Category Archives: voters

Freedom of the Press and Democracy

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David Swanson has a post up at FDL on James Risen being targeted with threats of jail time if he doesn’t reveal his sources.  Journalists have relied on sources to get information out to the pubic that they would not see otherwise.  It has been the backbone of our press.  Sunlight is the best defense against the dark ones who wish to move about without detection.  Good reporters need their sources and must have the ability to keep their identities secret.  Otherwise, they will not come forward with information that is imperative for a robust democracy.

What is happening to James Risen goes against the intentions of the First Amendment.

I hope you will sign the petition.

 

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

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Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

From this link.

Kochs: Getting Taxpayers to pay for their lobbyists…

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This just in…the utmost in hubris–the $$ Kochs $$ don’t even want to pay for their own lobbying efforts against public education, pollution control, unions, poor people, elderly, dogs and cats…(okay, I added the dogs and cats.)

August 28, 2013
CONTACT: Nikolina Lazic, nikolina@prwatch.org

WISCONSIN PREPARES TO HAND HALF-MILLION IN TAXPAYER FUNDS TO KOCH-TIED GOP LOBBY SHOP

A small GOP lobby shop tied to the Tea Party and David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity, and which was active in the state’s recent recall elections, was awarded $500,000 in taxpayer dollars in what some are calling a backdoor, sweetheart deal cooked up by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) State Chair, outgoing Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder.

Send an email to the commission which will review the sweetheart deal tomorrow:
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/632/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=14195

The United Sportsmen of Wisconsin Foundation was the only applicant for a newly-created grant to promote hunting, fishing, and trapping in the state, despite the organization having no record in outdoors training. The grant was slipped into the budget bill by Suder and barely advertised, and other outdoors groups with more experience in the area were largely excluded. Suder has ties to United Sportsmen, and announced last week he would be leaving the Assembly for a higher-paying job in the Walker administration.

The organization’s record, thus far, appears to be that of a lobbying organization for an array of Republican priorities, from mining to the “Castle Doctrine” — neither of which has anything to do with hunting or fishing — and working with Americans for Prosperity to organize events and support Republicans in the 2011 recall elections. The Foundation wing of the group, which has received the grant, only incorporated in January.Although United Sportsmen describes itself as a membership organization, there is little indication it has a wide membership list; its Facebook page, for example, only has 290 followers, many of whom are politicians or right-wing leaders.

The grant, if approved by a panel reviewing the application on Thursday, will go almost entirely towards paying the salaries of United Sportsmen’s staff and consultants.

“This last minute, half million dollar raid on the public treasury ought to be rescinded immediately,” says Jay Heck of Common Cause Wisconsin. “To award this huge chunk of scarce, taxpayer money to a new group with no track record or experience in hunting, trapping and fishing and with obvious partisan, special-interest ties appears, at the very least to be a quid pro quo conflict of interest.”

Taxpayer Dollars Funding the Tea Party?

United Sportsmen was incorporated in June 2011, just weeks before the hotly-contested Senate recall elections when, apparently in coordination with Koch’s Americans for Prosperity, it sent misleading absentee ballot applications with the incorrect date for the elections.

At the time, minimal information was available about the organization, but readers of the Brad Blog uncovered how United Sportsmen’s website was purchased by John W. Connors, an Americans for Prosperity staffer and former Walker campaign volunteer.

This was not Connors’ first foray into the dark money arts. Earlier in 2011, the Center for Media and Democracy uncovered how Connors had also purchased the domain name for a mysterious group called “Citizens for a Strong America,” which subsequently spent hundreds of thousands on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. (That election, between Supreme Court Justice David Prosser and challenger Joanne Kloppenburg, was being treated as a referendum on Governor Scott Walker’s controversial anti-union legislation). The street address for the domain name registry was the same as that of AFP.

United Sportsmen of Wisconsin received $235,000 from Citizens for a Strong America in 2011, according to the latter group’s tax filings. That same year, Citizens for a Strong America funnelled a stunning $916,045 to a pro-life organization called Wisconsin Family Action, which also appeared to have been involved in Americans for Prosperity’s absentee mailing scheme: its address was the same as the “Absentee Ballot Application Processing Center” listed as the destination for AFP’s absentee ballot submissions.

Unlike Citizens for a Strong America, United Sportsmen continued its political activities after the recall elections. It aso maintained its AFP ties. In October of 2012, for example, the group worked with AFP and the National Rifle Association to sponsor “Freedom Fest,” a party at the Kalahari Resort featuring politicians like U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, right-wing talk show host Vicki McKenna, and Brian Fraley of the MacIver Institute, as well as the head of Governor Walker’s Department of Natural Resources. Activities included a “Freedom Phone Bank” and presentations titled “Rules for Radicals” and “Grassroots Lobbying.”

