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Cue the right-wing outrage over this Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher in 10...9...8... for the way he ended his New Rules segment while talking about the dangers of record income disparity in the United States:

MAHER: If you're rich, you should be begging the government to redistribute your wealth, because you know what happens in countries where there's a huge disparity between the rich and the poor? The rich get kidnapped. It happens seventy two times a day in Mexico.

He went onto talk about people resorting to using flame throwers on their cars in South Africa to stop it. He made a lot of really good points about what's happening to our society in the wake of the latest remake of The Great Gatsby being released, and our new Gilded Age which is worse than the last one. I'm sure all those on the right will hear is that he wants to raise your taxes and the clamor will be "Why doesn't he just volunteer to pay more himself?" -- because we all know how well just asking the wealthy to voluntarily pay more taxes, and only a tiny portion of them actually doing it, would work to solve our economic problems and the huge wealth gap we have now.

via Crooks and Liars http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/maher-warns-dangers-new-gilded-age-new-rul

Crooks and Liars Heather johalputt

10:07

On April 25 - Thursday evening - American icon and humble hero George W Bush took one small step for man, one slip-and-fall for humanity - as he re-entered a spotlight until-recently blissful to have been abandoned by him, for the dedication of his presidential library. Put aside for the moment that having an actual structure that houses things you read dedicated to him is like honouring Chris Christie with a gluten-free restaurant or naming a Bar Mitzvah after Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Hell, I half expected him to don his trusty flight suit and declare "all major combat operations over in Iraq", you know, just for the memories.

But really, he did not have to do anything of the sort. For it was perfect timing for the My Pet Goat Athenaeum to emerge from the steamy Sun Belt hydrofluorocarbons just as one disaster after another befell the country, a helpful reminder of the eight torturous (in more ways than one) years he and his corrupted West Texas ideology made the rest of the United States resemble, well, West, Texas.

From the explosion at the fertiliser plant due to flagrant flouting of environmental regulations to the attack in Boston, the rejection of common sense gun safety to the square dance around sequestration; this was shaping up to be a Bush Legacy week whether he stayed home to paint nude portraits of Jeb or chose to step out and try to defend a presidency many Americans must be still convinced was just one long phantasm brought on by a bad batch of Peyote.

Michael Lind points out in, Made In Texas, that we have had conservative presidents over the past century and southern presidents. We have not had the combination. And it is an important distinction. As Lind put it in an interview with BuzzFlash (2002), "His [Bush's] political values - ranging from aggressive militarism in foreign policy to small-government ideology and fervent support for laissez-faire economics" have come to define much of our political culture in Washington - hence last week.

First, we had the Festrunk Brothers launch an attack on the Boston Marathon two weeks ago, and just about everything involved had Bush's West Texas political culture written all over it. Because of the NRA, which "worked out of his White House", there is no way to track where gun powder was bought as there is with plastic explosives. Because... freedom! (And defence contractor profits!).

There was the fact that these two clowns apparently committed these atrocities because of anger over Iraq - for which I hope the younger brother (I refuse to give them attention by using their names) spends a nice, long, pain-enveloped life carving rocks into chess pieces at Shawshank. Ahh yes, Iraq. Remember that war? The one that George W Bush lied us into with tales of yellowcake and "curveball", that has now cost up to about $2 trillion?

It is because of this war, unpaid for tax cuts and Big Pharma boondoggles that we apparently have to eliminate Medicare, according to the Pied Piper of granny starving, Congressman and former vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. But let us eliminate, post haste, the part of our silly self-created "sequestration" - flight delays! - that causes inconveniences to wealthy members of the Congress on their way to the next Ladybank-single-malt-festooned, campaign contributor bribe-fests.

We were also recently treated to the West Texas answer to allowing weapons of war on our streets to blow apart toddlers in schools. Nothing. Unless you count Congress' finding ways to allow itself to insider trade again. Because... freedom!

