Anne Clair, an Elsipogtog mother, wrote this about her son being jailed while protesting SWN trespassing on the native owned land.
Again, I ask– If most of the taxpayers are against fracking and tar sands, then why are the oil companies allowed on that land? Why were the police there and who are they working for if the taxpayers do not want this?
Protestors in Venezuela were blocked on twitter from posting images of the protests.
PBS, which is supposed to be free from corporate influence, is now under fire for airing an anti-Pension series sponsored by John Arnold. David Sirota’s article on it here.
In recent years, Arnold has been using massive contributions to politicians, Super PACs, ballot initiative efforts, think tanks and local front groups to finance a nationwide political campaign aimed at slashing public employees’ retirement benefits. His foundation which backs his efforts employs top Republican political operatives, including the former chief of staff to GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey (TX). According to its own promotional materials, the Arnold Foundation is pushing lawmakers in states across the country “to stop promising a (retirement) benefit” to public employees.
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…both PBS’s “Pension Peril” correspondent and the AP reporter did not mention that according to budget data, pension shortfalls in Illinois are far smaller than the amount the state is spending on expensive taxpayer subsidies to corporations.
[…]
The state is just choosing to spend that money on huge subsidies to corporations like Sears and Google rather than paying its bills or making its required pension payments.
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See…the money is there…but it’s going into the pockets of the 1%, see? Note the $4 billion per year in subsidies in New York! OMG talk about greedy, greedy, greedy!
And here we have the smoking gun of executives knowing who was funding it and refusing to disclose it:
“We were sitting in a meeting talking about another issue and (PBS officials) were drawing examples of how they were working with other campaigns, and one of their executives said they’ve got a series called pension peril coming up talking about the threat of pensions at the state and local level,” said the source. “I asked who was funding that project, and the executive said that at this point they are not disclosing who their funders are, and everybody sitting around the room kind of paused.”
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Link to Jane Meyer’s article in the New Yorker here.
In 1997, he [David Koch] began serving as a trustee of Boston’s public-broadcasting operation, WGBH, and in 2006 he joined the board of New York’s public-television outlet, WNET. Recent news reports have suggested that the Koch brothers are considering buying eight daily newspapers owned by the Tribune Company, one of the country’s largest media empires, raising concerns that its publications—which include the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times—might slant news coverage to serve the interests of their new owners, either through executive mandates or through self-censorship. Clarence Page, a liberal Tribune columnist, recently said that the Kochs appeared intent on using a media company “as a vehicle for their political voice.”
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$50 for Christmas bonus? Are you kidding me? So much for trickle down economics, eh?
Meyer’s piece brings up the ABC News story on Disney hiring pedophiles being cancelled…because Disney owns ABC. If I recall correctly, the reporter of the story was asked if he was crazy for investigating it….
Even more depressing is the upcoming PBS pieces by Chitester on the “evils of the welfare system” I can hardly wait. What a bully this guy is…pick on the ones who are least likely to fight back. Creep.
I’ve dragged my feet looking this up, and it was as depressing as I thought…
Not only did they cut food stamps again in the Un-Depression, the heartless creeps gave the corporate interests lots of goodies. I really don’t know how these people sleep at night. But then again, when you have no conscience, your guilt doesn’t keep you awake…
I found this in the tweets on the Idle No More website. I love documentaries and would be doing them if circumstances were different, so I hope that folks will send support for her project. I think it is a project whose time has come.
Really not trying to be a downer on Valentines Day, but just wanting to give balance to the dripping love fest–
First, the national hotline for domestic violence: 800-799-7233
War and Domestic Violence connection.
Verbal abuse is just as damaging.
Laws and lawmakers that don’t protect and support women.
VAWA and Native American women. Update here. Thank you, President Obama.
Tribal governments — police, prosecutors, and courts — are essential to the response to these crimes, but have long lacked the authority to address them effectively. Prior to TLOA’s enactment, no matter how violent the offense, tribal courts could sentence Indian offenders to only one year in prison. Even worse, since a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1978, tribal courts have had no authority to prosecute a non-Indian who commits domestic violence, even if he lives on the reservation, works for the tribe, and is married to a tribal member.
