch the visibly distraught Stephanopoulos’ interview with the tea party candidate, in which she discusses the minimum wage, Sarah Palin and her foster children.

Labels: Dumbasses, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 1:25 PM |

Wisconsin Governor Walker's Chief Judicial Ally Accused of Physically Attacking Jurist Who Defended Rule of Law

John Nichols June 25, 2011

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, who mentored controversial Governor Scott Walker when both served as Republican legislators, has positioned himself as the primary defender of Walker’s radical anti-labor and anti-local democracy agenda on the court.

And it appears that the justice, whose unstable behavior and violent language has been highlighted in media reports, is willing to go to any length to protect Walker from legal accountability.

Justice Prosser, who retained his seat on the court only after the recount of results from an April statewide election that saw charges of fraud and political abuse aimed at the justice’s campaign, now stands accused of physically attacking a justice who disagreed with his push to make the high court an amen corner for the governor.

Labels: Dumbasses, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 5:19 PM |

Political AnimalBlog
June 24, 2011 4:50 PM

Reaping what they’ve sown

By Steve Benen

Georgia Republicans recently passed a very harsh anti-immigrant measure into law, successfully driving a lot of undocumented workers out of the state. Republicans who championed the measure said the new law would improve Georgia’s economy.

As Jay Bookman explained, now they’re saying something different.

The resulting manpower shortage has forced state farmers to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they’ve done to Georgia’s largest industry.

Labels: Dumbasses, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 11:45 AM |

GOP Blew Up Debt Negotiations To Protect Tax Breaks For People Making $500,000 Or More
By Marie Diamond on Jun 24, 2011 at 4:24 pm

Yesterday House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) may well have doomed negotiations to raise the nation’s debt limit when they walked out over a dispute with Democrats about raising revenues. Their theatrics bring the country closer to the brink of financial collapse, and observers have described the move as a “tamper tantrum” and “political grandstanding.” Today, more details emerged about exactly what Republicans are willing to threaten the global economy over to defend.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a member of the bipartisan debt discussion group led by Vice President Joe Biden, said Republicans chose to “protect taxpayer subsidies for big oil companies, tax breaks for corporate jets, and tax breaks for millionaires”:

Labels: Dumbasses, Greedy Assholes, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 2:23 PM |

McKenna Belittles Last Week’s Protesters as Jobless, Single, Lazy Loser April 14, 2011 at 12:48 pm by Josh Feit Attorney General Rob McKenna sent out an email today to his supporters that I have to take issue with. The email criticizes the “far-left protesters” and “far-left extremists” who showed up in Olympia last week to protest the current budget proposals—which cut education, health care, and social services—and call for the legislature to look at repealing corporate tax breaks as well. McKenna accuses the protesters of ignoring last year’s election results—where tax increases on candy, soda, and bottled water were rejected and Tim Eyman’s two-thirds rule to raise taxes won big. That’s fair enough (however, recent polling has shown that voters would prefer a budget that combines tax cuts with repealing loopholes.) The part about McKenna’s email that’s simply bad manners is when he accuses last week’s busloads of protesters of (I guess) being privileged enough to take the day off for a day trip to Olympia. He writes:

Unfortunately, average taxpayers don’t necessarily have the time to drive down to Olympia and encourage legislators to hold the line on taxes. They have families to raise, jobs to do and businesses to keep afloat.

The image of snooty protesters rolling down to Oly for a protest is far off the mark. I covered the protests and interviewed lots of protesters, including nurses such as Zandi Hardison and a wife of a longtime utility worker, Donna Simmons, who felt average workers were getting a bad deal.

That's right, it's less than six months since the historic 2010 election, and already the far-left protestors screaming for media attention are pretending it didn't happen.

In fact, one hard-core tax-and-spend advocate summed up their position succinctly at last week's protests in Olympia: "We don't care what happened in the last election." Don't you think that the message voters sent last year was clear enough? Last fall, voters in our state resoundingly rejected a state income tax and repealed new taxes on candy, bottled water and other items. At the same time they passed, yet again, a 2/3 majority rule for passing tax increases, a measure that majority Democrats have repeatedly ignored and repealed.

No, that message should be clear enough, even for a screaming protester.

Washington voters rejected tax hikes on struggling families and told the Olympia crowd – Make do with the taxes you already take!

It's not that far-left extremists, some of whom were arrested storming the governor's office in the capitol last week, didn't hear that message. They just don't like it and think your elected officials should ignore it.

And that's why the mob was cheering when they heard "We don't care what happened in the last election."

Now that's a pretty galling statement. The far-left position is that everything the voters said last year should be ignored, and they made their voices loud and clear in Olympia last week. They received the media attention they wanted.

Unfortunately, average taxpayers don't necessarily have the time to drive down to Olympia and encourage legislators to hold the line on taxes. They have families to raise, jobs to do and businesses to keep afloat.

So, I do want you to know about one opportunity, perhaps a little closer to your home, where you can make your voice heard. Tomorrow, April 15, I'll be speaking at Bellevue City Hall to the Tax Day Rally 2011 at 11:00 a.m. It will be a great event where we celebrate our state and stand up for the majority of people who DO care what happened in the last election. I hope to see you there.

All the best, Rob McKenna

Labels: Dumbasses, Greedy Assholes, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 7:36 PM |

WI Repub lives outside district with mistress, says wife
By David Ferguson
Sunday, March 13th, 2011 -- 2:45 pm

Protesters who marched at the home of Wisconsin state senator Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) were met with something of a surprise on Saturday. Mrs. Hopper appeared at the door and informed them that Sen. Hopper was no longer in residence at this address, but now lives in Madison, WI with his 25-year-old mistress.

Blogging Blue reports that the conservative Republican's much-younger new flame is currently employed as a lobbyist for right-wing advocacy group Persuasion Partners, Inc., but was previously a state senate staffer who worked on the Senate Economic Development Committee alongside Mr. Hopper. Her bio has been scrubbed from the Persuasion Partners' website, but a screen-grab is available here.

**snip**

Blogging Blue also reports that Mrs. Hopper intends to sign the recall petition against her husband. The petition has already been signed by the family's maid.

Labels: Dumbasses, Jackasses, Republicans

# posted by Rujax! : 9:16 PM |