Finally, there is the tragedy in West, Texas. A fertiliser-plant explosion near Waco (just like the Crawford pseudo-ranch!) that engulfed the neighbourhood, due to an understaffed and barely functioning Chemical Safety Board (by Congressional design), a lack of common-sense zoning requirements and the no-follow-ups rule we like to impose on the Environmental Protection Agency when they find that a plant like say, this one, had no risk management plan in 2006. But hey, the plant self-reported (is that like self-deporting?) that it posed "no risk" of fire, and why would they lie?

You may remember that a certain convict-Congressman named Tom DeLay - of West Texas - compared the EPA to the "Gestapo" and current lunkhead Texas Governor Rick Perry attacks the very same EPA for its "misguided and job-killing policies", as opposed to his people-killing ones. And then there is, once again, George W Bush. The Decider decided as President that, as dictated by his West Texas ideology, he would assault the EPA by any means necessary, short of naming the former Arabian Horse Association guy to run it (he saved that for FEMA... phew!).

So, in a way, it was fitting to see the George W Bush library opening this past week. It is his West Texas world. We are just stuck living in it.

This syndicated column first appeared at Al Jazeera English

Follow me on Twitter: @CliffSchecter

via Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/cliff-schecter/our-very-own-west-texas

Cliff Schecter Crooks and Liars johalputt

09:07

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After the Minnesota state legislature voted to pass same-sex marriage yesterday, 78-59 in the lower chamber, with even some Republican support, Minnesota is now poised to become a state which allows same-sex marriage. But of course not all Republicans came away happy.

h/t Talking Points Memo. Video by Fox 9, Minneapolis.

“My heart breaks for Minnesota,” said a Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover.

“It’s a divisive issue that divides our state,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes as she stood on the House floor after the vote. “It’s not what we needed to be doing at this time. We want to come together for the state of Minnesota, we don’t want to divide it.”

Amendment 1, a proposal to ban gay marriage in Minnesota forever was passed by Republicans in 2011, but was later rejected by voters at the ballot box in November 2012, 52.6% - 47.4%, and "resulted in Minnesota being the first state, after 30 attempts, to defeat a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage". Millions of dollars were spent on both sides, evenly splitting the state for months with a long and rancorous debate.

But that's what happens when Republicans do things a lot of people don't like. In contrast, Thursday's vote was marked by civility.

The Senate is expected to vote on and pass the bill on Monday.

via Crooks and Liars http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/minn-republican-my-heart-breaks-minnesota

Crooks and Liars johalputt scarce

11:22

350 parts per million = safe level of carbon in the atmosphere. And the namesake for the 350 movement. This explains what's it's all about

There are some records we'd rather not see broken. Carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere surpassed 400 parts per million for the first time since the U.S. government began recording the concentration of the gas in the air, and likely the first time in millions of years. High levels of carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere and increases global temperatures. The last time it reached 400 parts per million was in the epoch called the Pliocene at least 3 million years ago, when sea levels may have been as much as 60 to 80 feet higher than they are today. For all of human civilization, carbon-dioxide levels have hovered around 280 parts per million.

Already we're seeing the deadly effects of climate change in the form of rising seas, wildfires and extreme weather of all kinds, and passing 400 PPM is an ominous sign of what might come next.

The safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmostphere is 350 parts per million, but the only way to get there is to immediately transition the global economy away from fossil fuels and into into renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable farming practices in all sectors (agriculture, transport, manufacturing, etc.).

While the level fluctuates seasonally and varies across different latitudes, this is yet another sign that our dependence on fossil fuels is out of control.

What This Means

Bill McKibben, Co-Founder, 350.org: "We're in new territory for human beings--it's been millions of years since there's been this much carbon in the atmosphere. The only question now is whether the relentless rise in carbon can be matched by a relentless rise in the activism necessary to stop it."

Dr. James Hansen, Former NASA Climatologist: "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced ... to at most 350 ppm."