United Sportsmen presents itself as an organization focused on hunting and fishing, but its lobbying efforts suggest a broader agenda. The main legislative priority for the group this session in terms of lobbying hours was the promotion of a bill to ease the way for a controversial open-pit iron mine that environmentalists and tribal groups fear will contaminate groundwater. That bill was a top priority for Governor Walker and legislative Republicans (as well as Americans for Prosperity), who promoted it as a jobs measure.

“Conservation only happens when people have jobs,” United Wisconsin said in a statement at the time.

Narrowly-Tailored Sweetheart Deal Involves Suder’s Former Chief of Staff

The sportsmen’s grant was slipped into the Wisconsin budget with minimal debate by then-Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder, who has close ties to many of those involved with United Sportsmen.

For example, one of the educators listed in the United Sportsmen grant is Luke Hilgemann, Suder’s former Chief of Staff and now Chief Operating Officer of the national Americans for Prosperity in Washington DC After leaving Suder’s office in 2011, Hilgemann led the Wisconsin chapter of AFP; he was promoted to the national group earlier this month. (AFP-Wisconsin is now led by David Fladeboe, who was also a Suder staffer.) Other educators include Darren LaSorte, a longtime Washington DC lobbyist for the NRA. United Sportsmen board members and their families gave Suder $2,500 last year.

Send an email to the commission which will review the sweetheart deal tomorrow: http://org.salsalabs.com/o/632/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=14195

And, the grant requirements were narrowly drawn to make few organizations eligible besides United Sportsmen, and was opened for bidding with essentially no public notice. According to Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

The motion said the grant can be given only to groups that are “not an affiliate of a national federation or organization.” That meant conservation groups such as the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and state chapters of Pheasants Forever, National Wild Turkey Federation and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation were prevented from applying for the grant.

And due to the lack of public notice, several eligible groups weren’t aware of the grant until after application deadline. Reached last week, Don Kirby, executive director of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, said he had no knowledge of the grant.

“Our organization would have been interested to pursue this,” Kirby said. “I’m more than a little disappointed to find out now.” The Wisconsin Waterfowl Association has a long history of running Learn To Hunt and other training events.

George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, praised the purpose of the grant but questioned the narrowly-drawn criteria. “We aren’t criticizing the purpose of this at all,” said Meyer. “We think its purpose is important. But clearly it looks like it was put together for one group.”

In contrast with United Sportsmen, the Wisconsin Wildlife Foundation lobbied against the mining bill, expressing concern about mining’s impact on lakes, wetlands, and groundwater.

Rep. Cory Mason (D-Racine), who was part of the budget committee, told the Journal-Sentinel he hadn’t realized how uncompetitive the grant really was. “In hindsight, it seems like a sweetheart deal for one group that has ties to Scott Suder,” Mason said. “That was not how it was described.”

Led by Right-Wing Apparatchicks

United Sportsmen’s Tea Party and right-wing ties are well established. For example, United Sportsmen boardmember John Meegan is president of the Sauk County Tea Party, and worked with the political training group American Majority to train Tea Party activists and organize pro-Walker rallies at the height of anti-Walker protests. In addition to training Tea Party activists and grooming candidates, American Majority sponsors the Media Trackers website. Meegan is also on the board of the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families, which promotes for-profit virtual schools like those operated by ALEC member K12 Inc.

Also working with the group is Annette Olson, who makes the vast majority of posts on the group’s Facebook page and has testified on behalf of United Sportsmen. Olson leads the Tea Party groups Women United for Liberty (which appears to have an association with Freedomworks) and the pro-gun Tea Party group Uninfringed Liberty. Uninfringed Liberty describes itself as having “a strong emphasis on the second amendment because it protects all liberties and freedom,” and says it works to “participate in vetting and promoting conservative candidates that best exemplify the basic principles of liberty.” The group boasts of its lifetime membership in the NRA and Gun Owners of America, and supports “open carry.” Both Uninfringed Liberty and Women United for Liberty have also held activist trainings with American Majority.

At the state Republican Party convention in 2012, Olson was peeved that the convention hall didn’t allow concealed carry, and sponsored a motion urging the party to only hold its events on properties that do.

