Each month that goes by in Europe, the continent’s economy gets worse and worse, thanks to crippling austerity measures. The number of unemployed people in the 17-nation Eurozone hit a record high after the month of July – with new data showing 88,000 more people lost their jobs that month. That brings the total amount of unemployed to over 18 million people – the highest ever recorded. The unemployment rate in the Eurozone remained at 11.3% - more than three points higher than the United States.
Unlike in Europe – the United States passed a stimulus package in 2009 – that according to the CBO created as many as 2 million jobs. Republicans say the stimulus is a failure and it never should have been passed. They also say austerity is the solution to our economic woes. But clearly, they’re not paying attention to what’s happening in Europe.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
Last night Paul Ryan gave what was the most dishonest and full-of-lies convention speech in history. He better bask in it now. I’m sure that his record will be broken tonight. I want to give Paul Ryan credit—he vowed to protect and strengthen Medicare... without bursting into laughter. But you could see him fighting it. Ryan’s line “We can make the safety net safe again” brought huge cheers. I wonder how many were cheering because they believed him, and how many were cheering to say “Great lying, Paul!”
Ryan actually said “the greatest of all responsibilities is that of the strong to protect the weak.” This is the guy who practically masturbates to Ayn Rand! And that’s not easy to do—did you ever try to masturbate while you’re holding a book the size of “The Fountainhead”?
The Republicans also invited John McCain to speak. That was nice of them—most of them just remember him as the guy who blew the election in 2008 by not playing the race card. Well, Republicans, John McCain proved that he is still woefully wrong on foreign policy... so he still deserves a prominent place at your convention. Oh, by the way, John, the President got Osama bin Laden... so now you’re free to tell us what your “secret plan” for knowing how to get him was.
In Tampa, the Romney campaign held an event for mega-bucks donors on a yacht... that was flying the flag of the Cayman Islands. And the yacht was named the “Cracker Bay.” You can’t make this kind of stuff up. And if you did, I bet you couldn’t come up with a better name than “Cracker Bay.” I’m going to have to take a closer look at some pictures of Mitt Romney wearing a flag lapel pin. I know this—if Mitt Romney was wearing a flag lapel pin from the Cayman Islands… the pin still would be made in China.
Finally, last night Ryan joked about his i-Pod playlist compared to Romney’s. Ryan said “my playlist starts with AC/DC and ends with Zeppelin.” What? Do we really want a vice president who alphabetizes Led Zeppelin under “Z”? Maybe Paul thought that Led Zeppelin was a guy whose name was Zeppelin, first name Led. Oh, by the way, which one is Led?
Listen to me Monday through Friday 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL 1600.
So Mitt Romney has his day in the sun Thursday, as he accepts his party's nomination to become President. His coming out party in Tampa has featured retreads, wannabes, and never weres singing his praises. Yet while this Republican National Convention has been long on Obama bashing, it's been painfully short on substance. What exactly do they plan to do?
Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, actually did spell something out. During his speech Wednesday, Ryan promised a Romney Administration would set a goal of 12 million new jobs over the next four years. Now that's a big boast. If they managed to do that over eight years, they'd top Bill Clinton, the President under whose leadership 22 million jobs were created over an eight year period. Yet the question remains, how are they going to do this?
This question is not without consequence. Americans need jobs. Strip away all the nonsense about what the current president has done or will do, and the challenge remains putting Americans back to work. Maybe Paul Ryan thinks most people buy that they can do this by keeping federal spending at 20% or less of GDP. He's reaching. A lot of Americans don't know what GDP is.
Put simply, Romney and Ryan believe that you can cut your way out of hard economic times. And what would they cut? Amtrak, the NEA, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, you know, the things conservatives think are just symbols of liberalism. Here's the problem. Eliminating all the things the hard right doesn't like about government won't create a million jobs, much less the 12 million Paul Ryan promised on behalf of Mitt Romney. Demand creates jobs, and that means figuring out a way to put money in the pockets of the people who spend.
Romney and Ryan want to put more money in the hands of the wealthiest Americans, who are least likely to go out and spend. Put simply, their economic plan is put together with smoke and mirrors.
In November we'll find out just who is ready to buy into it.
The movement to amend the Constitution and overturn the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision just got its biggest endorsement yet – from President Barack Obama. During an online question and answer forum on Reddit.com – the President was asked to do something about the corrupting influence of money in politics post-Citizens United. He responded by calling for the DISCLOSE Act to be passed – and then went further saying, “Over the longer term, I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United (assuming the Supreme Court doesn't revisit it). Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spotlight of the super-PAC phenomenon and help apply pressure for change.”
Senator Bernie Sanders already has that amendment ready to go – as do many Democrats in the House. Now it’s up to we the people to get out in the streets to move it forward. Go to MoveToAmend.org.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
Did you catch Chris Christie’s RNC keynote speech? It looked like Christie wanted to deliver the message that the Republicans are going to win... in 2016... with him as the nominee. Christie spoke for 17 minutes before he even mentioned Mitt Romney’s name. It was almost like he was stalling before he had to spring the bad news on everybody. Eventually, Chistie said that Mitt Romney is the man who will tell America the hard truths. Really, Chris? You want us to believe that Mitt Romney is going to tell us the hard truths? Mitt has been talking for six years, and he hasn’t said anything with a shred of truth in it the whole time. Mitt Romney won’t even tell us what’s in his own tax returns. But then, those are the hardest truths for Mitt Romney to discuss.
If Chris Christie had the keynote slot, Ann Romney had the “my husband is a real human being, honest!” slot. Ann Romney looks a lot more natural than her husband. But then that would also be true of a cardboard cutout of Ann Romney. Ann Romney actually managed to paint a somewhat convincing portrait of her husband a real-life flesh and blood human being… and then Mitt came out at the end of the speech and ruined it all.
Rick Santorum took on the convention job of delivering the most racially-tinged attacks on President Obama. I guess they really like the way Rick Santorum plays the dog whistle. In one sense, it’s a little odd that Rick Santorum would be willing to do Mitt Romney’s dirty work. Rick Santorum hates Mitt Romney. I guess he just really likes doing dirty work. At least Rick Santorum made a strong case for Mitt Romney being the nominee... as opposed to Rick Santorum.
John Boehner’s entire speech was built around him reprising a weird “a guy walks into a bar” theme. John, maybe you shouldn’t be talking about bars and drinking. You didn’t see Chris Christie coming out and talking about donuts.
Finally, Ron Paul’s people caused a big stink—and that’s not easy to do at a gathering that smells as bad as this one. Ron Paul supporters on the convention floor broke into loud booing when the convention adopted a set of rules that... well, that were basically designed to make sure there would never be anything like Ron Paul supporters on the convention floor ever again.
Listen to me Monday through Friday 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL 1600.
In Spain, where a recession is expected to get even worse after the government passed $80 billion worth of austerity measures, new economies are springing up all around the country that aren’t dependent on the crippled euro. The economies are based on barter and exchange.
For example, “time banks” are popping up around Spain – that allow workers to trade in their services in hours – and receive services in return. Labor and services are thus exchanged through hours – and not through currencies. Tens of thousands of citizens are participating in more than 325 time banks all around Spain – making it one of the largest modern economic experiments in recent history. Similar time banks can be found in Greece and Portugal, too – as alternatives to the corporate free-market, austerity recovery being pushed by banksters and technocrats.
