Rep. Mark Kirk Lies about his Military Service and More. Where is the Conservative Outrage?

I was surprised when I saw the details of this story from Rachel Maddow, since I heard nothing about it on conservative talk or Fox News. Did Maddow just...make it up.

Now if a Democrat went this far....

Corporate America's ties to the Supreme Court

While Rep. Paul Ryan makes the outlandish claim that liberal regulation of business is fascism, and deregulation is the only way to seperate that entanglement, the real danger lies in the third branch of government; the Supreme Court.

RT.com: The US Supreme Court is meant to provide liberty and justice for all, but some claim it no longer does. Critics say big business holds too much sway over the legal body.

The separation of powers is a clause in the US constitution intended for the three branches of government – the President, Congress and the court. It could be argued, however, that lately there is also someone else in charge. Recently, MoveOn.org expressed its concern in the Washington Post about the tight knit relationship between corporate America and the Supreme Court. It calls out the Supreme Court for being too close to companies like Aetna, British Petroleum and Goldman Sachs. The article says the Supreme Court was founded to protect the American people, not big businesses.

Radio host Thom Hartmann has been talking about the issue for a long time.

“Most Americans don’t realize that we’re getting screwed, and it’s the Supreme Court that’s doing it,” he said.

Gov. Chris Christie's Plan to Union Bash, Destroy Public Education. Goodbye Coded Rhetoric.

Take a look at this revealing speech by NJ Gov. Chris Christie. Odd isn't it how Christie is so focused on the teachers unions health care, pay grade and what he insinuates is a "fained" concern teachers have over a child's education.

It's not vouchers on Christie's mind. The one thing on the GOP's list of potential accomplishments; weakening the teachers union. Unfortunately, Christie fails to mention how the voucher program in DC went wrong, didn't succeed, and how the same results could have been gleaned from helping the public school system improve their reading results.

But union bashing sells to the base, the low information voter, the bad parent who "knows more about education" than teachers. It not only sounds crazy, it is crazy.



From and earlier post:

The DC school voucher program grades are out, and they closely mirror the recent report examining the Milwaukee voucher system. Can you say little or no improvement. It's interesting to note that nearly 60 percent of voucher recipients either did not use the funding or used only part of it before dropping out. Here's the quick summary:

The DC School Choice Incentive Act of 2003 established the first federally funded private school voucher program in the United States, providing scholarships of up to $7,500 for low-income residents of the District of Columbia to send their children to local participating private schools.

The law also mandated that the Department conduct an independent, rigorous impact evaluation of what is now called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). The study's latest report, Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After Three Years, measures the effects of the Program on student achievement in reading and math, and on student and parent perceptions of school satisfaction and safety.

The evaluation found that the OSP improved reading, but not math, achievement overall and for 5 of 10 subgroups of students examined. The group designated as the highest priority by Congress — students applying from "schools in need of improvement" (SINI) — did not experience achievement impacts. Students offered scholarships did not report being more satisfied or feeling safer than those who were not offered scholarships, however the OSP did have a positive impact on parent satisfaction and perceptions of school safety.

You'll notice parent satisfaction is positive. This is the overarching, feel good message delivered by the pro-voucher crowd. Parents feel like their in control and are likely to think they have made the right decision in their schools choice. The kids are apparently not impressed or fooled. And their grade show that. Sadly, this "voucher diversion" keeps real reform of our public schools on the back burner to some extent, offering up an empty "debate" of the issues.

Rep. Scott Suder: He's still a fear mongering, tax wasting supporter of "truth in sentencing"...and an even bigger Idiot.

Awhile ago I wrote that State Rep. Scott Suder was an idiot. Name calling is a little out of character here at Democurmudgeon, but Suder was that one rare exception. After further research, and the Capital Times editorial below, it appears Suder is even a bigger idiot than previously thought.

Corrections Secretary Rick Raemisch … made a baffling statement that might cause Wisconsinites to wonder if personal ambitions and petty politics, rather than public safety, are driving policy decisions at DOC … When talking about the early release program with The Capital Times, Raemisch stated the program was a key to his legacy as corrections secretary and needed to be ramped up. He went on to say that he wants a program so powerful that no one would dare eliminate it.

Strange words from someone who often claims his agency is above politics and solely focused on public safety. I’d bet that most people think that a corrections secretary is supposed to manage our prison population, not create a legacy for himself.

Suder's attempt to conflate a legacy of sound corrections management with a supposed partisan agenda in nothing short of projection (the unconscious act of denial of a person's own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to other people. Thus, it involves imagining or projecting that others have those feelings.)