Payal Parekh, Coordinator, Global Power Shift: "Crossing the 400 ppm threshold is a somber reminder that we haven't taken the action we need. Nevertheless there is good reason for hope -- activists all across the globe are fighting the fossil fuel industry and demanding clean, just and affordable solutions to our energy needs. At Global Power Shift, a convergence in Istanbul this June, 500 mostly young climate activists from 135 countries will come together to plan a global strategy for change. Upon returning home they'll escalate action and create the global power shift our world needs to push for 350 ppm."

Brad Johnson, Campaign Manager, Forecast the Facts: "May 9, 2013, is a historic day in the worst possible sense of the word. For the first time in the history of the human race, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen above 400 parts per million, NOAA reports. During the ice ages as homo sapiens ("wise man") evolved, levels were between 180 and 300 ppm. During the rise of human civilization, CO2 concentrations were only 280 ppm. Hundreds of billions of tons of fossil-fuel pollution have poisoned our climate, bringing to our world increasingly extreme floods, droughts, and wildfires. We must respond with urgent resolve to end this uncontrolled experiment on our only home.

"Yet the Republican Party maintains climate change denial as a central tenet of their party platform, and President Obama refuses to admit the threat projects like the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline pose to our future survival. The scientific observations are not in doubt, and the facts are not negotiable. We are fed up, and we will continue to hold those who are pushing us off the climate cliff accountable."

Deirdre Smith, West Coast Fossil Free Organizer: "My grandmother said that we are always walking toward our goals or away from them. As we reach 400PPM I am thinking about her, and wondering which way the the Board of Trustees from any of the 40 fossil free campus campaigns I work with are walking. Perhaps, this will be the moment we decided to walk toward our common goals, to treat each moment as a chance to invest in our future. That's what my grandmother would hope, that's what I hope, that's what students are fighting for now."

Bryan Walsh at Time magazine writes:

The fact that we’re going to cross 400 ppm doesn’t mean that much by itself. It’s not like the sound barrier—the difference in warming between 399 ppm and 400 ppm would likely be minute. But the sheer rate of increase over just the past 55 years shows how fast global warming could hit us in the future—and the present—and underscores how much we’ve failed as a planet to slow down carbon emissions. As Ralph Keeling put it in a statement:

"I wish it weren’t true, but it looks like the world is going to blow through the 400-ppm level without losing a beat. At this pace we’ll hit 450 ppm within a few decades."

There’s no guarantee that we’d experience the same levels of warming in the future if CO2 levels stay that high, but it doesn’t look good. Nor will CO2 levels stop at 400 ppm—barring a virtually impossible immediate turn away from fossil fuels, CO2 emissions will keep growing globally, and CO2 concentrations will keep rising. The U.N.’s official goal is to keep CO2 levels below 450 ppm, and as Ralph Keeling indicated, we’re rapidly running out of time to make that happen. CO2 can stay in the atmosphere for centuries, which means that we’ve already baked in far more warming than we’ve yet experienced. But we will soon enough. The Keeling Curve tells us our past, but it’s also a roadmap for our future—a future that will almost certainly be hotter and wilder.

And from Damian Carrington at The Guardian:

For the first time in human history, the concentration of climate-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has passed the milestone level of 400 parts per million (ppm). The last time so much greenhouse gas was in the air was several million years ago, when the Arctic was ice-free, savannah spread across the Sahara desert and sea level was up to 40 metres higher than today.

These conditions are expected to return in time, with devastating consequences for civilisation, unless emissions of CO2 from the burning of coal, gas and oil are rapidly curtailed. But despite increasingly severe warnings from scientists and a major economic recession, global emissions have continued to soar unchecked.

