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Bill USA
Bill USA's Journal
Bill USA's Journal
August 29, 2013
The President, always keeping his composure in the face of offensive, ignorant remarks gave a reasoned and measured response to Woodruff's shit blob of a 'question':
(emphasis my own)
The President could have elaborated upon the words "resistance from the Republicans in Congress".
..... He could have said something like:
"Just to bring you up to speed Judy, with what's been happening in Washington since I was elected - the Republicans have set a new record in filibustering (..oh, I'm sorry, that's a taboo word on M$M, isn't it) any and all of my efforts to get people back to work (GOP obstructed, at a minimum,4.2 million jobs), to invest in much needed infrastructure rehabilitation and just about anything else we tried to do to stimulate and rebuild our economy.
Two highly respected Political Scientists, Thomas Mann, of the Brookings Institute, and Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute (no less) characterized the Republican Party as an 'insurgent outlier' in American Politics for their implacable opposition to everything I have tried to do to repair the economic and social damage their policies (specifically Judy, Deregulation of Wall Street banks (particularly with regard to trading in occult financial instruments e.g. Credit Default Swaps), protection of Predatory Lenders from regulation - and policies promoting concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people) have produced (perhaps they were afraid the contrast between the Democrats proficiently fixing an economy nearly destroyed by Republican style 'absentee government', deregulation and impoverishment of the '98%' was too much for them to allow happen without doing everyting they could to prevent it). ..... Thankfully, even with their rather remarkable animus towards me and all things Democratic, they did not succeed. Although they did succeed in significantly diminishing the recovery to their Trickle Down - Deregulation Disaster.
So you see Judy, it wasn't "my policies" which "haven't made more of a difference" as you asserted within your question - but that the Republicans have in their internecine war on me have succeeded in preventing me from getting much of my policies realized, making the livelihoods of millions of Americans the 'collateral damage' in their pursuit of their top priority - to make Obama a one term president (to quote Mr. McConnell).
OF course, Woodruff probably would have said, without batting an eye:
"Do you think Mr. President, with all due respect, your rather combative style of partisanship, could have caused the Republicans to give up hope of achieving any bi-partisan progress?"
...uhh, maybe Judy, you meant to say 'caused the Republicans to [FONT SIZE="3"]anticipate [/FONT] a lack of partisan comity - ON THE EVENING OF PRES. OBAMA'S FIRST INNAUGURAL'?
Woodruff scores RW points regurgitating a GOP Big Lie wrapped inan illigitimate question 4 President
Well, it has become a regular bit of self degradation on PBS NewsHour to hear Ms. Awful, Woodruff et al, grovel for approval from the psycho-fanatic-Right, by parroting GOP propaganda and fraudulent criticisms of President Obama. They don't even need flash cards anymore over at Fox News - Light, they have this crap committed to memory. (although, they must practice in a mirror at delivering it with as much affected ingenuousness as possible. - Woodruff shows a particular facility for this sort of thing in impersonating a journalist.)
In the interview of the President broadcast Wednesday, Aug 28th, Judy Woodruff, gave the PBS equivalent of a chimp throwing shit at a focus of primitive resentment - by asking the phony question (a question which importunes to put words in the President's mouth):
"... how much does it weigh on you that your policies haven’t made more of a difference in those areas?"
The President, always keeping his composure in the face of offensive, ignorant remarks gave a reasoned and measured response to Woodruff's shit blob of a 'question':
(emphasis my own)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, it certainly weighs on me. In my first term, essentially, my job was to make sure, as you said, that the economy didn’t just completely collapse. It collapsed, but it didn’t go into a deep depression. And the reason that had to be a top priority was because, if it did, the folks who would have been hurt even worse were those middle-class families and folks trying to get into the middle class, who would have lost even more than they did. And what we were also able to do, at least in my first two years, was to initiate expansions Pell Grant programs, or make sure that we were providing help to cities so that they could hire young people during the summers. But, you know, obviously, an agenda that puts more people back to work has met resistance from the Republicans in Congress, and I recognize that.