As the Washington Post describes these new economies, “These experiments aim to take communities back to a time when goods and services were bartered, before things such as interest rates, market speculation, and derivatives complicated the financial world.” Clearly, the globalized, free market experiment of the last thirty years has failed us, and it’s time to look for new alternatives.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
Today is the 49th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The election of Barack Obama marked part of that dream coming true. And now Mitt Romney wants to shake us all awake—“Snap out of it! You were having a dream!” That’s one more reason to vote for Barack Obama. Do you really want Mitt Romney to be president next year, presiding over the official celebrations of the 50th anniversary of King’s speech? If a President Romney even allowed celebrations of the 50th anniversary, he wouldn’t attend. He would probably send his Attorney General, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Hurricane Isaac is just hours away from landfall. Isaac is expected to make landfall as a Category 1 storm. On the other half of your split-screen will be the Republican Convention—a Category 1 Hate-Fest.
Mitt Romney is implying that President Obama’s “base” is made up of welfare recipients. And by doing that, he’s virtually admitting that he knows his base is made up of racists. First Mitt lied that Obama had weakened welfare work requirements. Now he says Obama did that “to try to shore up his base.” Mitt Romney has crossed the line between distasteful and disgusting. For the record, there are fewer than 5 million welfare recipients in America. Trying to use them as a base to win a national election is even stupider than trying to use a base of exclusively white males. It looks like Mitt is running the most racist campaign in history… and it’s still August! What does this guy have planned for the fall—actual cross burnings?
If most Republicans would simply cut FEMA, Ron Paul would cut it out entirely. Ron Paul is against emergency management because he says it’s not mentioned in the Constitution. I don’t know about Ron, but I consider preventing people from dying to fit under the overall heading of “promote the general welfare.” We can have disagreements about what the proper role of government is, but what kind of lunatic thinks that government has no role in helping people who are perishing in a disaster? If Ron Paul doesn’t think the government should rush into a disaster area and help the people there, why does he think that the government should rush into a woman’s womb and help the blastocyst there?
Listen to me Monday through Friday 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL 1600.
Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson thinks a half-million dollars should do it. Adelson – who’s already spent more money than any other oligarch this election so far – is promising to drop $500,000 in a New Jersey congressional district to elect Republican candidate Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. And if Rabbi Boteach needs more money – Adelson is more than capable with a net worth of about $25 billion.
As the Center for American Progress points out – with that much money – Adelson could give a half million dollars to every single Republican nominee in every single House and Senate seat in every single election cycle for the next 186 years without running out of money. The latest recipient of Adelson’s fortune – Rabbi Boteach commented about the donation saying, “I think Sheldon Adelson will bring democracy to the ninth district of New Jersey.” Yes, if buying and selling Congressional seats in America is considered “democracy.” The oligarchy is stronger than it’s ever been in modern history.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
Republicans are desperately trying to rig the election in November by kicking millions of Democratic voters off the rolls with Voter Suppression ID Laws. And now, they’re not even hiding their racist intentions to block minority voters. Attorneys General in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Texas – all Republicans – have filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court calling for certain provisions of the Voting Rights Act to be struck down.
The Voting Rights Act upended decades of Jim Crow laws in the South that put barriers in front of blacks voting. And today, with Voter ID laws intended to disproportionately affect black and minority voters, Republicans want free rein to do the same thing that racists in the South did post-Civil War. The only difference between now and then is Republicans are using the excuse of voter fraud to justify these laws. But considering that actual voter fraud occurs less often than people dying from TVs falling on their heads – then the real motivation behind these Voter Suppression ID laws is fairly obvious.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
Today, Mitt Romney actually “joked” about birth certificates, saying “No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate” (video below). Gee, Mitt, maybe that’s because you’re not a black man being harassed by a campaign of racism! Mitt was in Michigan, where both he and Ann were born. He said ““No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.” OMG! What is Mitt trying to do, take some of the heat off of Todd Akin? Mitt, nobody asked to see your birth certificate because, as a rich white man, you are not subjected to race-baiting by the knuckle-dragging GOP base.
Now Mitt Romney is saying that the reason he doesn’t want his tax returns released is because he doesn’t want people to see the amount of money he gives to his church. That might be hard to keep secret, seeing as how he constantly tells people how much money he gives to his church. Don’t worry, Mitt—if you release your tax returns, I guarantee that the last thing people will be looking at is your donations to your church.
The website Gawker has obtained hundreds of pages of financial documents from Bain that relate to Mitt Romney’s investments. They’re virtually impossible to understand... which what they’re designed to be. The documents show that Mitt has a real affinity for the Cayman Islands—sun, sand, sea, and (as the documents say) “no income, estate, transfer, sales, or other taxes.” Call me naïve, but I think that if all these millions of Mitt’s were in the United States instead of being hidden in the Caymans, they would have a better chance of doing some of that “job creation” conservatives are always talking about.
Get this—the National Review is out with a piece that basically says women should vote for Mitt Romney because he’s an alpha male! OK, that’s it—they have officially run out of ways of trying to sell Mitt Romney! Mitt is no alpha male. He’s not even a beta male. He’s like a zeta male or something. I would say that there are reasons to vote for Mitt Romney, but his alpha male status is not one of them... except that there are no reasons to vote for Mitt Romney—so I kind of see why they tried this. The article says women should vote for Mitt because females are biologically drawn to wealthy, high-status males. Hey, it sounds like somebody took the same biology course that Paul Akin did! I have news for the author of this tripe—if rich and powerful mean are biologically irresistible to women, then those “hunky firemen” calendars would all feature guys like Sheldon Adelson shirtless and sweaty. Yikes! A picture of Sheldon Adelson in a calendar, bare-chested, would be enough to make me skip a month of my life.
Listen to me Monday through Friday 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL 1600.
This morning, a man opened fire around the Empire State Building in New York City. Early reports indicate that at least four people were shot, ten injured – and two dead - including the shooter. Witnesses describe a horrible, chaotic scene on the streets – and it’s believed the shooter was a disgruntled employee who had recently been fired. It’s too early to jump to conclusions – but this mass shooting, like all the others we’ve seen recently – are consequences of a decaying American society. The mix of economic desperation and easy access to guns – leads to these tragedies, which are occurring far too often in our nation.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
A judge is Texas is warning of possible “civil war” if Obama is reelected. Are you sure you guys down there can handle another civil war? From what I see, you’re still fighting the last Civil War. Texas Judge Tom Head warned of “Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war, maybe” if Obama wins. And this guy is a judge! I wouldn’t trust him as a judge in a livestock show. Head said that President Obama will hand US sovereignty over to the United Nations, who will send in UN peacekeeping forces. Wow. This guy is either going to end up in a mental institution, or on the Texas Supreme Court.
Todd Akin’s insane views about rape and women’s bodies are derived from the “work” of one Dr. John Wilke. Dr. Wilke is the source of the belief that women’s bodies can somehow “shut down” the chance of pregnancy after a rape. They teach that in medical school, right after the part about curing diseases caused by witchcraft and voodoo. Dr. Wilke says Romney recently told him that “they agree on almost everything,” and he was even an official Romney surrogate in 2008. Of course! The Romney campaign has spent years going around the country and harvesting nuts like this... you're just not supposed to know about it.
Mitt Romney has laid out an energy plan that he says will make us energy independent within 8 years... with more oil drilling. Right, Mitt. We couldn’t do that if we make Saudi Arabia the 51st state. Mitt’s plan is basically nothing but drilling for oil. To be fair, that approach did work in the 80’s... the 1880’s. Oh, Mitt also says his plan will also create 3 million jobs and $1 trillion in government revenue! What’s next, Mitt? Will it stop hair loss? Mitt’s plan has no chance whatsoever of generating more energy. But then its real purpose is to generate more donations from the energy industry.
Romney’s campaign is out with a new ad called “Nothing’s Free” that says “Some think Obamacare is the same as free health care.” Actually, we don’t. But we do know that, for many, the alternative to Obamacare is no healthcare. According to the ad “The Romney/Ryan plan will restore Medicare funding, and protect and strengthen the program for the next generation.” If you believe that, I’ve got a voucher for a bridge that I would like to sell you.