Our civilization developed and flourished in an era that never saw CO2 concentrations above 300 ppm. We are in new territory once again, and we have yet to show signs of slowing down, let alone stopping practices that are harmful to our world -- our Earth.

via Crooks and Liars http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/carbon-dioxide-hits-record-mark-400-pp

Crooks and Liars Diane Sweet johalputt

09:37

Ariel Castro, who is being held on $8 million bail after being charged with multiple counts of kidnapping and rape, appears to have written a chilling confession back in 2004. Reporters for Channel 19 Action News have posted excerpts from the letter, which police found while searching the house where Castro allegedly imprisoned three women for a decade. In the letter Castro admits that “I am a sexual predator” and that he needs help. He also wonders why he kidnapped a third woman when he “already had 2 in my possession.” The letter is reportedly a suicide note, with Castro saying he wanted to kill himself and give his money to his captives. He also blamed his victims, saying they “made the mistake of getting in a car with a total stranger.”

Via:

Multiple sources say that the man living there had written a suicide note years ago outlining what he did and why. Ariel Castro is sitting in the city jail, so of course, he never did take his own life.

But Gallek has learned that in the note, Castro talks about a sex addiction and needing help. It puts some blame on the victims for getting in the car with him, and it refers to family problems and a poor childhood.

Castro and his two brothers, Pedro and Olin, are being held in jail in separate cells. A source who's been in the jail says the suspects are getting a lot of verbal abuse from other inmates.

And in a tearful interview on ABC’s Good Morning America, the daughter of suspected Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro begged Gina DeJesus -- her former childhood friend -- to forgive any role she had in enabling the abduction. “I am absolutely so so sorry,” the 22-year-old cried. Arlene was one of the last people to see Gina in 2004 on the day she was kidnapped—but claims she had no idea that it was her own father who did it. “[We were] not that close,” Arlene told GMA. “Every time we would talk it would just be short conversations, just a hello.” The kidnapper’s daughter says she hopes to see Gina, and introduce her to her kids.

via Crooks and Liars http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/chilling-castro-letter-found-im-sexual

Crooks and Liars Diane Sweet johalputt

09:22

There was a moving and powerful event this morning at Union Station in DC where low wage workers for federal contractors, leaders of the faith community, and members of Congress all did a little preaching to President Obama. Their message could not have been clearer: It is time to finally to do something real to help low wage workers step out of poverty and into the middle class.

The event was the kickoff for a new organizing initiative called Good Jobs Nation, a project that I have been working on with a coalition of faith, community and labor organizations. There was a report released by Demos, which documented that the federal government through its government contracts is the nation’s biggest creator of jobs paying less than $24,000 a year, and there was a video released at the event which does a great job of summarizing the issue which you can look at here:

Fast food workers in New York City, Chicago, and other cities; Wal-Mart workers all over the country have as well; truck drivers that take goods in and out of our nation’s ports; and workers at companies who contract with the federal government: they are all organizing.

To hear these workers’ stories about the terrible pay, lack of benefits, and the way they are treated by abusive employers inspires me to keep fighting on their behalf every day, but it also makes me wonder: Where is Barack Obama? Didn’t he get his start in politics fighting for these kinds of workers? Hasn’t he talked repeatedly about how he is going to fight for them? Hasn’t he quoted the scripture of his faith about looking out for the least of these and being our brothers and sisters’ keeper?

Now in fairness to the President, helping some of these workers is not an easy thing given our economy and our nation’s politics, and he can’t do everything that needs doing without a Congress that is willing to act. He has come out in favor of raising the minimum wage, he has been in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act which would make it easier for low wage workers to form unions, but Congress has refused to act.

But what is profoundly troubling is that the President could help those 2,000,000 low wage workers working for government contractors with an executive order, and for over 4 years now, he has refused to act. It’s not like today’s event is the first time he has heard about this issue. During the 2008 campaign, the idea of this executive order was discussed with him and his policy staff, and he said this would be on his policy agenda; at multiple different points in his first term, a coalition of progressive leaders asked him to sign such an executive order, and he always said he was looking at doing so; to the great credit of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, USDA drafted a regulation that would have guaranteed better treatment for the farm workers supplying food for USDA programs such as school lunches, but the White House- under intense pressure from the Chamber of Commerce- sat on it and it never happened.