Suder's paranoid misgivings about a prisoners inner devils eventually terrorizing the public at large, is almost laughable, if it wasn't so frightening.

When asked about the rap sheets of these inmates, all the public gets from Raemisch is silence. What is DOC trying to hide? …prisoners are released … in secret, behind closed doors with zero public input … so he’s going to roll the dice and let as many prisoners out as quickly as he can before voters have a chance to weigh in on the matter in November … he has decided to open the prison gates a little wider and send thousands of dangerous criminals back into our neighborhoods before he’s out of a job … simply reckless and irresponsible.

Never mind the fact that every state that has done this saved massive amounts of taxpayer money, and successfully reintegrated prisoners back into society, which should be our main goal. It might even leave some extra money over for school funding. But punishment and scaring the public for political purposes is Suder's goal.

People are paying attention and they will hold the Democrats accountable for this dangerous policy that threatens the safety of every Wisconsin community that these inmates will now call home … I wonder what they tell their constituents when one or more of these career criminals are let loose in their communities?

Despite the documented proof, even from our neighboring state Minnesota, Suder wants to spend even more taxpayer money auditing the newly implemented program. It's not like the DOC won't be keeping track too, documenting the success and failure rates of early release prisoners, and making necessary adjustments along the way. The sooner the audit, the smaller the savings will appear. And that's what Suder is counting on.

Soon I will ask for a full audit of this program to shine some light on how much, if anything, the program is saving taxpayers.

Suder's a first class big spending, conservative snake...and still an idiot.

Legal Political White House Deals Now Focus of GOP, Sidetracking Jobs, Oil Spill and Saving Social Safety Nets. Phony Moral High Ground?

The picture below is NOT A VIDEO, but a screen capture that will become all too familiar to Americans once Republicans grab power again. They'll campaign on jobs, jobs, jobs, but we know what they really mean. Four years of nit picky wedge issues and blind alley pursuits to nowhere.

Legal experts have already refuted every partisan GOP accusation, but since when has that stopped the Republican smear machine from getting whatever mileage they can out of a momentary issue, covered by a compliant media.

2012 or BP Water Spinkler?

AT&T Limits Cellphone User Data! But it might save you lots of money too?

I almost blogged the following story of outrage yesterday, where cell phone companies were about to restrict the amount of data customers could use each month. Low and behold, there's another side of the story. My favorite tech reporter at the NY Times discovered people might actually save money;

David Pogue: Don’t know if you’ve seen the frantic blog headlines, but they boil down to this: Those big, greedy, monolithic cellphone companies have found yet another way to gouge us for more money. AT&T is the first company to introduce capped data plans. How anti-consumer, right? Surely this is yet another way to exploit the masses and stifle innovation!

But this is different. This time, I think you’ll wind up coming out ahead. DataPlus
costs $15 a month and gives you 200 megabytes’ worth of data transfer.

Of course, who has any idea what “200 megabytes’ worth of data transfer” is?

DataPlus: AT&T says that that’s 1,000 email messages without attachments, plus 150 that do have attachments, plus 400 Web-page views, plus posting 50 photos on Facebook and similar sites, plus watching 20 minutes of video from sites like YouTube or Hulu. If you use more than 200 megabytes, you’re automatically billed $15 more that month for another 200.

DataPro costs $25 a month—still $5 less than the unlimited plan—and gives you ten times as much data: 10,000 e-mails without attachments and 1,500 with attachments, and 4,000 Web pages, and 500 photos posted, and 200 minutes of video. If you go over the limit, you’re automatically billed $10 for another gigabyte of data.

Like hundreds of people reporting similar surprises on Twitter, I discovered that my wife and I almost never use more than about 150 megabytes a month. Here I am, a power-using geek, and I could put both phones on the DataPlus plan and save $360 a year!

Maybe I’m just dazzled by the $360 a year AT&T just saved me. But as I see it, AT&T has just pulled off a very delicate balancing act indeed: it came up with a new pricing scheme that benefits almost everyone, customers and AT&T alike.

Republican State Sen. Jake Knotts calls fellow GOP'er and Gubernatorial candidate a RAGHEAD! "We already got one raghead in the WH."

Should the following story come as any surprise from the party of institutionalized racism? Oh, they're not racist, it just sounds like they are...! The following is so over the top it's stunning:

Miami Harold: Lexington state Sen. Jake Knotts called political rival and Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley a "raghead" on an Internet political talk show Thursday evening.

The term is a slur typically used against Arabs or other ethnic groups who wear turbans or headdresses. Haley, a state representative from Lexington, is the child of Indian immigrants.

