Good morning!

I just had to post a follow-up to continue the conversation on the happenings of the Secret Service. From The Rachel Maddow Show.

Leakers go public with Secret Service chaos

*S*S*S*

Readers: Let me say it again, “The Secret Service Sucks.” What more is going to be revealed in the next few days and months? Thoughts? Comments? You were silent yesterday, probably against your will. HOPEfully you have a voice today – so…what do you have to say? Blog me.

President Obama: I care about you and your family enormously. Your safety is of utmost importance. With all due respect, please remember that you have a pair, and use them. Fire Ms Pierson and the secret service agents. They clearly do not have your well-being in the forefront of their minds.

Peace & Love…

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

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All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good morning!

I realize my title may be construed as harsh, but don’t you think that if the safest place in the U.S., The White House, is majorly breached and the Secret Service are responsible for protecting our president and his family, and they don’t, they pretty much suck. Either that or they’re just not concerned about the well-being and safety of the president and his family, as they should be, and then well…that still sucks. I do, therefore, think my title is appropriate. Because it is their job…they are getting paid to protect the First Family. 

And then that brings to light another question of “Is their racism involved here?” I know, I know…I’m always accusing and illuminating racism…..But there is just too many layers breached and too many opportunities to prevent that breach that just didn’t happen, and should have.

And now we are privy to the fact that this fence jumper, Omar Gonzalez, actually made it further into the White House, all the way into the East Room, wielding a knife, rather than just entering the reported foyer. Hello! A knife kills  - we’ve seen sick evidence this past month on how easily a knife can kill. If one of the Obama girls was grabbed by Gonzales…well, we all know what could happen with a knife.

How did this happen when the Secret Service are supposed to be the best…are supposed to protect the president and his family?

Let’s not forget that Gonzalez was stopped twice before, and he was caring guns/ammunition, maps to the White House, etc., were found on him and nothing was done then.  Wha’at??!!

Here’s the write from CNN.

Officials: Fence jumper made it into East Room of White House

Washington (CNN) – The man who jumped the White House fence earlier this month and breached the mansion’s doors actually made it farther than originally thought, officials said Monday.

Omar Gonzalez, a 42-year-old Iraq war veteran who had a knife in his pocket, overcame one Secret Service officer and ran into the East Room of the White House, where he was then subdued, a federal law enforcement said.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who was provided the information by whistleblowers during his congressional investigation into the incident, also confirmed the details of what now appears to be a wild chase through the main floor of the White House, first reported by the Washington Post.

The Secret Service had previously stated that Gonzalez was stopped after entering the front door of the North Portico.

Gonzalez ran through much of the main floor, past a stairway that leads up to the first family’s residence, and was ultimately stopped at the far southern end of the East Room. He also reached the doorway to the Green Room, an area that looks out on the South Lawn.

No shots were fired inside the White House, the federal law official said.

Official: Secret Service twice interviewed, released would-be White House intruder

The Secret Service has not yet commented on the new details.

“I could not be more proud of the individual agents, but I worry that Director (Julia) Pierson and the leadership there at the Secret Service is failing them,” Chaffetz said Monday on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

Pierson will face tough questions at an already-scheduled hearing on Tuesday before the House Oversight Committee.

A Republican from Utah who sits on the committee, said he wants to know why an audible alarm in the White House had been muted after ushers said it was making too many noises.

And shortly after the incident earlier this month, the Secret Service issued a statement saying officers “showed tremendous restraint and discipline in dealing with” Gonzalez.

Chaffetz said he has a problem with that, too.

“I don’t want tremendous restraint,” he said. “I want to see overwhelming force to deter somebody. When you have the situation where you have the apparent lax security, you’re unfortunately going to invite more attacks. And that’s the concern.”

Pierson sent a letter to committee chairman Darrell Issa last Friday raising concerns about an holding open discussion on security issues and urged the chairman to allow some of her testimony to take place in a classified setting.

“Simply put, publicly airing the very security measures employed by the Secret Service and the various challenges we confront at the White House complex will arm those who desire to cause injury – or worse – to the President and First Family with critical information, and doing so would be beyond reckless,” Pierson wrote.

How the Secret Service could beef up White House security

CNN has learned from a Democratic source on the Oversight Committee that Issa has agreed to Pierson’s request, and will hold a separate, classified session on Tuesday.

The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, praised the decision to protect the agency’s mission.

