The Wisconsin Protests Cause A Profanity Laced Glenn Beck Meltdown

The Wisconsin protests combined with the pressure of declining ratings have caused Glenn Beck to crack and meltdown. On his Fox News program tonight, Beck started screaming at his audience, “Tell me what the hell Madison is? Show that picture up in front of New York right now. Tell me what this is? What the hell is this?”

Here is the audio from Media Matters:

Beck said, “Is it a little hard to deny that radicals, Islamists, the communists, socialists will work together against Israel against capitalism, and they’ll try to work together to overturn stability? Who in the media is telling you this? Who? NAME THEM! Where are they? How can they possibly deny it at this point, and why wouldn’t they tell you these things?”

Beck returned to his chalkboard, “Protests become contagious. Can you deny this anymore? They’ll cascade. They will sweep the Middle East, and they will begin to destabilize Europe and the rest of the world. Tell me what the hell Madison is? Show that picture up in front of New York right now. Tell me what this is? What the hell is this? It’s the unions poking, pushing, prodding. They will lose because they don’t know who you are.”

We all know that Glenn has been working hard to revive his flagging ratings, and he has attempted to tie every current event into his caliphate, socialist, communist, Marxist, Obama, Google, community organizers, leftist, Van Jones conspiracy for world domination theory, but I am starting to get concerned for Glenn’s mental health.

I think he is really starting to believe this stuff. The crazy conspiracy theories used to only be a mega paycheck for Beck, but ever since he redefined himself as an activist on a mission from God and not a right wing entertainer, his shows have gotten consistently darker in tone. (In my opinions this is why his ratings have dropped so much). Unless you are a scared, white, older Republican, Glenn Beck’s program isn’t too much fun anymore.

Beck’s angry tirade had a hint of desperation in it, as if he is hoping that if he screams, stomps, and curses enough all those viewers that he lost will return. These outbursts could all be Glenn Beck publicity stunts, but if you spend any amount of time watching his program there is an urgent flailing in these shows. It is as if Beck wants to be proven correct so badly that he is hoping that the protests in Wisconsin turn violent, and he is doing everything he can to prod things in Madison in a violent direction.

Glenn Beck’s intellectual grasp was never all that strong to begin with, but it seems that Beck has fallen into the dark conspiracy theory abyss.

Every day he sinks a little deeper and drifts further and further away from the casual audience that once was entertained by him. Soon all that will remain for Beck is an endless stream of nonsensical conspiracy theories, each a little more outlandish than the last, and a devoted small audience of true believers who know in their hearts that the end really is near, and are certain that the next time their hero Glenn Beck will get it right.

AlterNet.org

Wisconsin GOP Laughs, Mocks as Dems Filibuster Union-Busting Bill Overnight

Wisconsin Democrats spent all night in Assembly drawing out a long filibuster, in another strategic attempt to block Governor Scott Walker's union-busting bill. In a hearing that began yesterday morning, Dems introduced amendments and gave speeches as, on the steps of the State capitol, the Assembly could hear the chants of tens of thousands of workers, now in their ninth day of protest. Naturally, some Dems got riled up or emotional during their speeches, which led some Republicans to show exactly how much they don't give a shit about the throngs of constituents fighting for their families. Incredibly, according to CBS, the GOP actually laughed at the Dems:

Republicans sat mostly in silence as the debate dragged into the wee hours, though tempers flared when two Democrats lashed out at Republican lawmakers and aides for laughing at them during the debate.

"This is not a game! We're dealing with people's lives! This isn't funny!" Rep. Andy Jorgensen shouted in the chamber, his face red. "I haven't laughed in a long time, especially not on a day like this!"

Dems introduced 42 separate amendments last night in an effort to protect union workers from the bill, which would strip public worker unions' bargaining rights in addition to inflating their contributions to pension and health insurance benefits. Last night, Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald echoed Walker's bogus claims that the state cannot afford collective bargaining, but neglected to mention the fact that the it could certainly afford to give huge corporate tax breaks last month before Walker went Koch-happy and signed away its surplus.

As Greg Sargent wrote in the Washington Post:

It's striking to note that the main focus of this conversation is no longer on the state of Wisconsin's finances. It's now all about workers' rights to engage in collective bargaining, something that has been enshrined in bipartisan consensus for decades. This is partly Walker's fault: His decision to reject the union's offer to accept his fiscal demands in exchange for preserving their rights did a great deal to shift the conversation into one no longer focused on Wisconsin's budgetary needs. The entry of outside groups like Americans for Prosperity into the fight also fuels a sense that this is no longer a budget dispute, but something else entirely, something far more ideologically charged.