"We already got one raghead in the White House," Knotts said. "We don't need another in the Governor's Mansion."

Experts Back up the Need for Extending Unemployment Benefits. NOT a Disincentive

Economic Policy Institute: About 7.8 million jobs have been lost since the recession began in December 2007, and over that same time, the country should have been adding about 100,000 jobs per month, or about 2.9 million in total, just to keep up with population growth. As a result, the country is now short 10.7 million jobs and has more than five unemployed workers for every job opening. Even if the labor market were to sustain the strong pace of job growth seen in April, when 290,000 jobs were created, it would still take five years to return to the pre-recession rate of unemployment.

Economists on the panel noted that in this sort of a weak labor market, arguments that unemployment insurance discourages people from looking for work do not apply. "If there really are no jobs, that cost (of providing unemployment insurance) goes away," said Rothstein.

Also on the panel, Till Marco Von Wachter, associate professor of economics at Columbia University, addressed some of the risks associated with not providing unemployment insurance to jobless workers. He said that providing unemployment insurance helps keep jobless workers in the labor market, looking for work, since, in order to qualify for unemployment insurance, a person must be actively seeking work. "A high fraction of the unemployed who lose their benefits will end up out of the labor force," he said.

Economist Josh Bivens, stresses that programs aimed at creating jobs are partially self-financed. As people go back to work, tax collections rise, and the need for safety net spending is reduced. When all these factors are considered, the cost of creating jobs is considerably less than the upfront investment. Bivens argues that this large "bang for the buck" is one more reason to make sure that we direct resources as efficiently as possible in the name of job creation.

Republicans Jump on the Big Government Bandwagon without Blinking.

Why aren't Republicans held to the same standard as everyone else? Why do we let them say anything they want and not hold them accountable later on when they do just the opposite. Seriously, they get a pass. We have Michele Bachmann, a tea party favorite, bashing government while at the same time demanding government commandeer ships and take over BP because of the oil spill. Then there's Bobby Jindal. Here's Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts:

Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, off whose coast this tragedy is centered, is singing a new song, starkly at odds with what he said last year in a speech before the Republican faithful. Now he's begging for federal "interference." He wants federal money, federal supplies, wants the feds to help create barrier islands to protect Louisiana wetlands from oil. Not to pick on Jindal. He is but one prominent voice in a chorus of Gulf state officials who once preached the virtues of tiny government but have discovered, in the wake of this spreading disaster, the virtues of government that is robust enough, at a minimum, to help them out of a jam.

One hears accusations that the government was lax in its oversight duties and too cozy with the oil industry it was supposed to be regulating. One hears nothing about deregulation, about leaving the free market alone to do its magic.

You know what they say: It's all fun and games till somebody gets hurt .... people like Jindal rail against the very concept of government itself, selling the delusional notion that taxation and regulation represent the evisceration of some essential American principle. They wax eloquent about what great things the free market and the free American could do if government would just get off their backs.

One thinks of one's meat oozing with salmonella, one's paint filled with lead, one's car getting 12 miles to the gallon, one's self being breezily denied a job for reasons of race, creed, gender or sexual orientation and, yes, one's ocean covered from horizon to horizon with a sheen of oil. You see, government is not our enemy.

Government is the imperfect embodiment of our common will. As there are no atheists in foxholes, it turns out there are no small-government disciples in massive oil spills. No, with BP oil soaking the sands of his coastline, Bobby Jindal turned righteously to that big, sometimes bloated, often intrusive federal government, and asked for help. He said: Send money, send resources.

You will notice he never once said: Send less.

Scott Walker's "Smoke and Mirrors" Style of Government, as told by his GOP Rival, Mark Neumann.

While other Republican controlled states have temporarily increased their sales tax by 1 percent to pay for public education and services during the Great Recession, Wisconsin conservatives running for governor would much rather dismantle everything and hold true to their no tax increase pledge. That said, the GOP primary candidates are now punching it out in public for everyone to see. It would be good to refresh your memory with an earlier reported story by Joel McNally in the Capital Times (sorry, in 2008 I didn't provide the necessary link to McNally's actual article. I know better now.).

At BloggingBlue is a quick but revealing look at the race. It may be the best thing that could happen to their Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett:

Neumann’s taking off the gloves

As noted by xoff over at Uppity Wisconsin, the Republican gubernatorial race is starting to get rough. Earlier today, Mark Neumann showed up outside the office of fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker to attack Walker for his fiscal record as Milwaukee County Executive. Complete with charts and graphs, Neumann hammered home the point that spending in Milwaukee County government has increased faster during Scott Walker’s term(s) in office than spending has in state government during the two terms of Gov. Jim Doyle, who conservatives have made a sport of attacking as being a fiscally irresponsible “big spender.”