“This is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, but an American issue, and the last thing we should do is give people like Gonzalez a road map for how to attack the President or other officials,” Cummings said in a written statement to CNN.

Readers: I agree with the reporter…”Restraint?” C’mon, bring the intruder down! This is the protection of the president of the United States and his family. This was not some thug on the streets; this was in the White House. If you can’t discern the difference or the degree of importance here, you shouldn’t be the Secret Service director. Yeah, I’m addressing you Ms. Pierson.

Now this morning we have the hearings going on questioning the Secret Service Director, Ms. Pierson, on why her agents did nothing. And they are drilling her…and rightly so. Did you watch? My opinion has not changed. This woman and all of the agents need to be fired. Obama has a big pair, no doubt, but when it comes to the actions, or lack thereof,  from the Secret Service, he is being way too soft and lenient. This is his safety and the safety of his family. Fire them all. 

And if that isn’t reason enough to be fired, Ms Pierson is also being drilled about the gun shots that were fired at the White House and entered into the White House in November 2011. The agents heard the gun shots, smelled the gun shots being fired, heard the sound of debris falling…and still did nothing. They claim that the gun shots were merely a construction vehicle backfiring nearby. Yeah…6-8 backfires. I don’t think so.

It wasn’t until days later that a housekeeper noticed some damage in the White House and found bullet holes. Wha’at??!! It takes no training to look around for evidence of bullet holes but it seems that the Secret Service didn’t bother to do something as simple as that. There lack of action shows very little concern for the safety of the First Family.

When the repub’s biggest goal is to destroy Obama, they will do whatever is necessary.  The repub controlled House of Representatives put in place a drastic budget cut and the Secret Service had requested a staff reduction of over 300 employees in 2013. They also went from 13 training as year down to 6 and now there are no trainings. Not that less Secret Service agents should affect the ability of the ones on duty doing his or her job, nor do you need training to snoop around for bullet holes. The housekeeper certainly doesn’t have any training. All it takes is a little caring and curiosity. But when training is eliminated, what kind of message do you think this sends?

The media won’t address it but I will. Would these budget cuts and a reduction in Secret Service agents have been made if Obama was a white man?  Is it unfair to say that if Obama was white, Gonzales would’ve been taken out? Not to mention that if Gonzales were black would he ever have been able to set foot inside of the White House, let alone have gotten in as far as he did, without being brought down?

This whole thing is shocking. Fire Ms Pierson  and all the agents.  

What are your thoughts? What are your questions? Blog me. 

Aimee: As I mentioned, Ruth didn’t need anyone else to agree with her nomination of Mark, but I did ask if anyone else wanted to nominate him and you gave your vote. :) He is a member.

Lewis: I did a search and found this, “Hundreds of voters are disenfranchised by North Carolina’s new voting restrictions,” which is what I am assuming you are referring to. Do you know the verdict from last Thursday? I could not find it.

Dave: And according to the above quoted write, even Vets who were registered and whose registration was incorrectly terminated while he was away fighting for our country. Repubs will do whatever it takes to win.

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

From Think Progress:

BREAKING: Federal Appeals Court Withdraws Decision Defunding Obamacare

In July, two Republican judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed down a decision defunding much of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This effort to implement Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) top policy priority from the bench was withdrawn on Thursday by the DC Circuit, and the case will be reheard by the full court — a panel that will most likely include 13 judges. In practical terms, this means that July’s judgment cutting off subsidies to consumers who buy insurance plans in federally-operated health exchanges is no more. It has ceased to be. It is, in fact, an ex-judgment.

The reason why this matters is because the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, known as Halbig v. Burwell, are hustling to try to convince the GOP-dominated Supreme Court to hear this case, where they no doubt believe that they have a greater chance of succeeding than in the DC Circuit, as a majority of the active judges in the DC Circuit are Democrats. The Supreme Court takes only a tiny fraction of the cases brought to their attention by parties who lost in a lower court — a study of the Court’s 2005 term, for example, found that the justices granted a full argument to only 78 of the 8,517 petitions seeking the high Court’s review that term. The justices, however, are particularly likely to hear cases where two federal appeals courts disagree about the same question of law.

Two hours after the divided DC Circuit panel released its opinion attempted to defund Obamacare, a unanimous panel of the Fourth Circuit upheld the health subsidies that are at issue in Halbig. Thus, so long as both decisions remained in effect, Supreme Court review was very likely. Now that the full DC Circuit has vacated the two Republican judges’ July judgement, Supreme Court review is much less likely.

