What You Need to Know About the Keystone Pipeline | Blog, What We're Reading. Last week, the Obama administration said it is extending indefinitely the amount of time federal agencies have to review plans for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which is expected to delay the decision until after the midterm elections. If approved, the project would move 830,000 of barrels of crude oil from the Alberta tar sands in Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas every day.
The debate over Keystone has become politically charged. You’ve no doubt heard the talking points on both sides of the issue. But digging past the politics, what’s really at stake? Who stands to win and who stands to lose if the pipeline is approved? To answer those questions, and others, we’ve put together an essential KXL reader. What is Keystone XL? The Washington Post published a Keystone primer complete with graphics showing the entire 1,179-mile route.
How Significant Is That Environmental Review? The recently released environmental impact review was a blow to the project’s opponents. Four American Myths You Probably Believe : Political Moll. Ah, America. The shining city on the hill; the world’s only remaining superpower; bastion of freedom, integrity, and sacrifice for the greater good; egalitarianism writ large and stuffing the power of the people in the face of oppressive monarchies the world over. Except we’re really not. Today we’re going to take a look at some of our most cherished myths…and let’s not pull any punches, folks: myths are exactly what they are. As in, stories people made up with little to no basis in reality. 4. The Founding Fathers Were Champions Of The Average Citizen Patently untrue, and the very structure of our government is evidence of it. “To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed…By what means is this object attainable?
Madison, however, wasn’t by far the only small-r republican founding father. 3. 2. Sure, sometimes. ALEC Mulls Assault On Constitution's 17th Amendment -- The Direct Election Of Senators. By Annie-Rose Strasser "ALEC Mulls Assault On Constitution’s 17th Amendment — The Direct Election Of Senators" A major conservative legislation-crafting group is looking to alter how Senate elections work in the United States. The American Legislative Exchange Council is responsible for writing and advocating for conservative laws, including the repeal of renewable energy standards, voter identification efforts, and the infamous “Stand Your Ground” law that allowed George Zimmerman to walk free on the night he killed Trayvon Martin. Now, the group is considering pushing for legislation to change how U.S. Senators get elected. In an agenda for a December meeting posted on ALEC’s website, one of the items up for review is language for a bill, called the Equal State’s Enfranchisement Act, that would allow state legislatures to add a candidate’s name to the ballot for a U.S. senate seat, along with the names of those nominated by voters.
But on the whole, voters overwhelmingly disagree. If You've Ever Heard People Say, 'There Are Plenty Of Jobs Out There...' Then Take A Look At This. Lecture 1: The Keys to Critical Thinking. The Debt Ceiling And Budget Battles Are Just A Smokescreen. You Read That Right. Mission Accomplished? Shutdown's Dirty Southern Roots Began In 1832. The Tea Party-led shutdown of the federal government hasn’t opened a new era of paralyzing divisiveness in American government. On the contrary, the recent shutdown simply reconfirms a long-held trend in U.S. history, where certain factions of the country believe they have the right to nullify federal law.
It’s no surprise, then, that the Tea Party Nullifiers hail from the traditional Calhounist strongholds of places like South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and others in the former Confederacy. The first and most famous major upheaval of nullification involving these states occurred in 1832, when Vice President John C. Calhoun, a South Carolina native, decided to support his state’s Ordinance of Nullification, which declared two federal tariffs null and void within the borders of the state.
But the idea that the South has a right to nullify democratically-passed laws with which it disagrees did not begin in 1832. Largest Gun Study Ever: More Guns, More Murder. By Zack Beauchamp "Largest Gun Study Ever: More Guns, More Murder" The largest study of gun violence in the United States, released Thursday afternoon, confirms a point that should be obvious: widespread American gun ownership is fueling America’s gun violence epidemic. The study, by Professor Michael Siegel at Boston University and two coauthors, has been peer-reviewed and is forthcoming in the American Journal of Public Health.