Spot on, and there's evidence: Yesterday Indiana Dems left their House, Wisconsin-style, in order to block another union-busting bill, while Ohio saw thousands of protesters on its state capitol. It's spreading.

By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd | Sourced from AlterNet

Posted at February 23, 2011, 6:37 am

GOP To Help Keep Lead in Kids' Toys

MOTHER JONES

Will the GOP Help Keep Lead in Kids' Toys?

— By Suzy Khimm

| Tue Feb. 22, 2011 7:51 AM PST

On Saturday, House Republicans overwhelmingly voted to slash funding for federal agencies across the board, setting the stage for an epic budget battle next month. In the meantime, though, industry lobbyists have been steadily waging war to water down new federal regulations that protect consumers, and the New York Times highlights a prime example. Toy manufacturers are targeting new safety regulations from the Consumer Product Safety Commission "that would require third-party testing to determine the safety and lead content of children's products," the Times reports. They're also going after a new database that allows the public to find injury reports on cribs, strollers, and other children's products.

Unsurprisingly, the industry lobby has found sympathetic Republicans to back them up, along with a handful of Democrats from manufacturing-heavy states. The GOP has already targeted the new safety rules that were passed after the public outcry in 2007, when millions of hazardous toys, mostly from China, were recalled. Republicans are now arguing that the new rules are too onerous and could spur frivolous lawsuits:

Already, Representative Mike Pompeo, a newly elected Republican from Kansas, has succeeded in passing an amendment to an appropriations bill to strip financing for the consumer products database, arguing that the idea needed to be tweaked to protect manufacturers from bogus complaints and lawsuits.

Representatives of consumer groups, meanwhile, are fretting. They said they were worried that the tougher standards they fought for, and seemed to have finally won, were now in jeopardy.

“You have folks who are seeing that there is a chance to undo consumer protections that they never liked in the first place,” said Ami Gadhia, policy counsel for Consumers Union.

Since the GOP's rout in the midterms, industry lobbyists have felt newly empowered to target other federal regulations as well, ranging from new health reform rules to the Environmental Protection Agency's regulation of greenhouse gases. Though the House GOP's budget fight has captured the spotlight, much of the debate is political theater at best, with the most draconian cuts unlikely to become a reality. By contrast, these behind-the-scenes battles—fueled by deep-pocketed lobbyists—could end up doing significant damage to existing federal regulations while everyone's attention has been diverted elsewhere.

February 21, 2011 at 04:43:21

The Money Party on the Road to Ruin

By Michael Collins (about the author)

opednews.com

Michael Collins

The Money Party is destroying the United States. For ten years, there have been no new jobs with flat income. Unemployment and poverty are making a big comeback. The party consists of those who own and control concentrations of great wealth and the select few who serve them (their Mandarins). Based on the efficiency of the demolition job, you have to wonder, is this is by design? If greed, ignorance, and paranoia constitute a plan, then they are master planners. (Image)

Look at the glaring problems below. Then ask yourself, has there been one single program implemented to address any of these problems, just one? Our elected representatives enable the relentless process of driving down the United States. They bicker and fume at the edge of issues. However, when it comes to neglecting the real needs of citizens and the country, they are as one. All rewards and resources flow to their patrons and owners, the made men and women of The Money Party. We are nothing to them.
There have been no net new jobs since 2000. The minimal growth from 2000 to 2010 disappears when you factor in 10% population growth over the same period.

You would think that somebody in charge would take this seriously. New jobs with decent pay represent the key to many of the other problems we face. Yet nobody bothers to do anything about it or even starts a serious effort to seek solutions.

Income has been flat for 10 years.

How are people supposed to survive, raise their families, pay their medical bills, etc. if income remains flat while inflation eats away at existing resources?

The following maps show the relative increase of unemployment since 2000 based on the official unemployment formula.

Real unemployment figure tops 20%. Employer payroll reports are the basis for the "official" figures. That rate is artificially low since it leaves out the self employed, discouraged workers, long term unemployed, and the underemployed. The government's U6 unemployment rate, 17%, is a more accurate measure. When you add "estimated" long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994." total unemployed is at 23% of the workforce.

(Image: Shadow Government Statistics)

Bankruptcies petitions and individuals involved are up nearly by a factor of three since 2006. There are any number of reason so for a bankruptcy but no new jobs, increased prices, and flat incomes have a great deal to do with this trend.

