Tag Archives: Kentucky

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ThinkProgress ~~ the GOP


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Today’s GOP, In Two Numbers

Last week, President Obama laid out a sweeping agenda to combat income inequality, strengthen the middle class, and extend ladders of opportunity to those striving to enter it. He also challenged the GOP to put forward their own ideas instead of just rejecting whatever he proposes. We have yet to see any new ideas from the Republicans but their opposition to the president’s agenda of economic empowerment is still going strong.

Two numbers perfectly illustrate the almost cruel indifference shown by today’s GOP toward the concerns of the millions of Americans who are struggling to get by:

  • 4,831,590: That is the number of low-income Americans who will not receive health coverage through Medicaid simply because Republican governors and legislatures are refusing to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act. Because the expansion is almost entirely paid for by the federal government, states refusing to expand the program will forego billions in tax dollars, even as providers remain on the hook for uncompensated care provided to the uninsured. Texas will lose out on more than $9 BILLION, while Florida is leaving more than $5 BILLION on the table.

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  • 1,300,000: That is the number of unemployed Americans who will immediately lose their benefits come January if Republicans in Congress refuse to extend long-term unemployment benefits, which would be an unprecedented move during a period of persistently high unemployment.  The number who stand to lose their benefits would climb to 3.6 MILLION by the end of 2014. In addition to unnecessarily causing added misery for millions of struggling families, letting the extended benefits lapse would also deal a blow to the economy to the tune of 240,000 lost jobs as well as reduced growth. Over the weekend, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tried to justify the GOP’s intransigence by making the bizarre argument that extended benefits are somehow harmful to the unemployed and do them a “disservice.”

BOTTOM LINE: If Republicans want to appeal to a broader group of Americans, they should stop putting politics ahead of people. The policies Republicans are pursuing will needlessly punish millions of Americans who can least afford it.

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From Bad to Worse

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GOP’s August Woes Continue

From birther eruptions to lonely diatribes against immigration reform to doubling down on their anti-science climate denialism, things are just not going very well out there for Republicans this August.

Here’s the latest news on Republicans’ long, hot August:
•GOP can’t turn off the climate science crazy: Salon’s Brian Beutler writes, “Going into August recess, GOP leaders were really hoping its members of Congress wouldn’t yield to a shared tendency to talk about climate science…To no one’s surprise, though, that’s a bit like hoping the scorpion won’t sting the frog. Already this month, several House Republicans have given in to their nature.”
•GOP Congressman calls for government shutdown unless Congress ‘defunds Obamacare this year’:
During a town hall meeting in a tony suburb outside Sacramento on Tuesday, McClintock brought up the upcoming continuing resolution, which is necessary to keep government open but which many conservatives are targeting as a venue for another showdown over Obamacare. McClintock told the audience that he will vote against the continuing resolution — and thus for a government shutdown — unless the bill “defunds Obamacare this year.”
•Rand Paul: ‘I don’t think there is any particular evidence’ of black voters being prevented from voting: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a tea party senator with a long history of opposition to civil rights laws, told an audience in Louisville, Kentucky on Wednesday that there is no evidence of black voters being excluded from the franchise.
•GOP Congressman argues against multiculturalism: ‘There’s only one race here, it’s the American race’: Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) took a strong stand against multiculturalism at a town hall meeting, arguing that immigrants need to shed their culture, become “the American race,” and if they’re unwilling to do so, “reevaluate” whether they want to be in this country in the first place. Fielding questions about immigration reform, McClintock told the audience on Tuesday evening that he worries current generations of immigrants aren’t assimilating like in the past but instead retaining the culture from their native land. “There’s only one race here, it’s the American race,” he implored to constituents.
•Rep. Steve King says Latino immigrants are from a ‘violent civilization,’ will bring ‘more violence’ to America:
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) launched a vicious tirade against individuals from Latin America, claiming that the population gets more violent as one moves further south in Latin America
•Huge crowd turns out to pressure House GOP leader to back pathway to earned citizenship: A crowd of at least 1,000 people turned out today at a town hall meeting in the district of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the third-ranking GOP leader in the House of Representatives.
•Almost nobody shows up at Steve King’s anti-immigration reform “rally”: Rep. Steve King (R-IA) held a rally on Monday to oppose the immigration reform effort taking place on Capitol Hill, but no one, it seems, felt like going.
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CREDIT: Politico’s @seungminkim

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My 4yo daughter shakes when she sees police


 

Change.org
My 4-year-old daughter was traumatized when police simulated a hostage crisis in our housing complex without warning residents. Tell HUD to stop allowing military-style trainings in public housing.
Sign My Petition

On March 21, my four year old daughter and her babysitter were trapped in our apartment in Albany, New York in the middle of a police drill to simulate a hostage situation. She woke up to flash grenades, assault rifles and real tear gas being used in our home. The police threatened my neighbors with arrest if they tried to leave.