Siegel and his colleagues compiled data on firearm homicides from all 50 states from 1981-2010, the longest stretch of time ever studied in this fashion, and set about seeing whether they could find any relationship between changes in gun ownership and murder using guns over time. Since we know that violent crime rates overall declined during that period of time, the authors used something called “fixed effect regression” to account for any national trend other than changes in gun ownership. To put this in perspective, take the state of Mississippi. The wrong Republican to talk about food stamps. Before Congress broke for its August recess, House Republicans were still refusing to work on a bipartisan farm bill, insisting on punitive efforts that made it vastly more difficult for struggling Americans to eat.
A month later, the legislation is still pending. With this in mind, the New York Times reports today from Dyerburg, Tenn., where reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg talked to some low-income locals in dire straits. A struggling mechanic hunts doves and squirrels to help feed his family, and limits himself to one meal a day. A woman who left her job skinning hogs at a slaughterhouse when she became ill with cancer also said she only eats once a day. And then there’s their congressman, Rep. “The role of citizens, of Christianity, of humanity, is to take care of each other, not for Washington to steal from those in the country and give to others in the country,” Mr. Let’s unpack this a bit, because I think it’s important. Yep. Let’s not overlook this tidbit, either: Think Tank Report Says Poor Americans Have It Too Good | The Poverty Line. Conservative think tanks have spawned a cottage industry churning out dubious studies purporting to show that poor families are living high on the hog on public benefits, a claim that anybody who has actually experienced poverty in America would find laughable.
These papers are then amplified by the right-wing media, forming the basis for calls to further eviscerate a social safety net that’s already been tattered and torn by 30 years of ascendant neoliberalism. The latest addition to the genre is a study published this week by Michael Tanner and Charles Hughes at the CATO Institute. Running the numbers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Tanner and Hughes claim that “the current welfare system provides such a high level of benefits that it acts as a disincentive for work” and urge lawmakers to “consider ways to shrink the gap between the value of welfare and work by reducing current benefit levels and tightening eligibility requirements.” The 7 Biggest Economic Lies | Robert Reich. Get Business Newsletters: ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century.
He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations. " His film, "Inequality for All," will be out in September. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause. Also on HuffPost: Loading Slideshow. 'Eminent Domain for the People' Leaves Wall Street Furious. Underwater Homeowners Press Conference in front of Richmond City Hall (Photo: ACCE)Using the authority of state government to actually help people has Wall Street bankers in a panic, spurring threats of aggressive legal retaliation against the town of Richmond, California simply for trying to help some of its struggling homeowners. 'Eminent domain' has long been a dirty term for housing justice advocates who have seen municipalities invoke public seizure laws to displace residents and communities to make way for highways, shopping malls, and other big dollar projects.
But in Richmond, city officials are using eminent domain to force big banks to stop foreclosing on people's homes in an innovative new strategy known as 'Principle Reduction' aimed at addressing California's burgeoning housing crisis. Wall Street is furious at the plan and has vowed to sue the municipality, a threat that did not stop Richmond but did slow other California cities in adopting the strategy.
YouTube. The Republican Welfare State. Posted by Quiet Mike on Tuesday, August 6, 2013 · 3 Comments As republicans have proved, keeping the populace poor and stupid is a good way to get re-elected Politics has always been filled with hypocrisy. I don’t think I can find a clearer example than social assistance in the United States. If one needs proof, one only has to look at the The Republican Welfare State. In the United States, you have two main political parties, Republicans (red) and Democrats (blue). The Irony here, at least at the State level, is that traditional Republican held states are the takers when it comes to welfare.
Any State over 1.00 means the State takes more that it pays I’ve never liked to refer to welfare recipients as lazy moochers or unmotivated poor people, that characterization is normally reserved for ignorant conservatives. If the Republican doctrine of low taxes and laissez-faire capitalism actually worked, you would think the results would be different. Chance for success rate at public schools. Obama Speaks Bluntly and Honestly About How Republicans Have Damaged America. For over four years many on the left have wondered, sometimes aloud, when President Obama would abandon diplomacy and desire for bipartisanship and tell the American people what they need to hear about why they are not sharing in the nation’s economic recovery that is enriching the wealthy and their corporations. Whether it was to appease Republicans to encourage them to work with Democrats for the good of all the people, or to avoid appearing combative, the President has been remiss to speak bluntly about why Washington is ineffective when he, and anyone with a pulse, knew Republican obstruction was borne of their opposition to him as President as much as their 30-year crusade to transfer the nation’s wealth to their corporate paymasters.