Although it is possible that the full DC Circuit could agree with the two judges who voted to cut off health subsidies to millions of Americans, this outcome is unlikely. The plaintiffs’ arguments in this case are weakand are unlikely to move judges who do not have a partisan stake in undermining the Affordable Care Act.

The litigants seeking to undermine Obamacare through this lawsuit — Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R), who filed a brief supporting the plaintiffs in this case, admitted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the purpose of this lawsuit is to cause “the structure of the ACA” to “crumble” — waged a two front effort trying to convince the full DC Circuit not to vacate their two GOP colleagues’ decision. The first half of this effort was a brief the plaintiffs filed with in the DC Circuit urging the full court to give the case a miss — although the argument raised in this brief is rather unusual. In essence, it broke down to three claims:

1. This case is really important. And potentially very disruptive. According to the Halbig plaintiffs, “continued uncertainty” over whether Obamacare will be defunded “is simply not tenable, given its enormous consequences for millions of Americans, hundreds of thousands of businesses, dozens of states, and billions of dollars in monthly federal spending.”
2. If the full DC Circuit agreed to hear the case, however, that “would cause delay without providing any certainty,” because the Supreme Court may ultimately decide to take the case.
3. Thus, the DC Circuit must not near this case, and it must “proceed immediately” to a “final resolution by the Supreme Court.”

On the surface, this argument may have some appeal, but it collapses upon a fairly minimal amount of scrutiny. It would indeed be disruptive if much of the Affordable Care Act were defunded, and the existence of this lawsuit does raise some uncertainty over whether or not that will happen. It would be even more disruptive, however, if President Obama were deposed because the Supreme Court held that he was born in Kenya, or if the federal tax code were held unconstitutional, or if people could immunize themselves from the law by declaring themselves “sovereign citizens.” If the mere fact that a plaintiff raises a potentially disruptive legal argument were grounds for removing all obstacles to immediate Supreme Court review, then the Court’s docket would be clogged with cases brought by birthers, tax protesters and sovereign citizens.

The reason why this doesn’t happen is that the justices typically use the lower courts as a mechanism to screen the few cases raising issues that are difficult enough to warrant Supreme Court review from the vast bulk of cases that do not. This is one reason why the justices tend to hear cases where two courts of appeals disagree — because that disagreement is a sign that the case is sufficiently challenging that it requires a definitive ruling from the nation’s highest Court. When the full DC Circuit announced they would rehear the case, by contrast, that was an indication that the two Republicans who blocked the subsidies may be outliers who reached an idiosyncratic result in an easy case. The fact that all six of the other judges who have considered the Obamacare subsidies have also upheld them also lends credence to this view.

Perhaps recognizing that their legal arguments against further DC Circuit review were not likely to carry the day, Obamacare’s opponents turned to the conservative press to litigate their case in the media. A full hearing by a federal appeals court, what is known as an “en banc” hearing, is an unusual proceeding. But the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure provide for en banc review when a case “involves a question of exceptional importance.” The plaintiffs in this case admit that “[t]here is no doubt that this case is of great national importance” in their most recent brief to the court — so they actually admit that this case warrants en banc review.

Additionally, the official commentary on the federal rule dealing with en banc hearings explains that “[i]ntercircuit conflict is cited as one reason for asserting that a proceeding involves a question of ‘exceptional importance,’” so that is a second reason why this case was a prime candidate for en banc review.

Yet you would never guess these facts if you read the conservative Wall Street Journal’s opinion page, which claims that “if the D.C. Circuit rehears the case en banc, it would be a sharp break from history.” Nor would you learn it from the National Review, which suggests that “the recent D.C. Circuit panel decision on Obamacare exchange subsidies inHalbig v. Burwell doesn’t meet the D.C. Circuit’s very high standard foren banc review.” Or if you read the Volokh Conspiracy, a popular libertarian legal blog read by many judges and their law clerks, which claims that “the bar on en banc rehearing in the D.C. Circuit has been higher than the bar for certiorari in the Supreme Court.”