Listen to me Monday through Friday 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL 1600.
The Pew Research Center has done a new study on the middle class here in America, and it's not pretty. For a lot of folks it confirms in numbers what they've been feeling in their gut. The middle class (defined in the study as a broad mass of Americans making between $39,000 and $118,000 for a family of three) has been taking it on the chin. Pick whenever you want as to when this decline began, but now it's bad enough to call the period from 2000-2010 "The Lost Decade".
The numbers are as follows, and this is just some of them. 85% of those surveyed said it's harder to maintain a middle class lifestyle. Median household income dropped in the first decade of the 21st Century by $3500 for a family of three. The median household's net worth is down an astonishing 28%. Any gains made by the middle class during the early oughts was totally wiped out by the recession that began in '07.
There's more. In 2011, just over 50% of the nation was defined as middle class. That's down 10% from the early 1970s. In if you want to know where all the money's gone, consider this. For the first time in 40 years, the percentage of national income paid by the middle class trails that earned by upper income households. Yes, the rich are getting richer, but at who's expense? and do you really think hard work alone is the reason?
On Thursday morning, I asked the radio audience who they thought was to blame for all this. The most frequent answer was big corporations. The Pew study said most (62%) of those polled blamed Congress, followed by banks. Former President GW Bush took a lot more heat on this than did President Obama.
Leaving aside the politics behind these devastating numbers, the American middle class needs to ask itself some hard questions about how to get out of this ditch. And if you think just the middle class is affected, think again. The working class, the working poor, and those living in poverty are finding it harder to climb the economic ladder of success. What happens if they work hard and play by the rules, only to find their is no middle class pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?
Really, what DOES happen if we keep stagnating like this?
Listen to the Mark Riley Morning Show Monday through Friday 6 AM to 9 AM.
Thursday, August 16th, marked my return to the radio airwaves of New York City. I bid the island of Manhattan adieu at the beginning of July and jumped aboard a jet plane — quite sure that I’d be back again after a much needed vacation! Tunnel vision mapped out my quest for relaxation and rest, from the Big Apple of NYC to the Pineapple of Waikiki. All of the hustle and bustle of New York melted away on the sandy beaches of Hawaii as I traded in Long Island Iced Tea for Mai Tais, subway transfers for sunscreen, and honking car horns for crashing waves. I was welcoming this new life of leisure one “aloha” (meaning both hello and goodbye) exchange at a time.
As I shared with the WWRL listeners last week, I had achieved the unheard of feat of beginning fired from my nine-to-five gig while on vacation. Much like Ice Cube’s iconic character Craig in the 1995 hit comedy Friday, who was unjustly fired on his day off, I was greeted by an “aloha” from my now former employer. The company folded while I was spread out on a lounge chair sun bathing! It was an amicable split, but there was a small part of me that longed for Smokey, a Chris Tucker-type friend to offer condolence and some sort of “herbal refreshment” to dull my pounding headache — accompanied by, “What in the world am I going to do next?" that was steadily picking up momentum in my head.
So what is a single, now jobless girl to do when balling up on the floor in a fetal position atop a stack of bridal magazines and classified ads no longer serves a purpose? Go to the 22nd Annual Latex Ball, of course! GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis) presented a dance, beauty and fashion competition all while promoting safe sex and providing on the spot HIV-testing. This event marked my first appearance back into Manhattan society since my trip. I threw on a pair of leather shorts, red lipstick and a black hip-skimming cape — an avant-garde ensemble successfully awaking my inner diva.
Sleeping beauty was now wide awake and strutting down the streets making my way to the historic Roseland Ballroom. This year’s Enchanted Forest theme was everything my wanting eyes and wounded ego needed.Clay Cane Live in-studio guest and dancer extraordinaire of television’s America’s Best Dance Crew ‘s Vogue Evolution, Dashaun Evisu, played commentator right along side ball icons Jack Mizrahi and Selvin Khan. The trio hyped up the crowd and spun a fairy tale as they introduced contestants all clamoring for cash prizes and “house” bragging rights.
On this night, I witnessed a collective effort to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. I stepped into a world of make believe that allowed me to believe that anything is possible and that dreams come true. I walked out of the ballroom knowing that there was no need to continue wishing on a star. My life had changed for a reason. The job was “taken away” in order to make way for a career. As an actress with a few indie films under my belt, I am ready to add a few more notches and credits to my body of work. I am now auditioning for roles that once provided difficult to attend — due to a nine-to-five. I am reminding myself that I am the woman of my own creation with just the right mixture of Princess Tiana and Pocahontas. I am taking strides towards my own happily ever after, all while keeping a look out for my Prince Charming. From leisure to latex… what a journey!
Tune into Clay Cane Live tonight at 11pm EST as we speak with singer and actress Antonique Smith (Notorious, Abduction), prepare for the upcoming Prince Vs. Michael Jackson party, and count down the top five "gaggers” of the week.
Water. According to a new report by Food & Water Watch, a growing number of pirate equity firms are moving into struggling cities and buying out their public infrastructure – namely – the city’s water infrastructure. Anyone who is familiar with Mitt Romney – is familiar with pirate equity firms like Bain Capital – which take over a company – strip it to the bones – and sell it off for a profit.
When this strategy is used on public utilities – then consumers get screwed with insufficient services and price hikes. As Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter warned, “Like Wall Street’s manipulation of the housing market in the previous decade, private equity firms and investment bankers are increasingly looking to cash in on one of our most essential resources—water.
These deals are ultimately bad for U.S. citizens, who will end up paying the price through increased water bills and degraded service.” As of January 2012, pirate equity firms raised nearly $200 billion to take over nearly 300 water infrastructure units. This is just the latest consequence of corporate capitalism run amok in America.
We are no longer manufacturing wealth together as a nation for our economy. We now have Wall Street preying on the rest of us to make a buck.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
Todd Akin isn’t going anywhere. And it’s looking increasingly likely that neither is the Democratic majority in the Senate. Mitt Romney specifically called on Akin to resign... two days after the controversy erupted, after everybody except Akin’s wife has already called on him to resign, and only in a written statement. Does Mitt expect the hardcore religious conservatives in the Republican Party to do his bidding? I think you’ve got that backwards, Mitt. Hey Republicans, that’s what you get when you nurture a bunch of mean, selfish, and combative politicians. Now they won’t even listen to you.
Todd Akin said that Mitt Romney exploited the controversy over the rape remarks for his own political gain. Hello! Mitt Romney would exploit anything this side of an actual rape for his own political gain. Akin asked if Romney “may have bid this thing up and made a bigger deal about it than he needed to.” Todd, you’re lucky Romney didn’t take a bunch of other clips of you speaking and edit them out of context.
Paul Ryan is desperately trying to distance himself from Todd Akin, which is pretty hard to do when you are conjoined twins. It’s hard to run away when you’re joined at the hip. When asked about the bill that he and Todd Akin sponsored that used the term “forcible rape,” Paul Ryan just kept repeating “Rape is rape.” What he didn’t mention was that he still would force a woman to bear the child of a rapist. Paul Ryan is Paul Ryan. The “Rape is rape” answer is a direct quote of what President Obama said two days ago. I don’t think Ryan has come around to Obama’s way of thinking. But he has enough common sense to mimic his way of talking.