But the – what is both troubling but also, I think, gives me a greater sense of urgency is the fact that this is a trend that’s actually been going on for a couple of decades now. As I mentioned in the speech, you’ve got technology that has reduced manufacturing jobs that used to be a foothold into the middle class, that has reduced things like bank tellers or travel agents that used to provide a good middle-class livelihood, and the new jobs that have been produced don’t pay as much. You’ve got global competition, jobs being shipped overseas.
All these things reduce the leverage that workers have, and as a consequence, it’s a lot harder for every worker – black, white, Hispanic, Asian – to ask for a raise. And employers know that. And companies are making great profits, but they’re not reinvesting.
So what we need to do is to go back to that principle that, if you look at our economic history, has always been the case. When we have broad-based growth, when the middle class does well, when people at the bottom have a shot, it turns out that’s good for everybody. It’s good for folks at the top. It’s good for businesses, because now they’ve got consumers who are spending more money.
And you know, a lot of what I’m going to be talking about over the next several months is specific steps, whether it’s helping keep down the cost of college or helping to do more to spur on the recovery in the housing industry or, as I’ll be talking about probably in the next several weeks, specific tools that we know work, proven practices that we know work to get more ladders of opportunity for people who are poor to be able to succeed.
The President could have elaborated upon the words "resistance from the Republicans in Congress".
..... He could have said something like:
"Just to bring you up to speed Judy, with what's been happening in Washington since I was elected - the Republicans have set a new record in filibustering (..oh, I'm sorry, that's a taboo word on M$M, isn't it) any and all of my efforts to get people back to work (GOP obstructed, at a minimum,4.2 million jobs), to invest in much needed infrastructure rehabilitation and just about anything else we tried to do to stimulate and rebuild our economy.
Two highly respected Political Scientists, Thomas Mann, of the Brookings Institute, and Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute (no less) characterized the Republican Party as an 'insurgent outlier' in American Politics for their implacable opposition to everything I have tried to do to repair the economic and social damage their policies (specifically Judy, Deregulation of Wall Street banks (particularly with regard to trading in occult financial instruments e.g. Credit Default Swaps), protection of Predatory Lenders from regulation - and policies promoting concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people) have produced (perhaps they were afraid the contrast between the Democrats proficiently fixing an economy nearly destroyed by Republican style 'absentee government', deregulation and impoverishment of the '98%' was too much for them to allow happen without doing everyting they could to prevent it). ..... Thankfully, even with their rather remarkable animus towards me and all things Democratic, they did not succeed. Although they did succeed in significantly diminishing the recovery to their Trickle Down - Deregulation Disaster.
So you see Judy, it wasn't "my policies" which "haven't made more of a difference" as you asserted within your question - but that the Republicans have in their internecine war on me have succeeded in preventing me from getting much of my policies realized, making the livelihoods of millions of Americans the 'collateral damage' in their pursuit of their top priority - to make Obama a one term president (to quote Mr. McConnell).
OF course, Woodruff probably would have said, without batting an eye:
"Do you think Mr. President, with all due respect, your rather combative style of partisanship, could have caused the Republicans to give up hope of achieving any bi-partisan progress?"
...uhh, maybe Judy, you meant to say 'caused the Republicans to [FONT SIZE="3"]anticipate [/FONT] a lack of partisan comity - ON THE EVENING OF PRES. OBAMA'S FIRST INNAUGURAL'?
August 19, 2013
WASHINGTON—The Congressional Budget Office said reversing the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester would boost employment by roughly 900,000 jobs and increase gross domestic product 0.7% by Sept. 30, 2014.
Such a move, which some Democrats are calling for but many Republicans are opposing, would also increase government spending relative to current law by $104 billion, the CBO said Thursday in a letter to Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee. The nonpartisan agency the jobs number represented its "central estimate" of the employment impact in the third quarter of 2014 of reversing the spending cuts, with the outside ends of the estimate ranging from 300,000 to 1.6 million jobs.
The CBO's analysis comes as the White House and congressional Republicans remain at odds over what to do with the across-the-board spending cuts, which began to bite in March and will continue to reduce government spending each year through 2021. The cuts were part of the 2011 Budget Control Act and designed to spur lawmakers to find alternative ways to reduce the deficit. Since no agreement was reached, the cuts went into effect, hitting a range of government programs like the military, education, transportation and housing. The cuts don't affect Medicare and Social Security benefits, though they do cut payments to Medicare providers like hospitals and doctors.