I don’t disagree with the police providing training to their officers, but nobody in the complex, not even the tenants’ association, was warned about this drill. People thought it was real.

Last week, the Albany police department apologized for holding the training so close to occupied residences. But my daughter still shakes with fear when she sees the police and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which actually allowed the police to conduct the training in our community, hasn’t said anything.

I started a petition calling on HUD to pass a national policy to prevent public housing communities from being used as military-style training grounds. Click here to sign my petition now.

The Albany police department says that they chose our neighborhood, which is lower-income and mostly African American, for their training because they wanted it to be “more realistic.” I don’t think this ever would have happened in one of Albany’s wealthier neighborhoods.

This isn’t the first time this has happened, either. Similar exercises have happened in public housing in Illinois, Connecticut, Kentucky and Pennsylvania in the past two years and have even included fake bombs and helicopters.

Public housing is meant to help hardworking people like me build better lives for ourselves and our families through safe and stable communities. Allowing our homes to be used for war games is completely counter to HUD’s mission. That’s why I’m confident that HUD will tell local housing authorities not to allow trainings like these on HUD property — if the department hears from you and many others.

Click here to sign my petition now, calling on HUD to prevent public housing from being used for police or military trainings ever again.

Thank you.

Lauren Manning
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Wednesday ~~~ sliding into Spring


Sandhill CraneKanadakraniche

The weather is just as mad as what is going on the basketball court and the floor of Congress No.

Unless you are living under a rock,  the countdown to March Madness … the NCAA Championships began without Kentucky now, after all the latest results folks must have lost some dollars. I could be wrong.. Psyched about the tournament until the sad news that Gonzaga lost by six points to a ninth ranked team… Ugh!  Anyway, Gonzaga still is a #1 seed in the eyes of Washington State though you have to admit that #9 Wichita State pulled out their three-pointers on back-to-back-to-back possessions over a three-minute span that shocked and awed the Zags out of the Big Dance the Sweet16 … the Final 4.  The sad facts from NBC are that Gonzaga becomes the third No. 1 seed in the past four years to lose in the Round of 32 and the first No. 1 seed to be eliminated from this 2013 NCAA tournament. In addition, that comes after perhaps the shakiest performance by a No. 1 seed in the Round of 64, when No. 16-seed Southern ran the Bulldogs to the wire Thursday evening. I am no expert but this could have some impact on future teams chosen to rank.  The Big Dance started without Kentucky and then found several top ranked teams floundering, so who knows what the Final 4 has in store and will folks watch with teams like Oklahoma State, UNLV, WI, NM, KS and #2Georgetown falling or could this be one of the most exciting Final4’s yet because it’s anyone’s game to lose ….

Let us not even get into the profanity that seemed to be thrown around freely on court this year.

Calling March mad because of college basketball is an established thing, but considering the madness in the political air lately  the behavior from Republican members of Congress will probably make us all go beyond mad if they keep voting to repeal, eliminate, and replace all things public service only to privatize it all.

The end of March is here while the NCAA madness is not over  and Congress with plenty of work to do has skipped out of town until April  …  who isn’t mad about that.

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400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild –


Donate today!
Help us save the last remaining Sumatran tigers and stop KFC from destroying rainforests by making a donation of $5 today.

Last week, over 40,000 online activists sent a message to KFC CEO David Novak asking him to end his company’s relationship with rainforest destruction.
With only 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, time is running out to save their forest homes from destruction for fast food packaging.
KFC is definitely feeling the heat. KFC restaurants in Indonesia have already cut business ties with notorious rainforest destroyer, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP). But there’s been nothing but a shameful silence from the company’s headquarters in Kentucky. That has to change.
It’s only going to happen if we keep up the pressure. And that’s exactly what we intend to do with your support.
Please make a donation of $5 so that we can continue to put pressure on KFC and save the Sumatran tiger from extinction.
With so few tigers left in the wild, and their habitat disappearing fast, it is important that we act now to protect them.
Greenpeace is funded by people, not corporations, and the success of this campaign depends on activists like you uniting to stand up to corporate greed.
With your support, we’ll fight back with our expert staff on the ground, international market pressure from customers, and worldwide media exposure — but we need to do it now. The Indonesian rainforest, where the only wild Sumatran tigers left on the planet live, is being destroyed every day at an alarming rate. Please donate $5 today to help save the Sumatran tigers by getting KFC to end its relationship with rainforest destruction.
For the forests,
Rolf Skar Greenpeace Forest Campaign Director