Yesterday, when they weren’t trying to force their embarrassing “legitimate rape” candidate out of the race, Republicans were busy creating a party platform that called for a ban on abortion... with no exception for rape or incest. You can’t say the kinds of things that Todd Akin said! You are, however, allowed to write them into your party’s official platform. No wonder the Republicans don’t want Todd Akin out there embarrassing them—they know that they’re perfectly capable of embarrassing themselves on their own. Democrats are calling the abortion plank “The Akin Plank.” And they plan on spending the next couple of months forcing Mitt Romney to walk that plank.
Listen to me Monday through Friday 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL 1600.
The Republicans National Convention is less than a week away, but the Party has been hard at work drafting its official 2012 platform – and no surprise here, it’s the most radically right-wing platform in modern history. Today, news broke that the Ron Paul campaign has struck a deal with Mitt Romney and the Republican Party, promising to not disrupt the convention next week and in return – many of Ron Paul’s delegates will be seated and his policy positions will be rolled up into the official Party platform. Oh, and Ron Paul’s son, Rand, will get a prominent speaking role at the Convention.
So what exactly will be in this new Republican Party platform? A complete constitutional ban that forces women to complete pregnancies – with no exceptions for rape and incest. An urging for states to adopt intrusive ultra sound laws that force women to have their bodies probed before they can have an abortion. An embrace of hateful anti-gay laws that give no legal recognition to same-sex couples. A call for more radical “papers, please” anti-immigration laws like the one that the Supreme Court struck down in Arizona. The reinstatement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” forbidding gays from openly serving in the military. And – in a slap in the face to Washington, DC – a rejection of statehood for the nation’s capital.
Those are just some of the highlights. Plus, the official theme of the Republican National Convention is, “We Did Build This!” – in response to President Obama’s out of context remarks about how road, bridges, and government investments allow for business owners to be successful. Someone should notify the Republican Party that the venue hosting their convention was funded mostly by taxpayer dollars.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
A Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin is out with a new ad. Akin seems to believe that he might be able to weather the storm. He really thinks that he has some sort of natural defense system where he can “shut this whole thing down.”
Just two weeks ago, Akin in a radio interview said that he would ban the morning after pill “totally, for everyone.” And I’m sure he feels the same way about the “day before pill” too. Akin refused to consider exceptions for rape or incest, and he was even hedging on an exception for when the life of the mother was in danger. He essentially was asking “Well, how much danger?”
Akin’s problem isn’t that he said something wrong. It’s that he said something that Republicans think is right. It’s just that most of them know not to say it out loud. Paul Ryan is on record opposing abortion even in the case of rape and incest. But the campaign issued a statement saying a “Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.” The tricky part comes with what their definition of “rape” is. Last year, Paul Ryan co-sponsored a bill with Todd Akin that would have redefined rape to only include “forcible rape.” The Ryan/Akin bill would have created a whole class of rape victims who would have to be told they weren’t “raped enough” to qualify for the rape exception. When you know all this, you suddenly realize exactly what Todd Akin meant when he used the phrase “legitimate rape.” And it’s even scarier than when you didn’t know what that term meant.
Mitt Romney said that Akin’s comments were “deeply offensive.” The most offensive thing about them for Mitt was that they mirror everything he's been saying since he started running for president—and he’s trying to get people to forget all that. Romney said that “I can’t defend what he said. I can’t defend him.” You know what else I bet you can’t say, Mitt? I bet you can’t say “Rape is rape.”
Listen to me Monday through Friday 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL 1600.
Not only can’t we rely on them to create jobs – but we can’t rely on them to give charity either. A new study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy examined tax deduction data from the IRS and discovered that middle class Americans give a larger share of their income to charity than do the rich. A household earning between $50,000 and $75,000 averaged contributing 7.6% of their income to charity. But as the income scale goes up – that percentage drops.
For those making more than $100,000 a year – only 4.2% was given to charity. And for those making more than $200,000 a year, the charity rate was just 2.8%. The far Right – people who adore Ayn Rand and Libertarians – argue we don’t need a social safety net in this country – or even a government to look out for the poor – because rich people will simply step up with charity.
These facts show the lie in that argument. But they do support a different argument – and that is that the rich – not all – but a lot – are less sympathetic than the middle class. After all, being holed up in your gated communities, driven around by a chauffeur, attending high-priced private education – it is often easy to overlook the plight of your fellow Americans.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday on WWRL 1600.
After being holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for almost two months, Julian Assange has been granted asylum by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. Now the hard part begins. In an explosive announcement this morning, Ecuador’s foreign minister announced the asylum decision and blasted the U.K. over its threats on Wednesday to storm the Ecuadorian Embassy and arrest Assange.
Foreign Minister Patino said about his nation’s diplomatic ties to the U.K.: “clouds are looming on the horizon.” He also said granting Assange asylum is based on fears that Assange could be extradited to the United States where he will, “not get a fair trial and his rights won’t be respected. Most probably he will face a military court in the U.S.”
Throughout this whole ordeal – Assange has been willing to speak with Swedish authorities in London and even go to Sweden as long as there was a guarantee that he would not be extradited to the United States. That guarantee could not be offered – and now Ecuador is willing to give Assange protection. However – the U.K. has announced it will not allow Assange to leave the country – and it will arrest him as soon as he steps foot outside of the embassy.
It’s important to remember that Assange has still never been charged with a crime. Keep an eye on this story; it has major implications beyond the fate of Assange himself.
Listen to me Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
It's hard to figure out why so many different countries want a piece of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Actually, it's easy to figure out why the US wants him. Leaking huge numbers of what our government calls "sensitive" documents has put the US on the defensive. However, now Sweden and Great Britain have gotten involved, and for the Brits, it's hardly their finest hour. Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since June 19th, and most recent developments indicate he may be there for awhile.
Assange is trying to block his extradition from Britain to Sweden, where he faces questioning in the sexual assault of two women. However, that's not the real issue. Thanks to some heavy-handed tactics by Britain, it's ballooned into much more. The UK government says it's duty bound to arrest and extradite Assange to Sweden if he leave the embassy. On Wednesday, officials in Ecuador accused the Brits of threatening to storm the embassy to arrest Assange.
Excuse me? Storm the embassy of a foreign government? As Ecuador's Foreign Minister angrily responded, "We are not a British colony!" And so, on Thursday, Ecuador granted Julian Assange diplomatic asylum, thereby keeping him safe, as long as he doesn't try to leave, not even for a dinner of steak and kidney pie. So why is Assange so nervous about going to Sweden? Because neither Sweden, Britain, nor the US would give any guarantees that after he was done in Sweden, he wouldn't be sent straight to our shores to face charges that could have him face up on a gurney.
The US has long maintained that WikiLeaks document dumps were putting US military and diplomatic personnel in grave danger. As yet, there are no reports of any actual casualties resulting from these dumps.And while we're at it, didn't some folks in the Bush Administration out Valerie Plame as a CIA agent, putting her life in danger?
Whether Julian Assange should be praised or condemned is for greater minds than mine to contemplate. There's a part of me that admires his guts in trying to make, in his own way, governments more transparent. That he should become the center of an international firestorm is absurd. The smart thing for all involved is to let him go to Sweden to face the charges there, but guarantee him safe passage to the country of his choice (Ecuador?) if he's found innocent. Quite frankly, he shouldn't be sent here to face charges at all, much less the death penalty.
All this for one guy? You're kidding, right? Or are they serious? You tell me.
On Tuesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth District threw the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution out the window, ruling that police can track cell phone GPS data – and thus track you – without a warrant. The case of United States v. Skinner centered on a suspected drug trafficker who was tracked through his cell phone and arrested by the DEA. The Judge in the case, John Rogers said in his ruling, “Skinner did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the data emanating from his cell phone that showed its location.” He went on to say, “Law enforcement tactics must be allowed to advance with technological changes, in order to prevent criminals from circumventing the justice system.”
