tagged w/ Democrats Are Republicans
-
Click link to get the video, you'll love where this is going when you read the story!
The idea of Fox News getting high and mighty about Media Matters' DropFox campaign is, well...laughable. However, what might be even more laughable is the idea that they can start a campaign to strip Media Matters of their tax-exempt status. They should be careful what they wish for.
In this clip, viewer Dana Martin from New Orleans tells Fox and Friends why she is so convinced that Media Matters tax-exempt status must be revoked. So convinced, in fact, that she filled in a web form to send a complaint to the IRS about their tax exempt status. And guess where that web form is? On the Fox Nation web page, of course, where else?
But as I said, they should be careful what they wish for. Let's look at some other tax-exempt organizations who also undertake "campaigns" with taxpayer subsidies. There's the Media Research Center, headed by Brent Bozell, who routinely appears on Fox News as a commentator. One look at their website shows that they have some 'projects' of their own which are clearly not educational at all, but purely political.
And of course, there's the US Chamber of Commerce, also fully subsidized by taxpayers just like the Citizens United Foundation, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute. Continuing on, we can also include the Catholic, Mormon, Presbyterian and Baptist churches as tax-exempt organizations which should be carefully scrutinized as to the legitimacy of their tax exemption. And those are just ones that come to mind quickly.
This is Media Matters' mission statement:
Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
Seems to me they're being perfectly consistent in their purpose, but this campaign put on by Fox shows just how effective they've been in actually accomplishing it. If I take a deep breath, I'm sure I can smell Roger Ailes' aggravation from here. Or stench. Or something.
Update:Here are two clips from this morning, too. It's a series! And it's all George Soros' fault! And only charities we like should be tax-exempt!
For the rest of the story click on the link provided:Click link to get the video, you'll love where this is going when you read the... more
-
-
Senator Chuck Schumer:
…Republican approach of 'cut, cut, cut' over the last six months has undermined our economic recovery…
…the recovery was gaining momentum…
…Republicans continually blocked us from doing anything to create jobs…
We have now been playing entirely on the Republicans‘ field for six months and the recovery has only slowed.
And we need to start asking ourselves an uncomfortable question – are Republicans slowing down the recovery on purpose for political gain in 2012? It’s one thing for them to block programs they have always opposed. But when they start to contradict themselves by opposing programs they have supported—such as pro-business tax cuts—we are left to wonder.
Let's not forget – Senator McConnell made it clear last October that his number one priority, above everything else, is to defeat President Obama.
And now it is becoming clear that insisting on a slash-and-burn approach may be part of this plan – it has a double-benefit for Republicans: it is ideologically tidy and it undermines the economic recovery, which they think only helps them in 2012.
Link to Senator Chuck Schumer’s prepared remarks and video of event (46:08):
http://www.epi.org/pages/7254/
Link to Huffington Post article about same topic: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/slash-and-burn-chuck-schu_n_887648.htmlSenator Chuck Schumer:
…Republican approach of 'cut, cut, cut'... more
-
-
The great Republican NLRB freakout of 2011 is a little hard to write about, because by explaining what's going on in a way that makes it more interesting than watching paint dry, you've almost certainly done the Republicans a favor by sensationalizing it.
According to its website,
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects the rights of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve their wages and working conditions.
Under the National Labor Relations Act, the NLRB is tasked with protecting workers from both employers and unions, should it be necessary. Among the standard "examples of employer conduct that violates the law" found on the NLRB's website is this:
Transferring, laying off, terminating, assigning employees more difficult work tasks, or otherwise punishing employees because they engaged in union or protected concerted activity.
That's the crux of the Boeing case. Boeing did not just move production of its Dreamliner from Washington to South Carolina. It did so in direct retaliation for a strike by workers in Washington, as its executives clearly conveyed in interviews. This is in violation of the very basic principle of the National Labor Relations Act quoted above: you don't get to punish workers for exercising their legal rights. As labor scholar John Logan writes in The Hill,
The NLRB is not telling a private company where it can and cannot do business.
Under U.S. law, Boeing has a right to transfer work from Washington to South Carolina for good reasons, bad reasons, or no reason at all. But it is not allowed to transfer work for discriminatory reasons - in this case, retaliation for Washington workers exercising their right to strike. Boeing has claimed that the NLRB complaint takes out of context remarks on the motivation behind the transfer of work. The comments in question are about as clear as one could imagine. The "over-riding factor" in the decision to locate the jobs in South Carolina, Boeing's executive vice president explained, was the need to avoid further work stoppages.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has pushed Republican presidential candidates to condemn the NLRB complaint, and they've responded with an avalanche of bullshit:
Mitt Romney called it a "power grab." Herman Cain said it was "completely unacceptable ... political games." Tim Pawlenty called it "another outrageous overreach by the federal government." And Newt Gingrich accused the labor board of "basically breaking the law."
