Dennis Kucinich Challenges Republicans On Finding Government “Waste” Everywhere But Bloated Military Budget

"The GOP wants to slash a few hundred billion dollars in spending. Dennis Kucinich wants to know why they aren't looking squarely at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
(from CAMPAIGN CORNER: A HOME FOR PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL CAMPAIGNERS)

More details at: SunState Activist

House GOP Ends Floor Voting Rights For Delegates

One of the first acts of the new Republican-controlled House is to take away the floor voting rights of six delegates representing areas such as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa.

Five of those delegates are Democrats, while one, from the Northern Marianas Islands, is an independent.

Read more at: Huffington Post

Scalia: Women Don't Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination

"The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not protect against discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia"

Read the rest of what this misogynistic meathead has to say at Huffington Post

Major Health Care Reforms Take Effect January 1

"...two of the new health care law's most significant reforms take effect..."

"Starting on New Year's Day, insurance companies will have to spend at least 80 percent of the revenues they receive from premiums on actual health care. Not on salaries or overhead."

"Senior citizens -- a demographic that's skeptical of the bill -- will see real benefits. In 2011, the law will begin to close the Medicare Part D coverage gap -- the infamous 'donut hole.' "

Find out more at: Talking Points Memo

2011: Calling Time on Capitalism

"Recent decades have seen a massive redistribution of wealth, imposing the cost of successive crises on the poorest. Enough!"

"...recovery noise distracts from a more basic failure of our economic system: its fundamental instability. Recurring "downturns" – which neither private nor government actions have ever managed to prevent – impose massive costs on society. They plunge millions of effective, productive workers into unemployment and resulting personal, family and community disasters. Governments tap the collective purses of their nations chiefly to rescue just those private capitalists who were major contributors to the crisis and whose wealth insulates them from the crisis' worst effects.

Then, governments turn on their people to impose austerities (cutbacks in social programs, social security, etc) needed to restore government budgets busted by that rescue's huge costs. Like someone convicted of murdering his parents who demands leniency as an orphan, corporate America demands conservative government and austerity on the grounds of excessive budget deficits. Mainstream media and politicians take those corporate demands seriously, reminding us who controls whom."

Read the entire article at: Common Dreams

Wikileaks cable reveals U.S. conspired to retaliate against European nations if they resisted GMOs

"The latest batch of diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks reveals what can only be characterized as a U.S.-led conspiracy to force GMOs onto European countries by making those countries pay a steep price if they resist."

"We’ve been saying for years that the United States government is joined at the hip with Monsanto and pushing GMOs as part of Monsanto’s agenda on the rest of the world. This lays bare the mechanics of that effort. We have Craig Stapleton, the former ambassador to France, specifically asking the U.S. government to retaliate and cause some harm throughout the European Union."

Learn more at: NaturalNews.com

What Bernie Said, Part II

As Promised... Here is the Second Installment!

"Last Friday, Mr. Sanders spent more than eight hours laying out a number of hard truths that needed to be heard - about Mr. Obama's seemingly unstoppable tax deal with the Republicans, about what it means for the future of Social Security, about the budget-busting wars we are fighting, about the nature of greed in America, and how the very many are being robbed and deprived by the well-off few."

Read the rest of what William Rivers Pitt (and Senator Bernie Sanders!) had to say in Part Two of this multiple-installment assessment at Truthout.com!

Cherish - and Work to Protect - Our Rights

"Bill of Rights Day was December 15, a time to reflect on constitutional freedoms. And as we enter the tenth year since 9/11, it's hard to be optimistic about the state of civil liberties and human rights in the United States."

Read the rest of the article at: Truthout

The Dangers Of Externalizing Knowledge

So... Do you *know* things?
Or do you just know where/how to *find* things?
(It's a big difference, dontcha know...)
This could almost have been called "The Dangers of Pocket Calculators," in days gone by...

Read the full story at: TechCrunch

Will The DEA Shut Down Every Major Music Festival in the Country?

"Every major music festival in the country could be shut down by law enforcement whose motive is not to make Americans safer through the protection of their rights, but the profit that police can make by taking property from citizens."
"The seizure of the 352-acre Camp Zoe property in Southeast Missouri has so far garnered substantial attention both in America and internationally. That’s because this is no ordinary seizure; without (so far) being charged with a crime, the property owner, musician Jimmy Tebeau, is having his land taken from him in a process that strips him of his rights under both the US and Missouri constitutions."

Read the rest of the story at: Cannabis Culture Magazine

What Bernie Said, Part I

"The speech delivered by [Senator Bernie] Sanders [I-VT] on Friday ranks among the most important I have ever heard in my life, certainly the single most pertinent expression of fact and outrage that has been delivered in this current climate of "compromise" and collapse. He told more truth in his eight hours than many of us have heard from an elected official in the last ten years, and it would be a disgrace if his eloquence faded into the background without the study and reflection it deserves."
- William Rivers Pitt

Read the rest of what William Rivers Pitt (and Senator Bernie Sanders!) had to say in Part One of this multiple-installment assessment at Truthout.com!

The new hungry: College-educated, middle-class cope with food insecurity

Come Christmas dinner, Rolanda McCarty, a 36-year-old single mother, usually goes all out.
Her table last year featured a rosemary-and-oil rubbed turkey and a sweet ham. She prepared fresh collard greens according to her grandmother's recipe. The dessert -- a rich butter pound cake -- was made from scratch.
But after being laid off from her technical recruiting job in January because of the struggling economy, there will be no fancy holiday feast, no family members pouring into her downsized one-bedroom apartment. She will rely on what she has: canned vegetables and microwavable meals from her community food bank..

Read the rest of the story on how the college-educated middle-class are facing food insecurities and going hungry at CNN.com

US life expectancy continues to plummet, but not because of inadequate health care

Rather than teach people how to eat better, for instance, the health care system waits until people become sick and loads them up with drugs and expensive procedures as the "cure". Drug companies make a lot of money with this approach, but overall health continues to decline as a result.
Read the rest at naturalnews.com...

The Rally to Restore Sanity had MUCH better signage....

...a consequence of being better educated. [PS: the percentage of misspellings is drastically lower than those Tea Parody Parakeets, too]


I masturbate and I vote (but usually not at the same time)

I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler.

You're mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore.

I understand the difference between communism, fascism and socialism and don't use the terms interchangeably.

I'll respect your opinion as soon as you stop making shit up!

Historians against the misuse of history.

I'll keep my liberty, open mind and pursuit of happiness. You can keep your fear.

Paul Revere was an Anchor Baby.

RESTORE AMERICA! But not too far because then we'll have slavery! and no toilets!

Mainstream Media... Could you please stop pitting the ignorant versus the educated and framing it as a debate? [Bill Maher]

On the whole, I am rather gruntled.

STOP! You're starting to scare George Orwell.

Being loud, rude and ignorant is not a political movement. It's just bad manners.

This sign is spelled correctly.

Atlas Sucked.

Against Gay Marriage? That's fine.. I don't need your toaster.

Hey Tea Party: Shouldn't you all be in the FEMA Internment Camps by now?

If screaming makes you right then the three-year-old down the street is a freakin' genius.

Facts are like opinions, except they're true.

Hitler called... He wants his hyperbole back.

I put death paneling in my Torture chamber. (OK... I made that one up...)

How Prescient...

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” A. Lincoln, 1864