There are two ironies to this decision. One, the Supreme Court ruled in January that cops could not place GPS tracking on someone’s car without a warrant, so yesterday’s ruling affirms that cops can track cell phones but not cars. Two, the ruling comes on the heels of the discovery of TrapWire – the massive law enforcement surveillance system that is tracking every Americans’ whereabouts to detect terrorist threats. So, Judge Rogers’s worries about cops being able to circumvent the judicial system are unfounded.
Never before in history, has law enforcement had this much surveillance and technology to keep tabs on Americans.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
The GOP ticket is set – Mitt Romney will be running for president alongside Republican Congressman from Wisconsin – Paul Ryan. Ryan is the powerful House Budget Committee Chairman who this year authored the most radical budget to ever pass the House of Representatives. Newt Gingrich referred to the Ryan Budget as “right-wing social engineering” – and it’s an appropriate description, since it decimates the poor – with more than $3 trillion in cuts to programs for low-income Americans.
The Ryan Budget slashes the Medicaid program on which so many working families depend on – cutting it by one-third over the next ten years. It ends Medicare as we know it, raising the eligibility age and turning guaranteed health insurance for seniors into a voucher program that will result in seniors paying more than double what they currently pay in out-of-pocket costs. It screws college students with huge cuts to Pell Grants that will affect more than one million Americans.
Yet despite all these cuts, Ryan’s budget doesn’t balance itself for several decades. That’s because it also includes massive tax cuts for the rich – giving the average tax cuts of a quarter-million dollars each year – while raising taxes on all Americans who make less than $30,000 a year. And it includes preserving billions in taxpayer subsidies to transnational oil corporations. According to the Economic Policy Institute – the Ryan Budget will kill more than 8 million jobs over the next several years – taking the unemployment rate to nearly 12% by 2014.
Over the next few months, some political pundits will comment on how “bold” or “courageous” Paul Ryan is for taking on sacred cows like "entitlement" programs. But there’s nothing “bold” or “courageous” about giving more tax cuts to the rich and cutting off more benefits for the poor. That’s exactly what’s been going on for thirty years in America, and Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney want to finish the job that Reagan started – the complete destruction of the middle class.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
Here's a story that takes the cake in the "Say What"? Department. It seems a man on a Jetski found himself stranded in Jamaica Bay this past Friday. The man, Daniel Casillo, was racing the watercraft with friends, but they never noticed they left him behind. So here he is, at 7:30 on a Friday night, the sun going down, and he's on a Jetski that's taking on water fast. He called his girlfriend and asked her to call a friend to tow him in.
No such luck. Finally, he decides to swim three miles to the only thing he can see. Turns out, it's a runway at JFK Airport. He comes ashore, climbs a fence, and crosses two runways to Terminal 3. He runs into an airline worker who then calls the authorities. Here's the catch. In going ashore, crossing the runways, and walking to the terminal, Daniel Casillo breached the airport's Perimeter Intrusion Detection System. The system, installed at a cost of $100 million dollars, is meant to safeguard against terrorists.
Not, apparently, against a guy who swam ashore because his Jetski broke.
To add insult to injury, Casillo was arrested and charged with criminal trespass. What did they want him to do, swim to the Verrazano Bridge and then climb out of the water? What's happening here is obvious. Daniel Casillo is being scapegoated because the Port Authority is embarrassed. They run the airport, they paid $100 million bucks for a system that's obviously flawed, and now they want this guy to pay for their mistake.
So here's a common sense solution. When the inevitable investigation into what went wrong is finished, let the members of the Port Authority Board experience what Daniel Casillo experienced. Put them in life jackets, drop them into the waters of Jamaica Bay, and let them swim for shore.
Let's see how far they get, and if the system is working better this time.
Oh, did I mention this happened in New York? Where else?
New York City is poised to become the surveillance capital of America. On Wednesday, city officials unveiled a massive new surveillance system that they say will “revolutionize law enforcement.” The Domain Awareness System - as it’s called - gathers information from thousands of video cameras mounted around the city. And using maps, city records, arrest records, license plate readers, and 911 calls, it brings everything together in a centralized source to be reviewed by Police.
The city is already monitoring live feeds from more than 3,000 cameras – mostly in the financial district – but more cameras are expected to be added soon. This technology was developed for the city by Microsoft - and will be packaged and sold to other cities around our nation - with New York getting a cut of the profits.
So, not only has domestic surveillance become a tool for the wealthy elite to suppress an American population that is growing more and more restless – but it’s also a tool to make a lot of money. Welcome to America – The Corporate Police State.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
A pro-Obama super-PAC put out an ad about a man who life was wrecked after his job was eliminated by Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital. Of course, everything in the ad was true, but the Romney people were still attacking it. Come to think of it, that’s probably the main reason they were attacking it.
Of course, since this is the Mitt Romney campaign, their response included a major gaffe. The only surprising thing is that the gaffe wasn’t made by Mitt Romney himself. Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said of the family in the ad, “If the people had been in Massachusetts, under Governor Romney’s healthcare plan, they would have had healthcare.” Romney’s healthcare plan would have helped those people! That should be a point in Romney’s favor. But in the upside-down world of today’s Republican Party, it’s a major slam against him. Saul was essentially saying we would all be OK if we all just had a government-created health plan with an individual mandate. As Rick Perry would say—Oops! Good news and bad news, Andrea. The good news is that we’re in the process of implementing such a health plan for everyone! The bad news is that your candidate has vowed to eliminate it. Poor Andrea Saul was quite reasonably trying to use Mitt’s healthcare achievements in his defense. Well for hardcore conservatives Mitt’s healthcare record is not a defense—it’s an offense... a major offense, at that.
The rightwing punditry’s reaction to Andrea Saul’s comments was amazingly swift. I guess it’s possible to respond to things incredibly fast if you don’t have to take any to think first. Ann Coulter virtually exploded, at least in as much as someone with nothing inside of them can explode. Ann said “Anyone who donates to Mitt Romney, and I mean the big donors, ought to say if Andrea Saul isn’t fired and off the campaign tomorrow, they are not giving another dime.” When you’re talking about Romney donors, is it even necessary to specify “the big donors”? All Mitt Romney has is big donors. If all of Mitt’s small donors didn’t give him another dime, it wouldn’t cost him a dime. Really, Ann, if you want to contact all of Mitt’s donors—just send an email to Sheldon Adelson. If you can get him to threaten to cut off the money, Mitt will do whatever you want him to do.
Listen to me Monday through Friday 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL 1600.
On Tuesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that it would temporarily freeze any new licenses or renewal of licenses for nuclear power plants around the country. That decision by the NRC was prompted by a US Court of Appeals ruling back in June that the NRC has insufficiently dealt with the problem of nuclear waste material - thus violating the National Environmental Policy Act. Currently, the NRC provides licenses under the assumption that it will find ways to dispose of nuclear waste in the future when it becomes “necessary” or that nuclear waste can be safely stored at reactors sites.
As we’re seeing in Japan, there are a lot of problems with nuclear waste stored inside the reactor building – and the U.S. Court of Appeals recognized as much when they issued their ruling against the NRC. One of the main litigants in the case against the NRC – Stephen Smith, the executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said about the NRC’s decision, “We believe it is appropriate to halt nuclear licensing decisions and stop creating an inter-generational debt of nuclear waste that will burden our children and grandchildren for centuries to come.” Time to ditch nuclear power!
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
We've talked at length among ourselves and publicly, about the incremental erosion of privacy most of us experience in the name of security. Recent events and technological developments have put that erosion into sharp focus. Here in New York, we've got a host of issues, and questions that arise from them.