Those extreme views on guns are reflected in United Sportsmen’s lobbying efforts. It was one of just a handful of groups to lobby in favor of Wisconsin’s “Castle Doctrine Act,” which mimics the infamous ALEC “Stand Your Ground” law implicated in the Trayvon Martin case. No other group purporting to focus on hunting, fishing, and conservation is listed as lobbying on the bill.

Olson and two other United Sportsmen representatives stood behind Governor Walker as he signed the “Castle Doctrine Act.”

Will Wisconsin Fund Tea Partier Salaries, in Perpetuity?

The grant will pay United Sportsmen $200,000 this year and $300,000 in 2014. According to the group’s grant application, $370,000 will be spent on staff salaries and $20,000 on staff benefits, plus $56,000 on consultants, the Journal-Sentinel reports.

A five-member committee dominated by Republicans will review the grant on Thursday, and then disband. The committee will include Scott Gunderson, DNR executive assistant and a former Republican legislator; Sen. Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn), chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee; Rep. Al Ott (R-Forest Junction), chairman of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee; and two both appointed to the committee by the DNR.

If the grant is approved, United Sportsmen will receive $450,000 in every two-year budget for perpetuity.

Many have noticed how odd it is for a Tea Party-connected group opposed to government spending to turn around and use their political connections to ask for a handout.
[bolds mine]
“How ironic that this phony front group, with such close ties to Americans for Prosperity — which professes to be in favor of cutting government spending — would burden Wisconsin taxpayers in this manner,” says Common Cause Wisconsin’s Heck. “They should have asked the Koch Brothers — who finance AFP — for the handout instead.”

TAKE ACTION! SEND AN EMAIL TODAY AT: http://org.salsalabs.com/o/632/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=14195

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CONTACT:

The Progressive
409 East Main Street, Suite 100
Madison, Wisconsin 53703-4929
Phone: (608) 257-4626

Selling out the Earth via Keystone Pipeline

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Well, this is news I didn’t need to wake up to today.

Methinks the writer is an oil industry proponent…by the slanted view of this piece.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said last Thursday that he was prepared to bring a measure approving the pipeline to the Senate floor despite the administration’s continued reluctance to determine the project’s fate.

Reid is no fan of the pipeline, but he is feeling heat from his own members to bring the issue up for a vote – possibly this week – provided Republicans agree to support a separate energy efficiency bill drafted by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH).

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Ever heard of “just say no”, Harry?  Tell me, what price is a soul going for nowadays? $10,000?  $100,000? $1,000,000?  Because the Keystone XL is the end of us.  The Earth cannot take any more–we are at the point of no return–that point where if we stopped destroying the environment, the Earth just might have a chance to recover.

People are overwhelming against the Keystone XL—yet Reid, Landrieu, et al, try to say that they are feeling the heat from their constituents.  I find that hard to believe….because they’re not hearing from people made ill by petroleum refineries, as in the folks in Texas.  And what about Louisiana, which has had its own battle with fierce nature…the more we destroy the environment and increase climate change, the more fierce the weather will become.  I don’t think Louisiana can afford Katrina times ten. And they’re not listening to the environmentalists.

So…who are they listening to…?

On gue$$.  They’re promoting Keystone XL, while investing in it…

The Clintons connection to XL. This is probably the biggest reason that they are pushing Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Presidency.  God help us if she gets elected.

ALEC and the dirty nine.

BP and the Tar Sands connection.

Keystone Pipeline Exposed.

All is not lost, folks…there are some decent people in Congress after all…who care about the truth and the lies of the Hillary Clinton State Dept.’s hoax.   I do hope Elizabeth Warren runs for President.  Like I said before, I’ll knock on doors and do whatever it takes to help get her elected.

And, just to quash the naysayers who claim environmentalists are phonies (while doing nothing for the environment themselves…here is my own journey:

…my advocating for the environment has been a slow evolving process that includes my experience with mercury poisoning, growing awareness of what we’re doing to the atmosphere, and a spiritual component of realizing everything is connected.

Here are some of the things I do:

–use cloth bags when going to the grocery.  I might use plastic for meat, but I re-use those bags, too, bringing them to the grocery along with the cloth bags.  If you use the cloth bags for meat, be sure to launder them before using again, to avoid contamination.

–avoid plastic packaging. …well, plastic *everything*.   This has been much easier following the GAPS diet because you don’t eat the processed food in packaging, but real food.  If I am given an option, I will buy something in glass packaging before plastic.

—re-use the glass containers for drinking glasses, food storage, plants, etc. I try to avoid ziploc bags when possible.

—don’t purchase synthetic materials like nylon and other materials requiring petroleum.  The list I think is a catch-all, because I think some of the things listed are made with petroleum if plastic or manufactured cloth such as nylon, so some of the products listed could be okay if not using those materials.  Here’s a website on organic cotton, fyi.