The impact of the cuts has been uneven, hitting some sectors harder than others. Democrats and Republicans remain at odds over whether to leave them in place. Democrats could try to use the new CBO report as a way to push more Republicans to back changes to the cuts. The CBO has estimated that if the cuts remain in place, the unemployment rate will be 8.0% at the end of 2013 and 7.6% at the end of 2014.
(more)
also see Economic Policy Institute: http://www.epi.org/publication/repealing-sequestration-create-900000-jobs/
Canceling the automatic, across-the-board spending reductions known as the “sequester” today would have a sizable short-term impact on our economy, according to a recent letter from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to House Budget Committee chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). CBO estimates that canceling sequestration would increase the level of real GDP by $113 billion (0.7 percent) and generate 900,000 new jobs in the third quarter of calendar year 2014; a number akin to 40 percent of the total number of jobs created over the last twelve months.
When Congress returns from their August recess next month, they will have nine days to hammer out a continuing resolution to fund government operations for fiscal year 2014. The fate of the sequester, which began on March 1 and is scheduled under current law to continue through 2021, is likely to hold up negotiations. Replacing the sequester with other cuts, as conservative lawmakers are suggesting, would not produce the same outcome as outright repeal, as it would still involve taking demand out of a weak economy. The CBO’s letter clearly shows that if our objective is strong economic growth and increased employment, canceling sequestration is a no-brainer.
.608
CBO Says Reversing Sequester Would Boost Employment (300,000 - 1.6 million jobs) - WSJ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324110404578628120816706946.htmlWASHINGTON—The Congressional Budget Office said reversing the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester would boost employment by roughly 900,000 jobs and increase gross domestic product 0.7% by Sept. 30, 2014.
Such a move, which some Democrats are calling for but many Republicans are opposing, would also increase government spending relative to current law by $104 billion, the CBO said Thursday in a letter to Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee. The nonpartisan agency the jobs number represented its "central estimate" of the employment impact in the third quarter of 2014 of reversing the spending cuts, with the outside ends of the estimate ranging from 300,000 to 1.6 million jobs.
The CBO's analysis comes as the White House and congressional Republicans remain at odds over what to do with the across-the-board spending cuts, which began to bite in March and will continue to reduce government spending each year through 2021. The cuts were part of the 2011 Budget Control Act and designed to spur lawmakers to find alternative ways to reduce the deficit. Since no agreement was reached, the cuts went into effect, hitting a range of government programs like the military, education, transportation and housing. The cuts don't affect Medicare and Social Security benefits, though they do cut payments to Medicare providers like hospitals and doctors.
The impact of the cuts has been uneven, hitting some sectors harder than others. Democrats and Republicans remain at odds over whether to leave them in place. Democrats could try to use the new CBO report as a way to push more Republicans to back changes to the cuts. The CBO has estimated that if the cuts remain in place, the unemployment rate will be 8.0% at the end of 2013 and 7.6% at the end of 2014.
(more)
also see Economic Policy Institute: http://www.epi.org/publication/repealing-sequestration-create-900000-jobs/
Canceling the automatic, across-the-board spending reductions known as the “sequester” today would have a sizable short-term impact on our economy, according to a recent letter from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to House Budget Committee chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). CBO estimates that canceling sequestration would increase the level of real GDP by $113 billion (0.7 percent) and generate 900,000 new jobs in the third quarter of calendar year 2014; a number akin to 40 percent of the total number of jobs created over the last twelve months.
When Congress returns from their August recess next month, they will have nine days to hammer out a continuing resolution to fund government operations for fiscal year 2014. The fate of the sequester, which began on March 1 and is scheduled under current law to continue through 2021, is likely to hold up negotiations. Replacing the sequester with other cuts, as conservative lawmakers are suggesting, would not produce the same outcome as outright repeal, as it would still involve taking demand out of a weak economy. The CBO’s letter clearly shows that if our objective is strong economic growth and increased employment, canceling sequestration is a no-brainer.