Top of the list is the new, high tech Domain Awareness System. This has been developed in conjunction with Microsoft, and is, by published reports, "designed to bring the latest crime prevention and counter terrorism technology capabilities to New York City, and to other law enforcement jurisdictions around the world". Why does this give me the creeps? Certainly any crime fighting technique that gets criminals off the street is welcome. Yet what are the privacy issues with a technology that collects and analyzes data from cameras, license plate readers, and environmental sensors?
My guess is, we'll soon find out.
It was Twitter, however, that created waves when they refused an emergency request from the NYPD to share information on a user that appeared to making terroristic threats about shooting people at Mike Tyson's Broadway performance. Twitter eventually complied, and police tracked the user down and were talking to him as of Wednesday night. This would appear to be a no brainer. When someone threatens to create another Aurora in Manhattan's Theater District, that person needs to be tracked down immediately.
However, is law enforcement crossing the line when it demands that Twitter provide them with deleted tweets from Occupy Wall St. protestors? Apparently prosecutors wanted to determine whether protestors tweeted about blocking the Brooklyn Bridge, something they deny they planned to do in advance. A judge ruled in favor of the prosecutors, saying tweets, once that send button is hit, become public domain items, deleted or not. This is something everyone who tweets ought to keep in mind when those negative urges hit.
I don't think of myself as a paranoid person, yet when I see the cameras, both public and private that are recording our lives, it makes me nervous.
Can you tell me, what are we setting ourselves up for?
My story in the new anthology For Colored Boys Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Still Not Enough (http:/www.4coloredboys.com) is about a moment of recognizing the pitfalls of love and facing the reality of ending a relationship when you truly love someone—albeit filled with pretty words and poetic prose. It’s quaint. It’s quick and to the point.
It isn’t, however, about fiery heartache or busting windows out of someone’s car (a la Jazmine Sullivan). Nor is my story about something as essential as my “coming out,” which deservers a tale within itself.
Unlike the story that was actually published, My Night with the Sun, I “came out” to my family in my early teens because, for the first time ever, I finally found the language to describe how I felt inside. It wasn’t about sex. It wasn’t even about love. It was about validating my inner being that was not allowed to give another little boy a heart for Valentine’s Day in elementary school or because I couldn’t openly say my middle school crush was not Rebecca it was, in fact, Tony. That’s why I came out at such a young age.
That wasn’t my story in the book, but contributing writers like Antonio Brown, Strange Fruit, and Shaun Lockhart, Bathtubs and Hot Water, dared to share their stories filled with heartfelt declarations and shameful backlashes by society. Their experiences were during time when we didn’t have an Anderson Cooper or Frank Ocean to nudge us to move forward and challenge our country to do better.
Although For Colored Boys… is a call-and-response for men of color to listen up, learn from our successes and mistakes, it’s also a decry to the hetero-normative majority to not just tolerate our existence—in it’s many hues, shapes, and expressions—but to integrate us back into the family and places of worship. We want to be asked about our lives, our dreams and we want responsibility to be taken for hate placated as love.
We can all pull something from this timely collection of audacious men whether it’s a laugh, empathy or—as I champion—a case for love. Most of all, we can use the stories to reflect about our own journeys and draw strength from the power of someone else’s. As a contributor and co-editor, I’m proud to say the book is filled with dynamic pieces of writing that will affirm, challenge and leave much needed marks on our world, for the better.
The rainbow may not be enough, but solidarity and allyship is more than enough. Now let’s press on.
Mark Corece is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and cultural critic based in Brooklyn, New York. You can follow him on twitter @markcorece. Listen to Mark on Clay Cane Live, Thursday nights at 11 on WWRL 1600.
Eight billion dollars is a lot of money, but a small price to pay to stay out of jail. As the New York Times reports today, corporations are on track to pay as much as $8 billion in fraud settlements this year to the U.S. government. That includes military contractors, banks, and pharmaceutical companies who systematically defrauded American taxpayers. The $8 billion they own is double the amount paid out in settlements last year – and an all-time record high.
But the important story is, despite the multiple acts of blatant fraud by corporate America resulting in record settlements – almost never does an executive go to prison. Pharmaceutical companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Merck and defense contractors like ATK Launch Systems admitted to stealing tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers, yet not one CEO is facing criminal charges. Of course, if you or I walked into a 7-11 and stole a two-dollar Slurpee, we’re going to jail. But in America’s two-tiered justice system – the corporate elite are untouchable.
Listen to me Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
The shooter in the Sikh temple shootings in Wisconsin has turned out to be affiliated with the neo-Nazi community. So I guess we won’t be seeing a bunch of interviews with his friends saying what a nice and normal guy he was. Now we just wait for Louie Gohmert to say that this would never have happened if the people attending services at the temple were all carrying guns.
Do you think there’s nothing more un-American than Republicans trying to suppress the vote? Well, Republicans came up with something—hiding behind our soldiers when they try to do it. This year in Ohio, Republican lawmakers eliminated early voting in the last three days before the election. The early voting elimination didn’t apply to current members of the military, because there is a federal law covering that. The Obama campaign sued to have early voting restored to all Ohioans. The Romney campaign tried to make it seem like Obama was trying to take early voting away from military personnel! The Obama lawsuit plainly states “Plaintiffs bring this lawsuit to restore in-person early voting for all Ohioans during the three days prior to Election Day.” It’s hard to twist that around. Give it to Mitt Romney—he never picks the easy lies.
Obama is trying to get voting rights for all Ohioans... including current members of the military. Romney is trying to deny voting rights to everyone else... including former members of the military. The Republican restrictions on voting apply to over 900,000 veterans in Ohio. Veterans in Ohio have the same voting rights as any other citizen—which means as few voting rights as Republican politicians can get away with giving them. Republicans don’t like early voting. They don’t have a problem with the “early” part as much as they have a problem with the “voting” part.
Harry Reid says that Mitt Romney may not have paid any taxes at all for 10 years. Mitt responds that he paid “a lot of taxes.” He actually repeated the phrase “a lot of taxes” for emphasis. When Mitt Romney tells you something twice, you know that there’s something else he REALLY doesn’t want you to know.
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For the first time in recent history, humanitarian organizations are responding to three major food crises at once – one in West Africa, one in East Africa, and one in Yemen. Accelerating climate change and dwindling resources have created several severe food shortages – adding 43 million more people around the world to the ranks of those who will go hungry this year alone.
As Barbara Stocking, the chief executive with OxFam Great Britain, warned, “without urgent action, things will only get worse, and multiple major crises could quickly move from being an exception to being the norm.” Enough food exists, but the failures of global capitalism and industrial food systems prevent solutions to the problem. If the United States doesn’t take the lead in using resources and energy more responsibly soon, then the rest of the world is going to descend into chaos, and we as a nation will go down with them.
Listen to me LIVE Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
This time it was in Oak Creek Wisconsin where an, armed to the teeth gunman, walked into a Sikh temple and opened fire – killing six people. We may never know the shooter’s motivation since he was killed as well, but authorities are piecing together what looks to be a hate crime against Sikh worshippers – who’ve routinely been mistaken for Muslims and targeted for hate crimes since 9/11.
According to early reports – the shooter was an Army veteran who may have been a white supremacist. Eyewitnesses report the shooter had a 9/11 tattoo on his arm. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence released a statement reminding Americans just how common mass shootings now are in America, saying: “There have now been 61 mass shootings since the tragedy last year in Tucson and 100 school shootings since the one at Columbine High School. Tomorrow, another 32 Americans will be murdered by guns.” But beyond gun violence, this latest mass shooting may also be a result of growing Islamophobia in America.