The subject of how a federal appeals court should handle the purely discretionary question of whether or not they wish to rehear a particular case rarely makes national headlines. Nor do opinion writers of any kind normally dive into arcane rules of federal appellate procedure. It is difficult to read the conservative media’s protests regarding en banc review as anything other than an attempt to paint the court’s decision to rehear the case as a partisan decision — rather than what it is, a decision that is clearly consistent with the federal rules governing these circumstances. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal op-ed quoted above it quite explicit in its claim that a decision to grant an en banc rehearing would be a partisan decision — “Those who claim that the D.C. Circuit will rehear the case en banc do no service to the court’s judges, who know the threat that overtly politicized en banc rehearings pose to the court’s collegiality.”

Now that the DC Circuit has ignored these attempts to scare them off with accusations of partisanship, this case no longer meets the usual criteria for Supreme Court review.

*****

Readers: The repubs are always claiming that they don’t like judges that make law from their decisions, that should be made by the legislature. They like to call them “activist judges.” However, that only seems to be true unless the judge is enacting law from the bench that they can’t get passed legislatively. Typical hypocrites conducting politics as usual, looking to do whatever needs to be done to benefit their needs.

The fact is, repubs have been in collusion with many of the judges they have appointed at the federal level to do just that. They know that they have five bought and paid for members of SCOTUS, so if it makes it to that court they will have their law passed without having to be concerned with a presidential veto.

As we all know, so far they have been doing pretty well with that tactic. So they are now trying it with Obamacare in the federal district where they have bought and paid for federal judges. In the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia the republicans got 2 of their judges to disagree with all the other federal districts with a decision that defunds Obamacare. They were hoping to get a diversity in different federal districts to compel SCOTUS to take up the issue and their five S.T.A.R.K. would defund Obamacare on a 5 – 4 decision.

Thankfully, this time the two crooked judges had their rulings overturned at the federal level. If they hadn’t the disgusting republicans would have deprived millions of healthcare, all to defeat Obama. If we don’t defeat these animals at the polls, this country will truly be destroyed. They are determined to take the country back to the “good ‘ol days” when white males were truly America’s Affirmative Action Beneficiaries, where government actively gave white males preferential treatment and status above OTWs and white females. Don’t ever make the mistake and get lazy  thinking they won’t give it their best to get there.

Thoughts? Blog me.

 Mike, TM: All I can say is that Obama is thinking with his big head and he’s got a big pair. He’s not just the president of the U.S., he is a world leader, influencing others to join him – something no other president has ever done – another first for Obama. Simply awe-inspiring.

Social Butterfly: I am right there with you even before you schooled me on what you know about Hillary Clinton. (Thank you.) I just didn’t totally feel it with Hillary, but like you, I will vote for her if she is the Dem on the ticket. Therefore I will back her because I will do anything to keep the Dems in power.

I am a huge supporter of Elizabeth Warren, and would support her wholeheartedly if she were the Dem candidate.  If Clinton hadn’t run before and lost to Obama, Warren would probably go for it, and like Obama, she could be the underdog that could win. Unfortunately, Clinton supporters are not going to let Hillary lose twice, and Warren knows she would split the party by running. If Warren runs it will most likely be after Clinton or whoever wins the presidency in 2016 – Let’s make it a Dem again. (Ugh, I can’t believe I am even talking about 2016 – Let’s get through the  midterms first eh?!)

 Zen Lill: Happy that you did your homework, found good doctors to be on your team, and the growth is gone. Thanks for sharing your story. I HOPE it will inspire others to take action as you did. Be well.

Howie et al: Happy Jewish New Year!

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

Our favorite brothers are back. 

Kochonomics Returns

How The Koch Brothers Have Rigged The System In Wisconsin And North Carolina To Benefit Them

The Koch brothers are hard at work to limit government as much as possible, resulting in a system that benefits their businesses no matter the potential harm to everyone else — a strategy we have dubbed “Kochonomics.” The Koch network’s immense efforts to buy national elections have been widely documented. Here at CAP Action, we have also exposed the Kochs’ growing plans to shrink local governments by undermining public education, opposing mass transit, and blocking small tax increases to benefit public safety, schoolchildren, and seniors.

Our latest investigation of the Kochs uncovers their influence in two self-described model states, Wisconsin and North Carolina. In both states, the Koch network has funded state leaders who have put in place policies that benefit the wealthy few, including the Koch brothers, regardless of the effect on anyone else. We walk through how Kochonomics has worked in Wisconsin and North Carolina below, and be sure to check out the full report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund as well.