.608
August 19, 2013
This 14-year old Canadian girl, Rachel Parent, is tremendous. Watch her clean the clock of the TV host who bad-mouthed opponents of Monsanto and their GMOs and those who support the "Right to Know" campaign to require genetically modified foods to be labelled as such.
She's just fantastic. My favorite part (and there were many), was when the jackass host accuses her of being a "shill" for "extremists"...just moments after he basically accused her of wanting to kill millions of children with her advocacy.
Color me very impressed with this young lady...
14-Year Old Activist DESTROYS TV Host on Monsanto, GMO Labeling [VIDEO] - Brad Blog
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10184This 14-year old Canadian girl, Rachel Parent, is tremendous. Watch her clean the clock of the TV host who bad-mouthed opponents of Monsanto and their GMOs and those who support the "Right to Know" campaign to require genetically modified foods to be labelled as such.
She's just fantastic. My favorite part (and there were many), was when the jackass host accuses her of being a "shill" for "extremists"...just moments after he basically accused her of wanting to kill millions of children with her advocacy.
Color me very impressed with this young lady...
August 19, 2013
This Republican Congress is broken -- too focused on obstruction and scoring points against President Obama. But what does that mean for you? No jobs agenda. No Medicare guarantee. No restraints on insurance companies. Special treatment for special interests.
House Republicans will be in their districts for 37 days this summer and you can take action in your community:
&feature=player_embedded
CALL THEIR OFFICES
PROTEST THEIR EVENTS
MORE.....at link....above
The Grand Obstructionist Party - DCCC
http://www.dccc.org/page/content/grandobstructionparty/This Republican Congress is broken -- too focused on obstruction and scoring points against President Obama. But what does that mean for you? No jobs agenda. No Medicare guarantee. No restraints on insurance companies. Special treatment for special interests.
House Republicans will be in their districts for 37 days this summer and you can take action in your community:
&feature=player_embedded
CALL THEIR OFFICES
PROTEST THEIR EVENTS
MORE.....at link....above
August 10, 2013
read Full report here.
New Report Identifies 466 ALEC Bills in 2013 That Reflect Corporate Agenda
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/08/12205/alec-40-turning-back-clock-prosperity-and-progress(emphases my own)
New Report Identifies [font size="4"]466 ALEC Bills[/font] in 2013 That Reflect Corporate Agenda
Today, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released a new report: "ALEC at 40: Turning Back the Clock on Prosperity and Progress." The report identifies and analyzes 466 American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) bills introduced in 2013.
This week, ALEC celebrates its 40th anniversary in Chicago. At this meeting -- as in all ALEC meetings -- lobbyists from U.S. and foreign corporations will vote as equals alongside state legislators to adopt ALEC "model" bills, which then will be distributed nationwide with little or no disclosure of their ALEC roots.
In 2013, ALEC is going to new lengths to hide its lobbying of legislators from the public eye. It has taken to stamping all its documents as exempt from state public records laws, dodging open records with a "dropbox" website, and other tricks. After Watergate, many states strengthened their laws regarding open meetings and open records, but real sunshine on government is anathema to ALEC.
"When ALEC was born, Richard Nixon was president. Gasoline was 40 cents a gallon and the minimum wage was $1.60 an hour. Forty years later, ALEC legislators seem to be hankering for this bygone era, pursuing an agenda to roll back renewables, expand the use of fossil fuels, and suppress wages and benefits for even the lowest paid American workers,” says CMD Director of Research Nick Surgey.
(more - such as an enumeration of the key findings of the study)
New Report Identifies [font size="4"]466 ALEC Bills[/font] in 2013 That Reflect Corporate Agenda
Today, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released a new report: "ALEC at 40: Turning Back the Clock on Prosperity and Progress." The report identifies and analyzes 466 American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) bills introduced in 2013.
This week, ALEC celebrates its 40th anniversary in Chicago. At this meeting -- as in all ALEC meetings -- lobbyists from U.S. and foreign corporations will vote as equals alongside state legislators to adopt ALEC "model" bills, which then will be distributed nationwide with little or no disclosure of their ALEC roots.