Breaking the law; upholding the law. One of those. Most recently, Jon Huntsman called for President Obama to "step in." To prevent a federal agency from doing its job.
The next freakout is where Republicans tipped their hand about what's really going on here. The National Labor Relations Board proposed some modest steps to streamline union representation elections and reduce frivolous litigation and, as Greg Sargent writes,
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is already denouncing the reforms as one of the Obama administration’s “biggest gifts yet to organized labor,” as well as an attempt to “bully companies into relinquishing their free speech rights.”
Oooh, that sounds big, right? And it goes on from there; Media Matters has a roundup of hyperventilation about "quickie elections." Except that as Sargent continues:
But groups like the Chamber can be expected to attack virtually anything anyone proposes in the way of labor reform of any kind. For instance, the Chamber attacked an altogether unrelated reform proposal some time ago in the same terms, denouncing it as “probably the most significant handout to organized labor that we’ve seen in this administration.”
The Chamber, Nikki Haley, Republican presidential candidates, and their ilk know few people follow NLRB or Department of Labor actions all that closely, and by wailing about "handouts" and "bullying" and "power grabs" they can convince at least some to just assume that these actions must be a big deal. To an extent, both the Boeing complaint and the new rule are a big deal. The barriers workers face when it comes to joining a union are so massive and entrenched that anything that lowers those barriers, however fractionally, is important to them. But, to continue the barrier metaphor for a minute, this new rule is more a matter of putting one or two handholds in the 30-foot anti-union wall than of installing a monorail to smoothly convey workers over it. And the Boeing complaint is like saying, "No, companies aren't allowed to stand on top of the barrier kicking people in the face."
http://bit.ly/kDoHKGThe great Republican NLRB freakout of 2011 is a little hard to write about, because by... more
-
-
– The current offensive underway against Medicare by Paul Ryan and the House Republican majority is well known– The current offensive underway against Medicare by Paul Ryan and the House... more
-
-
Republicans in other states are trying to strip workers of rights. Wisconsin. Indiana. Iowa. If you voted for any of these Republicans, please go screw yourself.Republicans in other states are trying to strip workers of rights. Wisconsin. Indiana.... more
-
-
Yves Smith-
Much ink has been spilled about the increase of wealth at the top. This graphic comes from the Guardian (hat tip Merrill K, click to enlarge):
From the related article:
In the world of the well-heeled, the rich are referred to as “high net worth individuals” (HNWIs) and defined as people who have more than $1m (£620,000) of free cash.
According to the annual world wealth report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, the wealth of HNWIs around the world reached $42.7tn (£26.5tn) in 2010, rising nearly 10% in a year and surpassing the peak of $40.7tn reached in 2007, even as austerity budgets were implemented by many governments in the developed world.
The report also measures a category of “ultra-high net worth individuals” – those with at least $30m rattling around, looking for a home. The number of individuals in this super-rich bracket climbed 10% to a total of 103,000, and the total value of their investments jumped by 11.5% to $15tn, demonstrating that even among the rich, the richest get richer quicker. Altogether they represent less than 1% of the world’s HNWIs – but they speak for 36% of HNWI’s total wealth.Yves Smith-
Much ink has been spilled about the increase of wealth at the top. This... more
-
-
Information leaked from government hacked websites reveal that the US domestic spy program has infiltrated every facet of our society both online and offline. The information revealed in the data leaks reveal that companies that we use on a daily basis and have come to rely on in our modern society, companies that we would never suspect, are in spying on us for the FBI. In fact a wide range of companies have been revealed to be spying on us from our healthcare providers, medical insurance companies and hardware stores to companies that provide payroll services, accounting services, financial services, credit card companies, banks, data centers, human resource companies and web hosting companies and every kind of company in between.
In fact the FBI has domestic spies in 350 Fortune 500 companies and even operates in real estate companies, job search websites, employment staffing services, public schools and colleges, music sharing websites and even sites that report on the location of underground parties and raves.
Less shocking is that the Spy Program has been designed in a way to allow the Feds operate outside the laws of the US Constitution, entirely side stepping the 4th amendment which protects individuals against illegal search and seizure by requiring the government to obtain a warrant.
(http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/06/24/latest-hacker-release-reveals-feds-domestic-spy-program-grown-wildest-nightmares-30221/lots more at link and source material)Information leaked from government hacked websites reveal that the US domestic spy... more
-
-
Click on the blue printed videocafe.crooksandliars link for the video:
The American people being snookered again by the GOP? Hell yes, tax cuts have not created jobs and this Oil subsidy is nothing more than Corporate welfare. Aren't Republicans against welfare?Click on the blue printed videocafe.crooksandliars link for the video:
The American... more
-