State: Wisconsin

Koch Foot Soldier: Gov. Scott Walker
Koch Business Interests in the State: Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held company in America owned by the Koch brothers, has six wholly owned subsidiaries with at least 17 locations in Wisconsin.
The Price of Influence: Gov. Scott Walker has been one of the top recipients of Koch donations in state politics, receiving $43,000 from the Koch network during his 2010 gubernatorial race. On top of that, Koch-backed advocacy group Americans For Prosperity has strongly supported Walker, spending at least $12.5 million to promote Walker’s conservative policies and electoral campaigns.
Policies Passed Which Benefit The Koch Brothers: The Koch network aggressively pushed for tax cuts that heavily favor millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations, which Gov. Walker pushed through and became law. One of the resulting benefits to the Kochs is that they could see their income tax rate on the manufacturing activities of Koch Industries subsidiaries in Wisconsin drop from 7.65 percent to as low as 0.15 percent.
How These Policies Could Hurt the Middle Class: Under Gov. Walker’s leadership and policies over the last four years, Wisconsin’s working and low-income families have had to pay $170 million more in additional taxes.

State: North Carolina

Koch Foot Soldier: North Carolina Speaker of the House Thom Tillis
Koch Business Interests in the State: Koch Industries has two wholly owned subsidiaries in the state of North Carolina with at least eight locations.
The Price of Influence: North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis received $11,000 in donations from Koch Industries from 2010 to 2012, making him second-highest recipient of Koch Industries campaign contributions in the Tar Heel state. In his run for U.S. Senate, Tillis has benefited from almost $12 million in spending from the Koch network.
Policies Passed Which Benefit The Koch Brothers: Americans for Prosperity advocated for—and state lawmakers passed—tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent by an average of more than $10,000 annually. Moreover, state lawmakers eliminated local business taxes, further reducing the taxes of Koch subsidiaries in North Carolina.
How These Policies Could Hurt the Middle Class: The tax policies pushed by the Koch network and passed by lawmakers would force working families earning between $52,000 and $84,000 per year to pay an average of $74 more in taxes.

BOTTOM LINE: While the Koch brothers may claim that their radical ideology helps everyone, the impact of the policies they promoted in Wisconsin and North Carolina are clear. These policies, which were made into law with the help of powerful elected officials collecting Koch contributions, benefit the wealthy—including the Koch’s business interests in the two states—but in most cases hurt working families.

*****

Readers:  Unfortunately, the truth is, they never left, and are still a thorn in the side of working families.

What’s on your mind? Blog me.

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good morning!

From Think Progress.

Inequality In Focus

America’s Disturbing And Pervasive Inequality, In Three Charts

The Census Bureau’s latest estimates of income and poverty released Tuesday reveal that, despite the economic recovery, inequality remains a massive problem in the United States. We’ve assembled three charts that demonstrate the how deeply the problem runs in our society:

1. Income inequality. Five years of economic recovery hasn’t resulted in any income growth for the vast majority of Americans. In 2013, the median income nationwide was $51,900, essentially unchanged from a year before and 8 percent lower than the median income in 2007, the year before the recession hit. The top five percent of earners made more than $196,000, while the bottom 10 percent made less than $12,400.

2. Racial inequality. Black and Hispanic Americans continue to lag far behind non-Hispanic white and Asian households in the amount that they earn. The median household headed by a black person earned $34,600 in 2013 and the median household headed by a Hispanic person earned $41,000. That’s compared to $58,300 for the median white, non-Hispanic household and $67,100 for the median Asian household.

3. Gender inequality. We wrote yesterday about how the gender wage gap hasn’t budged from last year: women earn just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns. But the poverty rate is higher for women than it is for men as well. The Census found that 15.8 percent of women live in poverty, compared to 13.1 percent of men. And as the chart below demonstrates, the poverty gap between men and women grows as the population ages.

CREDIT: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

BOTTOM LINE: Five years into the economic recovery, middle class Americans are still struggling to make ends meet. But there is no reason to expect the economy to really hum again and inequality to decrease unless we take action to address the problems. That means supporting policies like these that help working families, not the rich, and that grow the economy from the middle-out, not the top-down.

*****

Readers: The bottom line is we know which party supports these policies. Hint: (not that you need one) It isn’t the repubs. Election day is only a little over 6 weeks away.

Blog me.  

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

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michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

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All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"