The shooting occurs just weeks after Congressional Republicans led by Michele Bachmann warned of an infiltration of the U.S. government by the Muslim Brotherhood. And while Sikhs are not Muslims – that distinction is often lost on the frightened and the naïve who are whipped into action by Islamophobes and encouraged to “take their country back.” Keep an eye on this developing story.
Listen to me Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
The new jobs numbers are out. They’re much better than expected. Economists had been expecting disastrous numbers, and Republicans had been hoping for them. Still, the numbers indicate that the economy is just treading water, which is actually pretty impressive when you consider that Congressional Republicans keep trying to drag it under.
The Obama campaign is out with a new ad about Mitt and taxes. The ad says that Romney’s tax plan “raises taxes on middle class families by $2,000.” Ever wonder how Mitt plans to pay for his tax cuts for the rich? He doesn’t. He plans to have you pay. His entire tax plan is based on extracting blood from turnips... and you are the turnips. Of course, Mitt himself will get a huge tax cut under Mitt’s plan. As the ad says “He pays less, you pay more.” When Mitt Romney says he wants you to support him, he literally means he wants you to support him.
President Obama called Mitt’s tax plan “trickle down, tax cut fairy dust.” Obama said the Republicans have done this before, and that fairy dust “didn’t work then, and it’ won’t work now.” Hello! Of course fairy dust won’t work… if you don’t BELIEVE! Don’t you know anything about fairies, Mr. President? Every time somebody like President Obama says “I don’t believe in fairies,” a Republican tax cut scheme dies!
Today is the big same-sex “Kiss In” at Chick-fil-A franchises! I’d like to think it’s going to freak out homophobes, but it’s hard to gross out someone who is wolfing down hormone-injected deep fried meat. I’ve seen the people who frequent Chick-fil-A, and they would stick their tongue down anybody’s throat if they thought there was a chicken nugget lodged in there.
Mitt and Ann Romney’s horse began competing in the Olympics yesterday. Or today. It all depends if you live in real time or NBC time. Ann said the horse’s performance “thrilled me to death.” The horse was in 13th place with 25 horses still to go. I’m glad for Ann’s sake that she has low threshold for being thrilled at the outcome of contests. This is going to make her husband’s 2nd place performance in November a lot easier to deal with.
Listen to me Monday through Friday 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL 1600.
It’s not SuperPACs that are buying our elections, it's so-called “social welfare” organizations. According to IRS law – 501c4 and 501c6 groups – what are known as social welfare organizations or trade associations – are allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money in our elections – and not disclose a single donor – just as long as they don’t explicitly call for the election or defeat of a particular politician.
And since the super-rich who are trying to buy Republican politicians would rather stay in the shadows, they’re increasingly using these “dark money” groups rather than SuperPACs – which do have to disclose their donors – to influence our elections.
According to a new report by Demos and the U.S. PIRG – 50% of all outside spending in this presidential race have come from these “dark money” groups. The top 5 “dark money” groups have spent more than $50 million on television adds so far in this election, yet Americans only know where 1% of that money actually came from. For all we know, Chinese business tycoons, Saudi princes, or foreign dictators could be funneling money into our elections to help Republicans win.
This is the insanity that the Supreme Court gave us in its Citizens United decision.
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Holy Chicken by Randi Rhodes,posted Aug 2 2012 5:37PM
Yesterday was Chick-fil-A Anti-Gay Day! Sorry if you missed it. You’ll just have to spend today being intolerant on your own. Technically, it was Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, but what the people who showed up really appreciated was just how intolerant Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy is of gay people. I don’t know if a boycott of Chick-fil-A would work. Have you ever noticed how many Tea Party types are morbidly obese? I think Chick-fil-A could thrive on their business alone. For every 10 people who refuse to eat at Chick-fil-A, they can just have one Tea Party person eat 10 times as much from Chick-fil-A. I’m sure there will be plenty of willing volunteers.
Despite yesterday’s show of support from homophobic cholesterol addicts, the Chick-fil-A brand has been damaged... not as much as their customers’ arteries, but still pretty bad. Pretty soon, Chick-fil-A will be totally dependent on a very small but fanatically devoted following—exactly like the Republican Party is. Heck, they’re exactly the same followers! Most Chick-fil-A franchises are in the South. That’s good for them. If you’re depending on having a customer base that’s motivated by intolerance, you’re a lot better off in states where Newt Gingrich did well in the primary.
Yesterday a whole range of Affordable Care Act healthcare provisions for women started to kick in. To Republicans... that’s a day that will live in infamy. GOP Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) compared the new women’s healthcare provisions to Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Kelly listed off Pearl Harbor Day and 9/11 and said “remember August 1, 2012 — the attack on our religious freedom. That is a date that will live in infamy, along with those other dates.” Sorry Mike, but I don’t think the History Channel will be putting together a retrospective for this one.
Loony GOP Rep. Steven King (R-IA) is making birther statements about Obama being born in Kenya. The shocking thing is that this is the least crazy thing Steven King has said in recent days. Steve has been praising dog fighting and babbling about how it’s legal to impregnate 13-year olds in this country. Having him babble about the President being from Kenya is actually a step forward.
Listen to me Monday through Friday 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL 1600.
So supporters of Chick-Fil-A had their day Wednesday. Those folks who call themselves Christians, and say they've given themselves to the Lord have decided to back the boss of a chicken chain that proudly proclaims his opposition to gay marriage. Wonderful. Now to be honest, I actually liked Chik-Fil-A the few times I had it. It is, after all, a southern chain, with one location in all of New York State, and one in Northern New Jersey.
It seems as if Dan Cathy, the chain's Major Domo, now wants to expand his poultry based empire. The lure of big northern and western cities beckons. However, some elected officials in those cities said straight up they didn't want Chick-Fil-A in their locales. They should have known better. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, with whom I often disagree, got it right when he said politicians have no power to tell businesses they can't locate in a city. Mayors Menino of Boston and Lee of San Francisco would be court from now on if they try to block Chick-Fil-A.
All that said, Wednesday's Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day must have made those patrons feel good about themselves. Let's hope we don't see any of them patronizing pole dancers at the Republican National Convention. Many told the media they had no problem with gays, that this was all about Dan Cathy's right to hold his views. One assumes most of those chicken eaters yesterday agree with him. Well, here's the thing. If Chick-Fil-A has the right to hold its view on gays, those who disagree have every right to vocally express their disagreement. Too often, people think the First Amendment is a one way street. If some can organize a "buy-out", others can put together a boycott. This is America, after all.
I prefer to look at it this way. Chick-Fil-A is doomed. Supporters can eat that stuff as long and often as they want, but the kids coming up behind them have different priorities. My 15 year old daughter may not be typical, but consider this. She was a Chick-Fil-A fiend. Whenever we drove to an area where there were locations, we had to stop. The other day, as the Chick-Fil-A wars heated up, I asked her if she still would go to have some of their chicken nuggets, her favorite. Her one word answer said it all. NO!
My daughter, you see, was nurtured early in her life by an openly gay Episcopal priest. To her, being gay isn't unnatural, ungodly, immoral, or any of the other terms homophobes toss around. It's just, you know, being gay.
And that, my friends, is the wave of the future that will wash over Chick-Fil-A
In one day, Big Oil earns $342 million in profit, pays their CEOs $60,000 in salaries, spends more than $160,000 lobbying, and dumps a billion pounds of carbon pollution into our skies. All that in a single day. And what do we get out of it? Rapid climate change that’s threatening to destabilize the entire planet.
According to the US Department of Agriculture – more than half of all the counties in the United States are now primary disaster areas – stricken by one of the worst droughts in our nation’s history. To give relief, the USDA has opened up 3.8 million acres of conservation land for ranchers to use for grazing. It’s the latest effort by the Department to prevent a rapid increase in food prices that could kill our fragile economic recovery, hurt working Americans, and push the developing world into starvation and chaos.