In 2013, ALEC is going to new lengths to hide its lobbying of legislators from the public eye. It has taken to stamping all its documents as exempt from state public records laws, dodging open records with a "dropbox" website, and other tricks. After Watergate, many states strengthened their laws regarding open meetings and open records, but real sunshine on government is anathema to ALEC.
"When ALEC was born, Richard Nixon was president. Gasoline was 40 cents a gallon and the minimum wage was $1.60 an hour. Forty years later, ALEC legislators seem to be hankering for this bygone era, pursuing an agenda to roll back renewables, expand the use of fossil fuels, and suppress wages and benefits for even the lowest paid American workers,” says CMD Director of Research Nick Surgey.
(more - such as an enumeration of the key findings of the study)
read Full report here.
August 10, 2013
"I revel in every moment I'm out on the beaches, the bayous, the ponds," says Al Duvernay, 61, a life-long Louisianan. A retired oil industry worker, Duvernay now volunteers for efforts to rebuild the land sinking under the waves, a retreat he has seen firsthand over the course of a lifetime spent on the Mississippi River Delta. "Another part of me is compelled to come back here, because I know it is all going away."
In the past eight decades, Louisiana has lost 1,880 square miles of coastal marshes, or an area about the size of Manhattan every year. With another hurricane season upon us, it is land that Louisiana and the nation can ill afford to lose. The same threat of lost barrier islands and wetlands stalks more than half of the coastal properties of the continental United States, extending from Maine to Texas. But here in southeastern Louisiana, it's at its worst.
USA TODAY traveled to this place where the Mississippi meets the Gulf of Mexico as the sixth stop in a year-long series to explore places where climate change is changing lives.
"The sea is rising and the land is sinking," says Louisiana's state climatologist, Barry Keim, based at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "The two together mean that wetlands are disappearing here at unprecedented rates worldwide." Add in the threat of more powerful hurricanes spurred by climate change, Keim says, "and you have to worry about the past repeating itself here."
"Louisiana is in many ways, one of the best examples of starting to see some of the near-term implications of climate change," says environmental policy expert Jordan Fischbach, of the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Pittsburgh, part of the team that last year developed tools for the state to decide what coastal restoration projects to pursue. "In some ways, I feel like it is the canary in the coal mine because they are seeing effects that change people's day-to-day lives."
(more)
Louisiana is shrinking as Climate Change softens up the already-vulnerable Gulf coast
[font size="4"]This will only Get Worse[/font]
http://texas.construction.com/yb/tx/article.aspx?story_id=188608188
"I revel in every moment I'm out on the beaches, the bayous, the ponds," says Al Duvernay, 61, a life-long Louisianan. A retired oil industry worker, Duvernay now volunteers for efforts to rebuild the land sinking under the waves, a retreat he has seen firsthand over the course of a lifetime spent on the Mississippi River Delta. "Another part of me is compelled to come back here, because I know it is all going away."
In the past eight decades, Louisiana has lost 1,880 square miles of coastal marshes, or an area about the size of Manhattan every year. With another hurricane season upon us, it is land that Louisiana and the nation can ill afford to lose. The same threat of lost barrier islands and wetlands stalks more than half of the coastal properties of the continental United States, extending from Maine to Texas. But here in southeastern Louisiana, it's at its worst.
USA TODAY traveled to this place where the Mississippi meets the Gulf of Mexico as the sixth stop in a year-long series to explore places where climate change is changing lives.
"The sea is rising and the land is sinking," says Louisiana's state climatologist, Barry Keim, based at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "The two together mean that wetlands are disappearing here at unprecedented rates worldwide." Add in the threat of more powerful hurricanes spurred by climate change, Keim says, "and you have to worry about the past repeating itself here."
"Louisiana is in many ways, one of the best examples of starting to see some of the near-term implications of climate change," says environmental policy expert Jordan Fischbach, of the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Pittsburgh, part of the team that last year developed tools for the state to decide what coastal restoration projects to pursue. "In some ways, I feel like it is the canary in the coal mine because they are seeing effects that change people's day-to-day lives."
(more)
August 9, 2013
In Washington, D.C., Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) issues countless press releases boasting about his votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, insisting that his constituents in North Carolina are clamoring for relief from the law. But during a town hall in Swannanoa on Wednesday, voters confronted the five-term Congressman with an entirely different sentiment: they demanded to know why Republicans would take away the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions without offering any credible other alternative for reforming the health care system. One grieving mother, who spoke to reporters before the event, said that her son was denied insurance because of a pre-existing health condition and eventually died of colon cancer.