However, in an interview with the New York Times, the President gave an accurate assessment of the Republican Party, the state of the economy, and reiterated his four-year economic agenda that Republicans have opposed every step of the way. Protect Children, Not Guns 2013. Economically, Could Obama Be America's Best President?
Obama’s Claim about the Income of the Top 1% Compared to Typical Families Confirmed True. Either job creation is the top priority or it isn't. I’d very nearly given up trying to convince the political world that sequestration cuts still matter. But then yesterday, something changed my mind. For those who still care about the policy that was designed to hurt the country on purpose, there’s been quite a bit of news lately, all of it showing the sequester doing what it was intended to do.
In addition to the voluminous list of documented problems, just over the last few days we’ve gotten a better sense of the ways in which the policy is hurting the military, public schools, parks, and the justice system. The poor and minorities are disproportionately suffering. Did the political world care about these stories? So what made yesterday different?
The full CBO report, requested by Rep. And why might this part of the sequestration story matter, even after the other elements of the story were largely ignored? For those who say the job market is their “number one priority,” this is what’s commonly known as a “no-brainer.” The Rachel Maddow Show Describes North Carolina As ‘Conservatives Gone Wild’ | Voice4America. Rep. Mark Takano Corrects Republican Letter, Proves He Will Always Be A Teacher (PICTURE) When Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) started circulating a letter that complained about the Senate's immigration reform bill, he may have expected some grumbling from Democrats, but he probably did not expect to get a failing grade. However, when Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) received the letter and found the content to be “weak," he did what any self-respecting former teacher would do.
He got out his red pen and gave the document a straight-up F. (Takano taught high school for more than 20 years, reports Southern California Public Radio station KPCC, and it appears he still has quite a bit of teacher left in him.) Penned back in April, Cassidy's letter was addressed to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and complained that the Senate bill was "unfair" and that it had been written in secret. Cassidy also called on fellow Congressmen who oppose the immigration reform bill to sign his letter to Boehner. Earlier on HuffPost: Rep. Mark Takano Corrects Republican Letter, Proves He Will Always Be A Teacher (PICTURE)
Irony and the Grand Ole Party 101. Posted by Erin Nanasi on Tuesday, July 9, 2013 · 4 Comments Dr. Elwin Snarkmeister's supply list and synopsis for a compulsory Republican training course Welcome to Irony and the Grand Ole Party 101. My name is Dr. For new students, Irony and the Grand Ole Party 101 covers the slow erosion of America’s GOP from within. Supply list: Box of #2 pencilsThesaurusContainer of paper clipsPaint gun with paint pellets, any colorTurpentine (to remove the paint from the desks and walls; Dean Wormer refuses to let me use drop cloths)The King James bibleThe Fountainhead by Ayn RandA copy of the ConstitutionMotorcycle helmet with visorSoldering iron (I will proved the solder)The gay agenda (extra credit to the first student who actually finds it) Since the unholy union of the Republican party and fundamentalist Christianity, the GOP has taken a truly bizarre turn down the road of American history. This year, we will be dissecting GOP irony from the past 12 months.
Topics of discussion will include: The 2 Supreme Court Cases That Could Put a Dagger in Organized Labor - Matt Bruenig and Elizabeth Stoker. Amid the ruckus over its voting rights and gay marriage rulings, the justices quietly accepted a pair of cases that could make it nearly impossible for private sector unions to organize new members. During the last half century, private sector unionism has endured a rather brutal death march.
Almost every year, we learn once again that the percentage of private sector workers who are union members has declined to a new record low. For the most part, the decline has been a gradual affair, with private sector unions slowly suffocating under America's uniquely terrible labor laws. In the coming year, however, this slow demise could hasten considerably, courtesy of the Supreme Court. In the shadow of the intense media coverage last month surrounding the Voting Rights Act, affirmative action, the Defense of Marriage Act, and Proposition 8, the justices quietly agreed to hear two cases that could devastate unions in the private sector. The first case, Noel Canning v.