President Obama has waited too long, and has no more excuses: he needs to act, and act now. The federal government should be leading the way in building a stronger middle class, not eroding it by being the nation’s largest producer of low wage jobs. There is no reason for him not to do this for us, and nothing keeping him from doing it.

Improving the wages and benefits of low wage workers, and bringing them out of poverty and firmly into the middle class, is one of the central foundational economic issues of our time. Now is the time to act.

Here’s video from this morning’s event, it is worth taking a look at. The ministers who opened and closed the event were great; the workers who talked were truly wonderful, and gutsy as hell:

via Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/mike-lux/federal-government-nation-s-biggest-creat

Crooks and Liars johalputt Mike Lux

09:23

The song that America's been waiting for.

via Crooks and Liars http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/dead-giveaway-hero-charles-ramsey-songified

Crooks and Liars johalputt scarce

09:22

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Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint on Monday said that he opposed a bipartisan plan for comprehensive immigration reform because "unlawful immigrants" could live "another 50 years" and take advantage of government benefits that they earned by paying taxes.

At a press conference on Monday, the Heritage Foundation released a report that claimed the immigration reform bill offered by the "Gang of Eight" senators would cost Americans $6.3 trillion.

"The number over the 50-year lifespan of an amnesty for unlawful immigrants, it's $6.3 trillion to the American taxpayer," DeMint told Fox News host Martha MacCallum prior to the press conference. "And we know over time that this is going to increase more debt, increase taxes. That has a depressing effect on our economy. And we know that unlawful immigrants -- once that they have amnesty -- are going to replace the jobs of many Americans and depress their salaries."

"So there is no way you can look at this and conclude that it's good for the American taxpayer, and that includes immigrants who are here lawfully."

MacCallum noted that most benefits would not be available to immigrants for 13 years under the proposed plan.

"I'll believe that when I see it," the former South Carolina senator quipped. "Even if they follow through, unlawful immigrants are already receiving many benefits. A lot of their children are legal American citizens, whether its public education or Medicaid. But if you just look at a 13-year window when the life expectancy of unlawful immigrants goes another 50 years and once they get on Social Security and Medicare -- I mean, the average cost of an unlawful immigrant is hundreds of thousands of dollars."

DeMint added that he was all for immigration reform as long as "lower-skilled, less-educated" immigrants were excluded from the plan.

"In 1960, the average immigrant had about the same education and skill level of an American citizen. Today, immigrants have -- they're four times less likely to even have a high school diploma. And now with all of our welfare benefits, the arithmetic for immigration is totally different."

(h/t: Twitter/@igorvolsky)

via Crooks and Liars http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/demint-complains-unlawful-immigrants-could-l

Crooks and Liars David johalputt

09:08

enlarge

Adam Kokesh is a strange bird. He's a veteran of the Iraq war and a hard-core libertarian who claims to support the tea party and Occupy Wall Street.

I'm going out on a limb here and saying he actually tends to lean more anarchist than anything else. Based on his latest and greatest idea, that would seem to be the case.

Kokesh is calling for an armed march on Washington, DC. By armed march, I mean a march from Virginia to Washington, DC with at least 1000 marchers carrying loaded rifles. Being the kind of guy that plans for every contingency, he warns that such a march would be intended to be non-violent, unless...

On the morning of July 4, 2013, Independence Day, we will muster at the National Cemetery & at noon we will step off to march across the Memorial Bridge, down Independence Avenue, around the Capitol, the Supreme Court, & the White House, then peacefully return to Virginia across the Memorial Bridge. This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.

There's a remote chance that there will be violence as there has been from government before, and I think it should be clear that if anyone involved in this event is approached respectfully by agents of the state, they will submit to arrest without resisting. We are truly saying in the SUBTLEST way possible that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.