These comments forced McHenry — who had repeatedly advocated for “full repeal” of Obamcare — to admit that he does support some of its most popular provisions:
(more)
North Carolina Voters Confront GOP (Corporate Friend) Congressman For Trying To Repeal Obamacare
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/08/08/2436291/constituents-confront-congressman-for-supporting-obamacare-repeal-weve-got-to-have-it/In Washington, D.C., Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) issues countless press releases boasting about his votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, insisting that his constituents in North Carolina are clamoring for relief from the law. But during a town hall in Swannanoa on Wednesday, voters confronted the five-term Congressman with an entirely different sentiment: they demanded to know why Republicans would take away the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions without offering any credible other alternative for reforming the health care system. One grieving mother, who spoke to reporters before the event, said that her son was denied insurance because of a pre-existing health condition and eventually died of colon cancer.
These comments forced McHenry — who had repeatedly advocated for “full repeal” of Obamcare — to admit that he does support some of its most popular provisions:
(Skip) Edwards and his wife, both 63, had health insurance until he lost his job during the recession and the East Asheville couple found themselves in financial trouble despite staying relatively healthy.
Both had pre-existing conditions and were denied insurance, making them eligible for a state plan called Inclusive Health.
“It cost us $1,300 bucks a month — extremely expensive,” Edwards said. “It taps us out every month. But at our age and health, we’ve got to have it.”
McHenry, 37, has repeatedly voted against the Affordable Care Act, choosing to either defund, repeal or delay it. In defending his position, he said he did agree with some aspects of the act, including ending discrimination against pre-existing conditions and extending the age a children can stay on their parents’ health insurance. [...]
Edwards and others wondered why McHenry would vote against a plan they feel is better than nothing at all. He said he would not vote for something he feels is bad policy.
(more)
August 9, 2013
Community activists, labor groups, and other progressives are making noise outside a downtown Chicago hotel on Thursday in order to draw attention to the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council's (or ALEC)—derisively known as the rightwing's regressive "law factory"—being held inside.
The anti-ALEC rally—led by groups that included StandUp! Chicago, the Center for Media & Democracy, ColorOfChange, the Chicago Federation of Labor, and others—was taking place outside the Palmer House Hotel with a call to put an end to the powerful lobbyist group.
Described as the engine of the corporate "retrograde agenda" by CMD's Mary Bottari, the laws proposed by ALEC members include "bills to roll back wages, worker rights, access to paid sick leave, and even renewable energy standards."
CMD's Brendan Fischer, who has studied the group extensively, called their operations a collusion between corporate interests and rightwing lawmakers.
ALEC is celebrating its 40th anniversary of operation this year, but the meeting in Chicago—though designed to be more secretive than ones in the past—will follow the same playbook in which "lobbyists from U.S. and foreign corporations will vote as equals alongside state legislators to adopt ALEC "model" bills, which then will be distributed nationwide with little or no disclosure of their ALEC roots."
(more)
Protesters in Chicago Take on ALEC's 'Forty Years of Corporate Greed'
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/08-6Community activists, labor groups, and other progressives are making noise outside a downtown Chicago hotel on Thursday in order to draw attention to the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council's (or ALEC)—derisively known as the rightwing's regressive "law factory"—being held inside.
The anti-ALEC rally—led by groups that included StandUp! Chicago, the Center for Media & Democracy, ColorOfChange, the Chicago Federation of Labor, and others—was taking place outside the Palmer House Hotel with a call to put an end to the powerful lobbyist group.
Described as the engine of the corporate "retrograde agenda" by CMD's Mary Bottari, the laws proposed by ALEC members include "bills to roll back wages, worker rights, access to paid sick leave, and even renewable energy standards."
CMD's Brendan Fischer, who has studied the group extensively, called their operations a collusion between corporate interests and rightwing lawmakers.