–When I had my home, I made a conscious decision not to pave the driveway–it was gravel.  I didn’t spray for weeds, either.  I let my grass grow to 3 inches so that the roots could grow deeply enough to avoid having to water the lawn, especially during the dry time in July–this also helped keep the weeds down. Meanwhile, my neighbors practically shaved the grass off and…wait for it…had to waste precious water to keep the grass from dying in July.    I let a patch of ground that was the former owner’s garden, grow its natural way, without my interference.  Yeah, I was the neighborhood hippie…

—use baking soda, borax, and vinegar for cleaning.  A formula I found in a natural health mag goes like this:  Bathroom cleaner:  6 T vinegar, 2 T borax mixed with a cup– of warm water.  Put this in a 1 qt. spray bottle and fill the rest with water.  Works great, especially if used every day.

—I use non-toxic natural cleaners for laundry, dish washing, etc.,  when I am able to afford them.  Oh, and fyi, avoid dishwashers–the detergent used in them is highly toxic.

—ride a bike or walk when going somewhere.  This was easier for me when I lived in Fort Wayne, where everything was within walking distance.  I could get to the downtown in 45 minutes to an hour.  There is something to be said for walking or riding–you are much more connected to what is going on around you.  You hear the birds sing.  Feel the breeze.  Hear the ripple of water along the river…driving a vehicle cuts you off from so much, besides polluting.

—use flannel cloths instead of toilet paper and re-wash them.  I know, I know, some of you are going “ick” right now.  No. 1 is fine…No. 2 still requires paper. So there.

—cloth pads instead of chemically manufactured pads.

—use less.  I just use less.  This was part of the learning process of being poor–you just learn how to manage on less.  Not easy, for sure.  I became much more adept at planning meals and using food up before it went to waste.  I didn’t buy as much at the grocery until I needed it.  This is easier if the grocery is within walking distance….which is becoming harder as the independents are being forced out while big box stores are situated out in no-man’s-land, forcing people to drive there.

—garden organically, using compost from kitchen waste, and if you’re really adventurous, pee and poo.   This is not for sissies…so come with your brain in active mode and your determination to get away from petroleum and chemicals.  You will succeed, but you can’t give up when challenged.  Nature does challenge you, but also gives such splendid rewards. 😉

This is an ongoing process, for sure.  I didn’t just wake up one day and start doing all of this.  It was a gradual endeavor with every new discovery of my own contribution to pollution.

So…there you have it…my efforts towards helping instead of hurting the environment.

I think if we all took those first steps, and built on that, we would greatly reduce our dependency on petroleum.  Everything helps and every bit matters.

Woman in Saudi Arabia gets 150 lashes for driving

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I read this yesterday and can’t get it out of my mind.  Nothing is said about the reasons she was driving–was she on her way to a job interview and had no other way to get there? Was she on her way to the doctor or perhaps the hospital?  Was she escaping an abusive husband?  Did she just want to freaking drive?

I can’t imagine being flogged 150 times and what kind of permanent scars that would bring (both emotionally and physically).

In a country that goes through the motions of punishing men who abuse women, I don’t see this as setting a good example of how to treat women (note that the fine does not include flogging for him).  If the state condones violence towards women…why would a man think he did not have the state’s implicit endorsement to do the same?

All she wants are the same rights as men…to drive…to vote…to move about freely without having to have a male companion…why is that such a threat? (Yes, I know that women have been given the right to vote…if they have a male companion who approves….so yeah, not much in the way of progress there.)

 

 

 

Obama High School and Affirmative Action

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Fred Klonsky posted his viewpoint on Barack Obama College Preparatory School and Obama’s silence on a Supreme Court decision on Affirmative Action.

President Obama, however much I disagree with his education policies, is entitled to his opinion…whether it be for or against Affirmative Action.  I presume he is for it, but chose not to speak out at this particular decision.  I really don’t recall him speaking out on much regarding Supreme Court decisions— so because he’s black, he should speak out on this particular decision?

Perhaps I’m misinterpreting things…but this piece just struck me wrong.

As a side note~ Cabrini Green?  Really?  That was the housing project that was famously featured when former Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne *cough* moved in….the press was all over it…but what they forgot to tell people was that she wasn’t moving in as in moving all her household…but rather, she kinda sorta stayed there one night a week./snark

Or perhaps it was a few hours in the daytime./snarkier

Or perhaps she just drove past the place…on her way to her real home…./snarkiest

We need jobs, not eggs.  Funny how it’s been thirty years and not much has changed, eh?