Meanwhile – Big Oil and Big Coal – which have been dumping unimaginable amounts of carbon pollution into the atmosphere for centuries – continues to rake in enormous profits without contributing one cent to fixing the destruction they’re causing around the planet. This is predatory capitalism at its worst, and if continues unchecked, then our future is uncertain.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
Harry Reid says that a Bain investor told him that Mitt Romney didn’t pay any taxes at all for 10 years! I believe it—you don’t file 400-page tax returns to pay 35 percent. If you’re going to pay the actual tax rate, you just use the IRS short form, write a check, and include a note about how thankful you are about everything this country has done for you. I don’t think Mitt did that.
Mitt Romney can’t seem to decide where he stands on the Mideast. All he knows for sure is that he wanted to stand in front of the Western Wall for a nice photo op. On Sunday, Mitt said that Israel’s dominance over the Palestinians is due to its superior culture. Tuesday morning he claimed he never said that. By Tuesday night he had flipped back again. That’s Mitt’s version of a 24-hour turnaround. Why would Mitt insult Arab culture in favor of Israel? I can give you several reasons. And Sheldon Adelson can give Mitt 100 million reasons.
Mitt had been running away from the “culture” line. Then when he found out that crazy people liked it, he started going in the opposite direction. I’ve been saying that Mitt should be a gymnast because of his ability to do contortions. Maybe he should be a swimmer for the incredible way he can reverse direction! Mitt is the perfect swimmer! There’s a problem though—those Olympic swimmers show everything... and Mitt doesn’t show anything. If he’s afraid to show people he’s tax returns, then I can’t imagine he’s got the guts to wear a Speedo bathing suit the size of a headband.
There’s a major scandal in the world of Olympic badminton. And no, it’s not the fact that badminton is an Olympic sport. Wow, doesn’t that make croquet and horseshoes feel really left out? Sorry, but any sport that uses something called a “shuttlecock” should not be in the Olympics. Broadcasters shouldn’t be spending all their time trying not to giggle. The scandal is that the Chinese and South Koreans held a doubles match in which both sides seemed to be trying to lose on purpose. My first question would be—it’s badminton, how can you tell? I’ve never seen anyone try to win at badminton! It’s just something people play while they’re waiting for the BBQ to be ready at the picnic.
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Congress went on recess this week leaving the United States Postal Service financial crisis, unresolved. At midnight tonight, the Postal Service will default on a $5.5 billion payment it owes to the Treasury Department. This default will not have any immediate effects on day-to-day operations at the Postal Service, but it highlights the financial troubles that the institution, which was created more than 200 years ago by Ben Franklin, is facing today. And those problems are almost entirely thanks to Republicans.
In 2006 – Republicans in Congress passed a poison pill piece of legislation forcing the Post Office to pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years out into the future – basically funding benefits for future employees who aren’t even born yet. The Postal Service has to do this by giving the Treasury $5.5 billion every single year. That’s a requirement that no business, or any government agency has ever had to comply with. And it’s the reason why the Post Office is going bankrupt today and looking into closing down post offices, laying off workers, and cutting down delivery service.
So why is all this happening? Because the Postal Service employs hundreds of thousands of unionized workers – where as private mail carriers like UPS and Fed Ex do not. Republicans – in their non-stop war on labor – realized that they could hurt unions by bankrupting the Postal Service. That’s what they did in 2006, and their plan is working today.
Don’t buy into the scam that the Postal Service is going broke because of the internet and the rise of e-mail. It’s going broke because it’s the latest casualty in the GOP's war on organized labor.
Listen to me live Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
Mitt Romney has just finished his world tour! And this prompts 2 questions from this blogger, Americans and others throughout the world: why? and what did he accomplish?
The "why" was answered by one of Romney's top political strategists, Stuart Stevens who said that Mitt Romney did this tour to "get a better sense of events on the ground..."
Now getting an understanding of events on the ground in Israel is understandable. We've had a conflict in the Middle East since Adam and Eve. But Poland? Great Britain? What conflicts are we involved with there? Terrorism? Or perhaps great business deals happening on a global level? Maybe Mitt Romney needs a map. Although we do have business in most countries throughout the world; that is evidence by the number of McDonald's, Pizza Hut's and KFC's you can find; Poland and Great Britain aren't big on the hit parade; China and India are. And Mr Romney knows that all too well; as those as two countries his former Bain Capital sent thousands of American jobs to. Or perhaps he is confused as to who is voting for him- for it's we here in the United States, not the citizens of Poland, Great Britain or Israel.
As for Israel; our biggest challenge is peace...which most people believe comes down to a two state solution; how that is implemented, where the dividing lines are, etc. that is the challenge for Israel, the challenge for the Palestinians and for the world.
Another "why" answer might be how Mitt Romney likes to tell potential voters what they want to hear, show them what they want to see; which is just what he was doing in Israel, appealing to the Jewish population of American voters worldwide; showing them he was "pro Israel."
But when we get to what Mitt Romeny accomplished, although Mr Stevens called this trip a "great success," it clearly wasn't. This was not a great success for Poland, Great Britain or even Israel. This was not a great success for Mr Romney and his presence, representing our nation as a potential would be commander in chief; was not a great success for America and moreso our reputation worldwide.
After 8 years of the Bush Administration, after the invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq based on a lie, after the photos of Abu Grahib, after violating the geneva conventions with the discovery of waterboarding and other forms of torture; the world viewed America as a big cowboy on our high horse looking down at the other nations of the world. And with his comments criticizing Great Britian's security system for the Olympics, and with his comments about the "culture" of Israel being the reason Israeli's are thriving economically over the Palesitinians; Mitt Romney set us back with one "world tour" all the while the cameras were rolling. And on a side note, having visited Israel and lived there briefly, the reason the Palestinians can't compete economically with the Israeli's is because they're living behind walls, in a ghetto like environment; in short, they are oppressed. Is it the "culture" of the rich white men like Mitt Romney that make him thrive economically moreso than a minority in America? Or is it lack of opportunity, prejudice, etc?
I think Mr Romney needs an education in diplomatic etiquette to say the least. If you visit another person's home you don't put your feet on the furniture, nor do you tell them how to arrange it. If you want to be President of the greatest nation in the world; and that job isn't currently yours, you show something I don't believe Mr Romney has ever shown in his life, is capable of showing and perhaps a big reason he is not liked by American voters, even Republicans and that is HUMILITY.
If you go to Great Britian, you applaud their efforts, the great city of London, the leaders and leadership you may work with if in fact you reach your goal and win that big prize of four years in the oval office. In striving to get the Jewish vote, and their money for your campaign, you don't alienate the Muslim/Arab world in the process; remember, we are striving for peace, not further conflict. And Mr Romney knows that this 'world tour' will not have an encore, as he even refused to answer questions about his gaffes to the press.
Lastly, my mother once told me that not everyone is going to like you.....Mitt Romney should take note- and stop trying for he is making more enemies than friends for himself and for America.
Listen to me Monday through Friday 12 AM to 1 AM on WWRL 1600.
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Thursday, August 16th, marked my return to the radio airwaves of New York City. I bid the island of Manhattan adieu at the beginning of July and jumped aboard a jet plane — quite sure that I’d be back again after a much needed vacation! Tunnel vision mapped out my quest for relaxation and rest, from the Big Apple of NYC to the Pineapple of Waikiki. All of the hustle and bustle of New York melted away on the sandy beaches of Hawaii as I traded in Long Island Iced Tea for Mai Tais, subway transfers for sunscreen, and honking car horns for crashing waves. I was welcoming this new life of leisure one “aloha” (meaning both hello and goodbye) exchange at a time.