At the end of 2010, 14% of US homes were either in foreclosure or delinquent in payments. People can't make home payments if they are unemployed. Their ability to make payments will vanish as their flat salaries are eaten away over time. But nothing is done.

The poverty rate is up around 40% when you use a measure that factors in out of pocket medical expenses, not considered in the "official" poverty rate.

It only makes sense that people will descend into poverty. What else happens when you lose your job and are unable to find a new one?

Large sections of the country look like a wasteland due to extended neglect and hard times. Michigan's Central Station in Detroit sat unused and abandoned as the city around it decayed. The Economist called California's San Joaquin Valley "the Appalachia of the West" because of record high unemployment that reaches 30% to 40% range in some small towns. Described as the food basket of the world, the valley is collapsing in on itself.

Michigan Central Station, Detroit, abandoned and unused for years Image

In addition to completely failing the people, the party let the nation's infrastructure fall into ruin. The American Society of Civil Engineers graded the status of bridges, roads, etc. The Money Party gets a big fat "D" for their stewardship.

<

Fixing all this would provide a stimulus of phenomenal proportions. It would produce bonds that were actually worth something in the future. The Money Party can blow things up but building and repairing are beyond their abilities to comprehend.

We are led by fools.

END

This article may be reproduced entirely in in part with attribution of authorship and a link to this article.

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Michael Collins is a writer in the DC area who researches and comments on the corruptions of the new millennium. His articles focus on the financial manipulations of The Money Party, the abuse of power by government, and features on elections and (more...)

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Scott Walker's Pants Are on Fire for Lying About Union Busting and Collective Bargaining

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 4:21pm.

BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT FOR TRUTHOUT

Next time you see some news footage of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, check out the flames coming from his pants on fire.

That's because the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (MJS) examined Walker's recent mind-boggling claim that "collective bargaining is fully intact" in his legislation that has drawn as many as 70,000 pro-union protesters to Madison. And what the MJS found was that Walker flunked the truth-o-meter test.

In fact, he not only flunked, he excelled in lying. According to the MJS, "To now say now say collective bargaining would remain 'fully intact' is not just false, it's ridiculously false."

Walker seems either ignorant or willfully deceptive as to the difference between collective bargaining and civil service regulations, conflating the two for the purposes of trying to break the unions but denying that he is trying to achieve that very goal which makes unions a source of protection for labor: collective bargaining.

As the MJS noted in its "PolitiFact" analysis:

If Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker isn't trying to strip most collective bargaining rights from public employees, then why do workers keep pouring into Madison by the thousands to demonstrate against him?

Many state, local government and public school employees -- including those represented by the largest state workers union -- have said they would be willing to pay more for pensions and health insurance, as called for in a budget-repair bill introduced by Walker.

But the workers continue to protest provisions in the bill that would restrict most public employee unions to bargaining only over wages, and then only within caps.

It's the central issue in the protests, which have drawn national attention.

And yet on the morning of Feb. 18, 2011 -- a day after Democratic state senators fled to Illinois to prevent a vote on the bill -- Walker made a startling declaration in a Milwaukee radio interview.

That startling and whopper of a lie statement was Walker asserting that his bill to crush public unions would leave "collective bargaining ... fully intact."

A Reuters article summarizes the basics of Walker's anti-union bill:

* Walker wants to limit collective bargaining to the issue of wages, and cap wage increases to the rate of inflation, with a voter referendum needed for larger increases.

* Walker's proposal would also prohibit employer collection of union dues and members of collective bargaining units would not be required to pay dues. Contracts would be limited to one year, and collective bargaining units would have to take annual votes to maintain certification as a union.

* Walker said collective bargaining takes too long and the cuts need to be made immediately. He said the alternative is layoffs of more than 10,000 workers.

* Certain employees, including local law enforcement and fire employees, would be exempt from the collective bargaining changes.

So, the only purpose of any public union (with the exception of police and fire unions) would be to negotiate salaries, and then only up to the rate of inflation, which is probably what the workers would receive anyway. In essence, the public union ceases to exist as any sort of entity that would protect workers' rights, ensure healthy working conditions, and negotiate benefits. It would be a front organization, like in the old Soviet Union, just there to be subject to executive branch directives and to trot out for purposes of partisan political purposes, a Potemkin hollow entity with no powers.

As BuzzFlash revealed yesterday, Scott Walker was anything but transparent when it came to excessive pay raises for his political cronies on his Milwaukee County staff.

And now his pants are on fire over lies on collective bargaining and union busting.