Oh, wait…

Rahm builds an elite high school on this historical spot….not only do you not get jobs, but you get thrown out.

 

First Nations people protest Royals

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In news that you won’t read about in the mainstream media–Warrior Publications has a post up of the indigenous folks protesting the Royals.

…or if you do hear about it, it will be in a negative light….as in they have no right to their land or to protest.

Arne Duncan is not only racist, but sexist, too

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Carol Burris, a highly regarded public school principal, has a piece up exploring the degrading comments directed at opponents to Arne Duncan’s brainless education policies.

He actually states that the Governor of NY, Cuomo, is a “profile in courage”.  Bwahahahaha *snort*  Yeah, because it takes courage to make children cry from tests that are above their intellectual development level….

He dismissed parents who criticized his policies as “white suburban moms” who thought their little darlings were much smarter than they actually were….because education guru Arne said they were. Someone whom has never taught in school…methinks Arne thinks he’s smarter than he is.  Ahem.

Burris also notes the misogyny in Duncan’s comments…labeling women opponents as “hysterical” and “dramatic”.  Oh, and “noisy”, to me, equals “uppity” women.   Yep.  He must be taking his cues from Freud’s playbook, the Diagnostic Manual.

As a side note~~I found a blog on misogyny here.

And on the link for reddit creep shot, this disturbing info on the rape/violence against women culture:

The fiasco comes on the heels of a highly-publicized flap between reddit and Gawker, after Gawker journalist Adrian Chen’s investigation of an infamous user of the subreddit who went by the handle, Violentacrez. According to the The Guardian, that user “set up hundreds of sub-forums where users post links and images including bestiality, rape fantasy, under-age porn and upskirt photos.” 

Among the sections that Violentacrez created or moderated were: Chokeabitch, Niggerjailbait, Rapebait, Hitler, Jewmerica, Misogyny, and Incest

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…created by 49-year-old computer programmer and misogynist, Michael Brutsch.

But back to Arne Duncan…what do his comments signify?  That perhaps his hatred of public education proponents, mostly women, is part of a hatred of women in general?

And “stay the course”….really?  You couldn’t think of something original besides Bushisms? Yeah, because the Bushes have done *so much* for this country and public education with No Child Left a Mind…/snarky to the extreme

Duncan keeps knocking our public school system, especially the individualistic nature of public school before NCLB or Race to the Bottom…while ignoring those folks who made phenomenal contributions to society, from those same individualistic school systems, such as Neil Armstrong, Maya Angelou, Frank Church, Paul Wellstone, Birch Bayh, Dwight Eisenhower, a great grandson of immigrants, who loved art, math, spelling, and history; Gloria Steinem, and any number of musicians who got their start in music programs that included actual instruments, that went on to get private instruction to become great musicians.  Same with artists.

If you view Duncan’s video, it is stunning that in the first minute, he talks of John being orphaned at a young age…and he had teachers –-public school teachers–who helped him along his path to become productive.  He also was a product of the public education system before NCLB could dull his creative expression, his critical thinking skills, and his own expression of his individuality.

I wonder what his public education teachers think of him trying to destroy those very things in children today with the rigidity of Common Core and Race to the Bottom…?

He mentions that the First Lady had a teacher that told her she shouldn’t aspire to Ivy League schools because it was too good for her.  That makes me sad to hear.  Is that a reason the First Lady is against public education?  I suspect that those who are against public education had bad experiences with teachers…and then project that onto all teachers.

I had some bad teachers, but for the most part, my experience with public education was good.  Yes, those experiences with bad teachers were hurtful but the ones who were encouraging when I was discouraged made up for that.  And it was an intrinsic thing, too, because I loved learning.

I guess that is where you have to be responsible for your own education…to go on even though they tell you that you can’t.  Because, believe it or not, my first class of composition in college, I had a white instructor who, when I asked her about a career as a writer, told me “don’t quit your day job.”  So, there you go…

 

 

 

Six Corporations that control what you know **edited

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Child Health has posted a video on the consolidation of the media into the hands of a few.  This is a prime example of what happens to Freedom of the Press and the Marketplace of Ideas when the public only hears the opinions of Too Big Too Fails.  As the video illustrates, the newsroom editors, TV station editors, and others will decide what the NEWS is…that is why you need to get your news from several different sources with differing opinions…the truth is somewhere in-between.

We used to be the envy of the world for our Freedom of the Press….now we rank 46th in the world.

**edited to correct glaring gaff. Oy.