ALEC is celebrating its 40th anniversary of operation this year, but the meeting in Chicago—though designed to be more secretive than ones in the past—will follow the same playbook in which "lobbyists from U.S. and foreign corporations will vote as equals alongside state legislators to adopt ALEC "model" bills, which then will be distributed nationwide with little or no disclosure of their ALEC roots."
(more)
August 7, 2013
Americans have historically low views of Congress, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says Republicans have fueled that disgust for political reasons and Democrats can win elections by highlighting GOP obstructionism.
"Nothing deters voting more than confusion, 'a pox on both your houses,' and that confusion is one of the successes of the Republican Party, to make it look equivalent in terms of who is holding up jobs. It's not equivalent, and we have to make that clear to the American people," Pelosi said Tuesday at a meeting with the USA TODAY editorial board.
Heading in to confrontations with Republicans this fall on implementation of the Affordable Care Act, funding the government, and raising the debt ceiling, Pelosi said congressional Democrats and President Obama are positioning the party as the bipartisan, cooperative alternative to what she described as the "anti-government ideologues" in the Republican Party.
"One thing that is amazing that I don't have an answer for people for is, why is it there can't be a bipartisan jobs bill passed that is significant?" she said. "One (reason) is, they don't want this president to have any successes."
(more)
Pelosi: GOP "anti-government ideologues" to blame for partisanship
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/07/30/pelosi-nsa-gop-obamacare-2014/2600157/Americans have historically low views of Congress, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says Republicans have fueled that disgust for political reasons and Democrats can win elections by highlighting GOP obstructionism.
"Nothing deters voting more than confusion, 'a pox on both your houses,' and that confusion is one of the successes of the Republican Party, to make it look equivalent in terms of who is holding up jobs. It's not equivalent, and we have to make that clear to the American people," Pelosi said Tuesday at a meeting with the USA TODAY editorial board.
Heading in to confrontations with Republicans this fall on implementation of the Affordable Care Act, funding the government, and raising the debt ceiling, Pelosi said congressional Democrats and President Obama are positioning the party as the bipartisan, cooperative alternative to what she described as the "anti-government ideologues" in the Republican Party.
"One thing that is amazing that I don't have an answer for people for is, why is it there can't be a bipartisan jobs bill passed that is significant?" she said. "One (reason) is, they don't want this president to have any successes."
(more)
August 7, 2013
[font size="3"]Because of staff furloughs, patients are asked to practice more patience in getting health care needs met.[/font]
Patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and other premier military hospitals are being sent to private doctors and having surgery and other treatment delayed because of furloughs to medical personnel, according to interviews and internal documents.
"Please show (patients) the utmost understanding and care while we are asking them to accept longer wait times and in some cases, curtailed or limited services," Rear Adm. Alton Stocks, hospital commander, told staff in a July 12 message.
A "colleagues" memo issued in recent days says inpatient beds are in "critically short supply" because of furloughs of civilian staff triggered by federal spending cuts known as sequestration.
The memo encourages "dispositions/discharges as soon as possible." Hospital spokesperson Sandy Dean explained this direction, saying, "We are are encouraging health care providers to be more efficient when handling their paperwork instead of writing discharge orders later in the day ... no patient has been or will be discharged before it is medically appropriate."
(more)
Military hospitals shrinking services to meet spending cuts
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/03/walter-reed-meets-sequestration-cutbacks-ensue/2602427/[font size="3"]Because of staff furloughs, patients are asked to practice more patience in getting health care needs met.[/font]
Patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and other premier military hospitals are being sent to private doctors and having surgery and other treatment delayed because of furloughs to medical personnel, according to interviews and internal documents.
"Please show (patients) the utmost understanding and care while we are asking them to accept longer wait times and in some cases, curtailed or limited services," Rear Adm. Alton Stocks, hospital commander, told staff in a July 12 message.
A "colleagues" memo issued in recent days says inpatient beds are in "critically short supply" because of furloughs of civilian staff triggered by federal spending cuts known as sequestration.
The memo encourages "dispositions/discharges as soon as possible." Hospital spokesperson Sandy Dean explained this direction, saying, "We are are encouraging health care providers to be more efficient when handling their paperwork instead of writing discharge orders later in the day ... no patient has been or will be discharged before it is medically appropriate."
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