Lower Wages next Big Ticket Wedge issue for Conservatives. No, Really!

We're all making to much money to compete in the global free market economy!

If you search out the topic on this blog, you'll find a few stories where conservatives have made the argument Americans are getting paid way too much, and are spoiled by their generous benefits. Looking back, this topic should probably have been brought up decades ago by pro-business think tanks and politicians as a way of pushing the free market system of government (even though it's really an economic policy and not a form of government).

With more of these stories, and badgering by right wing capitalists like Jonah Goldberg, they will eventually convert the fence sitters to their way of thinking. It's like everything conservative special interests have successfully promoted in the past, climate change, a world economic monetary system, government is bad blah, blah, blah. I could go on and on, but this is about Goldberg's column the other day about why we should all be happy with lower wages and reduced benefits. In a sneaky kind of way Goldberg argues that government workers higher wages are bad because private sector wages have gone down. Goldberg plays off the anti-government forces in play right now:

The average federal worker earns more than 70 percent more than the average private sector worker, writes Arthur Brooks in his new book The Battle: “To find this acceptable, you must agree that the average federal worker is much more productive or deserving than the average person in the private sector.” Show of hands: Who thinks that's true? Yet the Democrats want more.

First things first-it's a false premise; we DON'T have to agree that a federal worker is more productive and is more deserving. That's just conservative "anger packaging." The federal worker is getting paid a fair living wage, while the private sector worker is descending into Robber Baron slave labor. Goldberg is a grand carnival barker for big corporate interests, and not his fellow Americans. If he cared anything about the plight of lower family incomes and high unemployment, his argument would have been completely the opposite.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., offered an alternative vision of government in his famous “Roadmap.” Ryan's blueprint was denounced by liberals as too stingy and largely ignored by much of the Republican leadership.

Goldberg doesn't mention the devastating critique of Ryan's plan from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. By taking that official accounting out of the discussion, Goldberg can now blather on and on about theories based on fiction, and that would be enough for the conservative parties base, the low information voter.

Governments do not generate wealth; they can merely distribute it. Paul Ryan offered an answer to that question, and liberals scoffed because they reject the question. There's no such thing as enough, as far as they're concerned. That's what the Greeks thought.

Goldberg is wrong again, intentionally so. Governments don't make people wealthy, they give people jobs so they can raise a family and live a normal life. The private sector can make people wealthy through the entrepreneurial spirit we all know and love. But in the private sector, not everyone will succeed or become wealthy. Many, including myself, are happy to make a living without million dollar incomes or pursuing billionaire status. Ryan and Goldberg don't get that.

Liberals didn't "scoff" and "reject" Ryan's plan for ideological reasons. They rejected it because it's bad math and redistributes wealth upward, while at the same time bankrupting everyone else.

Former Republican Chair in Florida Knew how to Make Money the Easy Way, Steal it. No Taxes?

Nothing more unsurprising than a greedy, crooked Republicans stealing money from campaign donors. Surprisingly, it took awhile for other penny pinching conservatives to notice.

No wonder these guys keep pushing for smaller government and fewer regulations...jail time.

ORLANDO, Fla. — The former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida was arrested Wednesday for allegedly running a scam bilking money from the party.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement took Jim Greer, 47, into custody … charged with one count of organized fraud, four counts of felony grand theft and one count of money laundering.

Greer funneled party money to a company called Victory Strategies that he controlled and concealed his relationship with … On Greer's orders, the Republican Party of Florida paid Victory Strategies for campaign work, much of which was never performed. That was in addition to a 10 percent cut of major donations to the party that Greer took along with his top assistant, Delmar Johnson, Shepherd said.

Greer resigned in February after reports surfaced that he used party funds on ritzy hotels, gourmet restaurants and private jets.

Republican Candidate Ron Johnson (who?) Talks the Talk of the Tea Partiers.

More Mad Hatter Tea Party anti-government whining, devoid of real world economic solutions, and offering failed theoretical free market mumbo jumbo.

Republican Candidate to replace Russ Feingold, Ron Johnson, loves a health care system that caters to the needs of the wealthy. In a moment of total cluelessness about the health care disaster we have in this country, millionaire Johnson tells the story of the wealthy Premier of Newfoundland fly into the U.S. for treatments that fit his schedule and ability to pay. Now that's a story average middle class Americans can relate too. Upfront with Mike Gousha (Goo-Shay)casually extracts the crazy rantings of the tea party genius.