House Republicans Cut Funding to Nobel Prize-Winning UN Climate Science Body

Published on Monday, February 21, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

House Republicans Cut Funding to Nobel Prize-Winning UN Climate Science Body

Funding ban to IPCC part of cuts package that would slash spending on environmental protection

by Suzanne Goldenberg

America is to cut off all funding to the United Nations climate science panel under sweeping Republican budget cuts that seek to gut spending on environmental protection.

In proposing the ban on IPCC funding, Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer called the UN panel 'nefarious'. (Photograph: Tom Williams/Roll Call Photos) The funding ban to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – stripping $2.3m (£1.31m) from an international organisation that relies heavily on volunteer scientists – was among some $61bn (£38bn) in cuts voted through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Saturday.

If enacted, the cuts package would reduce spending on environmental protection by nearly one-third, or about $3bn (£1.85bn), advancing a key objective of the conservative Tea Party of dismantling government regulation.

The cuts also exhibit the strong hostility to climate science among the Tea Party activists with funding bans on the IPCC and a newly created climate information service under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – a reorganisation which was to be funded out of existing budgets.

The weekend budget measure was designed to fund the government through to September. But the White House and Senate Democrats say the cuts – which go far deeper than those put forward by Barack Obama last week – are extreme, setting the stage for a confrontation between Democrats and Republicans.

In proposing the ban on IPCC funding, Blaine Luetkemeyer, a Missouri Republican, called the UN panel "nefarious".

"The IPCC is an entity that is fraught with waste and fraud, and engaged in dubious science, which is the last thing hard-working American taxpayers should be paying for," Luetkemeyer said in a statement.

He claimed the US funds to the IPCC were $13m, but Henry Waxman, the California Democrat, told Congress the figure was $2.3m. He argued that the contribution helped the US get access to global scientific body of work – that would not exist without American support.

Chris Field, a Stanford scientist who heads one of the IPCC working groups, said US funds to the IPCC were about $3m last year. Field said: "It's a real tragedy that the issue is so poorly understood that it doesn't have the support I think it deserves given how important it is."

Overall, the bill would cut 29% from the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) budget, or nearly $3bn (£1.85bn). In addition, it contains more than 15 separate measures that were tacked on to the bill that will block funds for specific environmental programmes. Several of those funding vetoes involve the EPA's recent moves to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

The measures would cut $8.4m in funds to the EPA's greenhouse gas registry. They would also prohibit the EPA from using any funds to enforce emissions rules on power plants and cement manufacturers, or from increasing the use of ethanol.

But they would also block the EPA and other government agencies from using funds to enforce regulations on the highly destructive method of coal mining, mountaintop removal. Other measures block funds for enforcing air quality standards, including mercury emissions from cement kilns.

There were bans on funds for protection of fragile rivers in Florida and Missouri, and for enacting a protection plan for the Chesapeake Bay.

Even the White House was not left unscathed. The spending package would cut funds for the White House climate change advisor. Carol Browner, the current adviser, recently announced her resignation.

© 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited

Across the US, GOP Lawmakers Build States of Denial

Across the US, GOP Lawmakers Build States of Denial

Friday 19 February 2010

by: Michael Winship, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

Forced at gunpoint this weekend to clean out a lot of old paper files in anticipation of some home improvements, I ran across some articles and obituaries I had saved following the death, a little more than five and a half years ago, of the late, great Ann Richards, former governor of Texas.

One of them related the story of how Governor Richards was approached by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which was disturbed by the presence of a Christmas creche on the grounds of the state capitol in Austin. "You know," she replied, "that's probably as close as three wise men will ever get to the Texas legislature, so why don't we just let them be."

Yet another late, great woman of Texas, journalist Molly Ivins once said of that same august body, "All anyone needs to enjoy the state legislature is a strong stomach and a complete insensitivity to the needs of the people. As long as you don't think about what that peculiar body should be doing and what it actually is doing to the quality of life in Texas, then it's all marvelous fun."

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These memories come to mind in the wake of this week's release of "Texas on the Brink," a pamphlet published annually by the Texas Legislative Study Group, a group of Democratic state lawmakers. According to their research, much of it corroborated by the US Census Bureau and the Texas Legislative Budget Board, in 2011, "Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured children in the nation. Texas is dead last in the percentage of residents with their high school diploma and near last in SAT [Standard Achievement Test] scores. Texas has America's dirtiest air.... Those who value tax cuts over children and budget cuts over college have put Texas at risk in her ability to compete and succeed."