Not surprisingly, abusers who are not arrested are more likely to repeat, and escalate, their attacks. Research shows that law enforcement’s failure to arrest and prosecute abusers both emboldens attackers and deters victims from reporting future incidents. In short, the jurisdictional framework in Indian country has left many serious acts of domestic violence and dating violence unprosecuted and unpunished. The reauthorization of VAWA signed by President Obama will empower Indian tribes to protect all Native American women in Indian country, at long last.
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To go a little further with my post from yesterday, on missing Native American women, here is a map of women missing and murdered. Pretty sobering. (click on the red spots, and a list will pop up).
Black women and domestic violence.…same sad story of an intimate partner abusing them.
Shelah Harper knows all too well the reality behind all those numbers. On Nov. 7, 2004, her daughter, Asia Adams, a 21-year-old West Chester University student, was brutally murdered by an ex-boyfriend and his friend. It was in the basement of Harper’s Philadelphia home (she was out of town at the time) where Thomas Strode, who Adams had been dating for four months, and his accomplice, Simeon Bozic, beat Adams with a shovel before cutting her throat several times. A day later, the two would set the house on fire to cover up their crime. They also withdrew money from Adams’ ATM card and went on a shopping spree.
Lastly, the post of the recent show on DN! about domestic violence and how women are still not believed, still not taken seriously, and blamed for their abuse.
The next question with this is what makes a good relationship? Well, I don’t pretend to have the answers to that one–but here are some thoughts:
–He recognizes that you are a separate person in your own right. This means you have a right to your own opinions.
–He recognizes that you have a right to say “no” to intimacy and that he is not entitled to sex.
–He values your opinion. He asks for your advice and considers your thoughts on an issue.
–He doesn’t put you down, in public or in private.
–He sees you as his equal, as much value as he, whether you work in or out of the home.
–He compromises.
–He genuinely likes you, honors you, respects you.
Basically, it’s the golden rule–treating you as he wishes to be treated. Pretty simple.
Idle No More has this up on a day to honor dead and missing Indigenous women. I would like to expand that to all women—missing, dead, beaten, and raped.
Unfortunately, it’s in Canada…but yeah, if you’re not there, perhaps you could just take that time from 10:00 to 12:00 p.m. to meditate on that. Not only on that, but how we can heal our society so that women are not seen as second class or “less than” for being….women.
Some suggestions:
–Say a prayer.
–Make a list of what you can do personally to stop the rape/violence against women culture.
–Change your thinking of hierarchy–that one must be “above” or “below” another. And that one’s material wealth is equal to their spiritual worth.
–Examine the media. Truly examine how the media sends messages of women’s worth.
–Listen to women. Listen to what they tell you they want–don’t try to put your own ideas on to women. And don’t, for pete’s sake, make us all one homogenous group….we are all individuals with different ideas, needs, wants, and goals.
I was thinking about my post on food stamps, and thought I’d add a little depth to the folks behind the faces–
I mentioned in this post about the man getting only $16 a month in food stamps. He’s in a wheelchair, not too much older than me. He was a fire fighter, once, and then was paralyzed in a hunting accident.
Another lady limps with one leg as she had a stroke. Her left arm is basically useless–some mobility to it but not much. She, too, isn’t too much older than me. She had been married once and had children from that union. She had once suggested that her husband look into a security business. He did. He now lives quite well while she lives in poverty with a small income from disability.
An older African American gentleman once played in a jazz band in Chicago during the 50s and 60s (and probably longer, but that’s what I heard about). He had his picture in the paper once. Now he lives in public housing, unable to afford a better place.
A younger gal is a student nurse who somehow ended up here from Hawaii. She’s in public housing and on food stamps until she gets her degree.
Another gal my age used to work for a national grocery chain. She stood on concrete floors for eight hours every day for years…..it took a toll on her back and knees and now she is on disability and food stamps.
I just wanted to put a face on the folks on food stamps so people understand.