UH OH: Tea Party Backs Away from Candidate:

Don’t call Ron Johnson the “tea party candidate.” And don’t call him its “hope” or “favorite” either. in a statement late Wednesday, a coalition of tea partiers from across the state denied officially backing any candidates.

“In fact, the coalition of Tea Party/Patriot groups in Wisconsin has not endorsed any candidate in any race,” the statement read. “Nor does it align with any political party.” Kirsten Lombard of the Wisconsin 9/12 Project said she and other coalition members simply don’t know where Johnson stands on most issues.

“None of us in the coalition have had the time to vet him,” she said.

James O'Keefe Lied About ACORN, and Now Goes After Census Workers.

James O'Keefe continues to create situations that put government workers in awkward positions. Oddly, when it comes to his ridiculous expose on census work, O'Keefe wastes more taxpayer money than he complains about in his video where he got paid for hours he didn't work (the class did the 8 hour subject matter in less time). Good Morning America's George Stephenopolis hold this fraud accountable.

The training classes are over a period of 4 days, 8 hours a day. Sometimes the classes cover more ground than planned, and let out earlier than anticipated. The attendees crammed 8 hours into six, but still got paid for 8. Ouch, how overpaid and unfair. It's not naywhere close to being in the field, lying about your work hours. In another Dodo"awkward" moment, he complains, "I don't want to be committing perjury or anything." Perjury? Uh, this isn't a courtroom.

Two more things.

With O'Keefe's recent convictions, he probably would not have qualified for the census, and I could only assume he lied when he took the initial test to screen applicants (one month before the classes). The fingerprint session during one of the classes would have bounced him out once checked, again wasting taxpayer money.

Second, O'Keefe wasted taxpayer dollars by taking the classes, and then quiting after just two days. He filled a seat in class that could have been used by someone who needed a job for the next two months. When he quite, that short changed the work force and extended the time workers would be out getting those questionnaires filled out. By the way, workers are limited to 40 hours and NO overtime.

So the most he could find was a guaranteed 32 hours of class time that may not have been exactly 32 hours.

According to O'Keefe, "I'm creating a movement." Ego much?

Oh, and O'Keefe wouldn't deny his racist accounts in his own diary. O'Keefe then plays the victim of character assassination. If the shoe fits ass-dork-hole, where it.

Tea Party Candidate Files for Bankruptcy, Tea Party Groups Suddenly don't Know the Guy. So, Who's with Stupid?

So what happens when a penny pinching, fiscal libertarian conservative running for Sen. Harry Reid's seat, files for bankruptcy protection? You've gotta love the twists and turns of both the tea party and GOP to distance themselves from another bad manager of money.

AP - A company controlled by Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Jon Scott Ashjian has filed for bankruptcy protection in a bid to block foreclosure on a parcel of land in Las Vegas. Ashjian's lawyer, Barry Levinson, tells the Las Vegas Sun the filing was made to block foreclosure of land in northwest Las Vegas that Ashjian and other investors want to develop into a mini-storage facility. Ashjian is the Tea Party of Nevada candidate against Democratic Sen. Harry Reid.

But when the going gets tough, and the candidate is shown to have the fiscal skills of the GOP, the tea party movement scrambles away like a frightened cockroach.

Saving the Freedom of the Press from the chains of Advertising.

There's a discussion going on now about the freedom of the press, and preserving its constitutional guarantee, after years of seeing it disappear due to its lack of commercial affordability.

I haven't seen much of the debate so far, so this new FTC paper starts the dialogue, and in doing so has set the right wing interests hair on fire.

Ignore the white box and click on the link for the FTC document and details.

New FTC Staff Discussion


The following is a story from the ultra conservative Newsbusters web site manages to take every crackpot bill seriously as a personal affront, so what is written here may not reflect reality.

A Michigan lawmaker wants journalists to be licensed. "Senator Bruce Patterson is introducing legislation that will regulate reporters much like the state does with hairdressers, auto mechanics and plumbers," reported FoxNews.com Friday.

"Patterson, who also practices constitutional law, says that the general public is being overwhelmed by an increasing number of media outlets

--traditional, online and citizen generated

--and an even greater amount misinformation."

--"Good moral character” and demonstrate they have industry “ethics standards acceptable to the board.”

--Possession of a degree in journalism or other degree
substantially equivalent.

--Not less than 3 years experience as a reporter or any other relevant background information.

--Awards or recognition related to being a reporter.

--Three or more writing samples.