Over the years, such statistics and other damned shenanigans have led many to debate whether Texas is indeed the rightful landlord of the nation's worst statehouse. As someone with a mother's Lone Star blood flowing through his otherwise anemic northeastern veins, I write this with no small amount of perverse pride. But in the last couple of weeks, a lot of other states have been giving Texans a run for their money.

Last week, the Utah Senate passed a bill that would make the Browning M1911 semiautomatic pistol the state's official firearm. Senate president Michael Waddoups (R-Taylorsville) read a letter from a seventh grader praising the bill because the M1911 is used to kill Nazi zombies in the videogame "Call of Duty: Black Ops." Waddoups said the kid is "doing some thinking." You betcha. The Associated Press reported, "The letter closes with the child acknowledging that guns can cause violence when used in a bad way, but guns also show other countries who is the boss." American exceptionalism at its finest.

In Missouri, state senator Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield) has introduced a bill that would, in the words of progressive website ThinkProgress, "dramatically claw back" state child labor restrictions, including the prohibition on employment of children under the age of 14 and regulations on the number of hours a child may work during the day. South Dakota was contemplating - but just tabled, thank goodness - a bill that critics feared would expand the definition of justifiable homicide to include the murder of doctors who provide abortions. Idaho is debating a bill to nullify Obama's health care reform, and in Arizona, legislators are sponsoring one that would allow the state to nullify any federal law it doesn't particularly care for.

I would ask what's gotten into them, but I think we all know. As noted by Tim Storey, senior fellow of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), since the midterm elections, "There are now more Republican state legislators (3,941) than at any point since they held 4,001 seats after the 1928 election.... Twenty-two state legislative chambers changed majority control in the 2010 election cycle - all in the direction of the GOP." Many of the newly elected members were endorsed by Tea Party organizations or have rushed to embrace the Tea Party's inchoate, right-wing agenda as a means to safeguard re-election.

In so doing, they have opened a Pandora's box of legislative mayhem that not only plays to the social conservatism that would return us to the days of Cotton Mather and the ducking stool, but which also uses the Tea Partiers' lust to slash spending as a dodge - not to balance budgets and eliminate deficits, as they claim, but to further stifle government and other institutions dedicated to the common good.

This is supremely manifest in renewed efforts by governors and statehouses across the country to enact right-to-work laws and restrict wages and benefits for members of public service employee unions.

According to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), legislators in at least 11 states, including Minnesota, Ohio, New Hampshire and Missouri, are proposing antiunion laws that would cut pay and lower standards of living for workers. The labor organization claims, "Instead of creating jobs and solving the problems of middle-class working families, some state politicians are ... saying 'Thank you' to the corporate CEOs who financed their 2010 election victories by pushing legislation to cut good jobs, lower wages, threaten job safety and weaken unions." (Full disclosure: I am the president of a union affiliated with the AFL-CIO, albeit a small one that neither endorses candidates nor has a political action committee.)

This push has come to a head most dramatically in Wisconsin, where, in the name of austerity, newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker is attempting to stamp out public workers' collective bargaining rights. His attack on the unions - including a threat to call out the National Guard - has been met by outrage and a mass exodus of Democratic legislators out of the state, thus denying Republicans a quorum at the Wisconsin Senate in Madison. (You may recall that Democrats in Texas pulled a similar ploy in 1979 and 2003 by hiding or going on the lam to nearby states, including Oklahoma and New Mexico. This prompted New Mexico's then-attorney general Patricia Madrid, a Democrat, to announce: "I have put out an all-points bulletin for law enforcement to be on the lookout for politicians in favor of health care for the needy and against tax cuts for the wealthy.")

Although Governor Walker claims Wisconsin is in desperate financial straits, the state had been coping better than most and, according to Madison's Capital Times newspaper, "has managed so well, in fact, that the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau recently released a memo detailing how the state will end the 2009-2011 budget biennium with a budget surplus."

The paper editorialized, "To the extent that there is an imbalance - Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit - it is not because of a drop in revenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts, benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January. If the Legislature were simply to rescind Walker's new spending schemes - or delay their implementation until they are offset by fresh revenues - the 'crisis' would not exist.... Unfortunately, Walker has a political agenda that relies on the fantasy that Wisconsin is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy."

It's all part of that notorious separate reality in which Republicans and the right have taken up seemingly permanent residence. Democrats can hope the other side has overreached. The party will fight to win back the many seats they've lost in the states. But then again, as another wise elder of Texas politics once said, if you took all the fools out of the legislature, it would no longer be a representative body.

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