Executive Orders: The Famous, The Infamous & The Ridiculous. 12-96_6k47.pdf. Supreme Court limits workers' discrimination, retaliation suits. Naked Capitalism. Debunking Almost Every Republican Lie Against President Obama. House Approves Derivatives Deregulation Bills That Would Open More Loopholes For Wall Street. Busted! Rick Perry Using “Nonprofit Corporation” Run By Governor’s Office to Create Slush Fund. Living Wage Calculator - Introduction to the Living Wage Calculator. Rich Entrepreneur: The Wealthy Aren’t Job Creators, Middle Class Workers Are. IRS Audited Liberal Groups Under President Bush, No Outrage from GOP.
How the Case for Austerity Has Crumbled by Paul Krugman. Does the Tea Party understand the Constitution? 28 Year Old Grad Student Destroys Economists Destroying European & American Economies. All the paths to US citizenship in the Senate’s immigration bill, visualized. Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash, and Robert Pollin On Reinhart And Rogoff. Supreme Court Case Could End Corporate March To Reinstatement of Slavery. Why Is Socialism Doing So Darn Well in Deep-Red North Dakota? It's the Banks. Obama signs 'Monsanto Protection Act' for benefit of GMO industry. The Magazine - He Who Makes the Rules.
The capitalist network that runs the world - physics-math - 19 October 2011. AlterNet. Why the Rich Don't Give to Charity. Are SuperPACs Good For Democracy? Women's rights and health. FDR Put Humanity First; the Sequester Puts It Last. YouTube. The single best chart on the policies driving our deficits — now updated! Tax Expenditure Reform: An Essential Ingredient of Needed Deficit Reduction. AlterNet. Watch A Diner Waitress Explain To A Wall Street Guy How Money Works In America.
Healthcare Isn't A Free Market, It's A Giant Economic Scam. The Sequester: Absolutely everything you could possibly need to know, in one FAQ. Deficit_reduction_table_bucketed_r8. White House Blog: A Balanced Plan to Avert the Sequester and Reduce the Deficit. Brendan DeMelle: Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaire Koch Brothers. The Job Loss Myth | Raise The Minimum Wage. PBS Frontline's 'The Untouchables' Investigates Lack Of Wall Street Prosecutions After Mortgage Crisis. A Dispatch From the 'National Review's Post-Election Cruise. Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States. The Triumph of Bad Ideas.
: GOP gerrymandering delivers disproportionate representation. Indiana experience offers little hope for Michigan ‘right-to-work’ law. Infographic: Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age to 67 Would Increase Costs and Harm Seniors. An Explanation Of The Fiscal Cliff That Won't Make You Want To Jump Off A Real One. AlterNet. LIST: Billion-Dollar Industries That Don't Even Need The Tax Dollars You've Been Giving Them. YouTube. Corporate profits are highest-ever share of GDP, while wages are lowest-ever. - Chasing Glenn Beck - Fiscal Cliffs Notes. Richmond Sunlight » 2013 » Absentee voting; persons eligible to vote by absentee ballot. (SB702)
How the Tax Burden Has Changed - Interactive Graphic. Climate skeptic group works to reverse renewable energy mandates. Top Economists: Iceland Did It Right … And Everyone Else Is Doing It Wrong. FoodStampsFollowtheMoneySimon. Big cases await Supreme Court's 2012-13 term. Adding to the deficit: Bush vs. Obama. Government-spending-5pres. Jobless claims remain at four-year low.
The GOP's Voter Suppression Strategy. Corporate CEOs Show Looking Out For The American People Is Someone Else’s Job. AlterNet. Economists, Obama administration at odds over role of mortgage debt in recovery. It was Romney Vulture Capitalist Style Management that Killed Hostess, Not Unions. Life, Death and Deficits. AlterNet. The GOP Is The Food Stamp Party. Owner of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods Gives His Company To His 209 Employees. Everything you need to know about the “fiscal cliff” Occupy Wall Street offshoot to buy-back consumer debt, then forgive it. Obama's Plan For His Second Term.