You never know the story until you walk a mile in their shoes…
Politicker has this up on Jerry Nadler speaking out on the republican plan of decreasing the surplus population–through even more cuts to food stamps..in a Depression…oh, wait, we’re not supposed to call it a Depression…my bad.
I’ve debated back and forth whether to write about my situation with the state. Like so many people on food stamps, it’s humiliating to have to beg for food. It’s humiliating to go to job interviews and not get that call, even though the interviewers seem to like you….then you are called lazy and unmotivated by these republican (and some Democrats) jackasses….so they’re going to “help you” not be lazy and unmotivated…
Briefly, I did get them reinstated…BUT the state pulled a number out of its arse that isn’t even reflecting of what I am bringing home.
Gah, this is hard talking about, but here goes: I made a total of $520.00 since September. The average of those months is $130.00 per month…before taxes. The state has done some fuzzy math and now deemed me making $260.00 + what my son gives me. I told them that he only helps me out if I don’t make enough to cover my supplements and vitamins (which keep me healthy until I can get this horrible poison out) and my gas and the basics like laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, etc. I really hate having to ask him for money, so if he does help out, it’s never over $100, unless the car needs work or some emergency comes up. He signed a paper stating such.
So…they decided that he helps me out *every* month, regardless, which is a lie.
Even with all the false money that I don’t have coming in, the total they have assigned is…$360.00 per month.
And they cut my food stamps because apparently I’m living high on the hog at their false total of $360. Yep.
This does not take into account taxes taken out, gas to get back and forth to work, and the weather, which has impaired my ability to work. They don’t take into account that the car needs tires, a transmission fluid change, and other maintenance just so I can make it to work. Doesn’t matter to them.
According to them, I’m making $360, with no taxes to pay and no other expenditures.
$143 is all they will give me for an entire month’s worth of groceries. And now they want to cut that even more. They spend more than that on a month’s worth of coffee.
Oh, and what was that about the automatic pay raises of Congress? You can’t “make it” on $100,000 per year?
Mitt Romney and his cronies, gutting jobs while raking in the cash….and looking the other way while people go hungry.
My post on being lazy and unmotivated here.
My other posts on food stamps here, here, and here.
My piece on the media slamming the poor ..I should note that I also saw the South Bend station doing the exact.same.thing within months after this piece aired.
So…you can’t find a job, you’ve got food stamps that don’t last a month, and you’re not supposed to beg for money…vicious, heartless, and punitive.
And when the sociopaths talk about wanting to cut food stamps because of fraud, they neglect to mention the program is one of the best run with only a 3% error rate!
Meanwhile, they look the other way at rampant fraud with the Dept. of Defense….and the welfare queens of McDonald’s and Walmart.
**edited to add: I just want to make it plain that this is not a pity post. Like I said in the previous post, we don’t want your stinking charity. We want jobs with livable wages.
For those of you who don’t know, I’m recovering from mercury poisoning. This is just a short post on my progress–
You might recall I’ve written about mercury poisoned folks not getting colds like normal. I had not had a cold – a sneezing your head off cold – for about five years.
So…I had one last month where I sneezed more in one week than I had the entire past year. And I have another one now…
I never thought I would be happy that I’m sneezing…but, yeah, I am. :p
The theory is that mercury so damages our immune system that it cannot muster a response, which is what the sneezing, aching muscles, etc., are…
So, while sneezing is no fun, it makes me happy to know that my immune system is still alive and kicking its way back from the cliff. ::does happy dance:: :;well, okay, doesn’t do happy dance because I feel like crap right now…but the spirit is willing even though the body sez Pfft.::
I had to watch this video (top) twice because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing–from a distance, it looks like a couple talking…he even has his arm around her like a good friend, and then *boom* he starts to haul her off. She showed no weapon, was not yelling or otherwise threatening anyone…I was just stunned.
Even more stunning? How everyone else just allowed it to happen. She had every right to be there and Harper and his goons had no right to interfere with that.
In the second video, she is saying that she wasn’t even tweeting–that she did not have her phone. So they’re lying on top of taking away her rights?
Tweeting is not a threat. Freedom of Speech is not a threat.
Eagle 
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