Yes, Kokesh calls for peaceful retreat with their loaded rifles, but my gut tells me it's not that simple, nor is it so easy to manage a thousand or more "patriots" with their loaded rifles into simply "peacefully turning back."

So far, 975 people have said they're attending. I don't know how many of them would actually be carrying the loaded rifle, though I think it's safe to err on the side of the majority.

Salon has more:

He started an anti-government radio show as the Tea Party picked up steam and was eventually picked up by RT, the news channel funded by the Russian government that is often critical of U.S. policy, where he promoted both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street in a worldview that some sociologists describe as “fusion paranoia,” a visceral anti-governmentalism that isn’t limited to typical left-right divides.

He ran into trouble when he endorsed Ron Paul in the 2012 election, which led to an FEC complaint and his termination from RT, though employees have told me privately that there were other, darker issues.

Since then, he’s taken his show “Adam vs. The Man” to the Internet, and seems to have become increasingly radicalized. “It’s time to abolish the US federal government,” hetweeted yesterday. Today he tweeted this:

When the government comes to take your guns, you can shoot government agents, or submit to slavery.— Adam Kokesh (@adamkokesh) May 3, 2013

If Kokesh carries through with this plan, I do not see it ending well.

via Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/marching-dc-loaded-rifles-what-could-possib

Crooks and Liars johalputt karoli

10:09

In an environment where a sexual and charismatic black hole like Henry Kissinger can be famously quoted as saying that "Power is the ultimate aphrodesiac" it is not particularly surprising to hear about politicians' extramarital activities. The media turned a blind eye to the not-so-secret dalliances of Kennedy, Roosevelt, Eisenhower and even George H.W. Bush. It's really only after dozens of trumped up investigations against Bill Clinton resulted in nothing more than a tryst with a White House intern that the media suddenly turned puritanical. Realizing that the salacious details of soiled dresses and despoiled cigars increased ratings better than wonky discussions of real estate deals gone south, the media was only too happy to start detailing the most intimate encounters of politicians no one should have to imagine sexually aroused (looking at you, David Vitter).

So when Anthony Weiner was caught sexting and tweeting crotch shots to women other than his wife, the media saw ratings gold in them thar bulges, and Weiner's political career went careening out of commission. Frankly, if you share my belief that Weiner's actions are between him and his wife and the deity of his choice, it's only interesting as a study in the different standards held for Democratic and Republican candidates. Nevertheless, Weiner stepped (temporarily) out of the spotlight, focused on his family (his wife was pregnant at the time of his stepping down) and bided his time.

Counting on the institutional amnesia of the American political circus, Weiner is now attempting a comeback, considering a run for the mayorship of New York City. But as Steve Kornacki aptly lays out, the media missed the larger question of just what Anthony Weiner is willing to do to get into office:

When a Hasidic Jewish man accidentally killed a 7-year-old black boy in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, long-simmering tensions between the two communities erupted into riots. Against that backdrop, Weiner’s campaign distributed a mailer playing to white, middle-class voters’ racist fears and tying his Democratic primary opponent to Mayor David Dinkins, the city’s first African-American Mayor, and Rev. Jesse Jackson.

At the time, his campaign did not admit to being responsible for the campaign mailer, but after Weiner won the primary and his political future was assured, he came clean and suffered no lasting consequences for making such “an ugly appeal to voters’ worst nature,” as Kornacki put it.

Juan Cole has more. Even Weiner's brother admitted he has a "douchiness" to him.

But in the country's largest and most diverse city, can New Yorkers really afford another divisive politician whose ambition will overcome any level of nauseating choices just to get into office?

via Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/anthony-weiner-kind-dick

Crooks and Liars johalputt Nicole Belle

09:10

Niall Ferguson loves him some Margaret Thatcher. Bloomberg TV, April 9, 2013.

Harvard Professor of History Niall Ferguson is often called upon for his urbane punditry on a wide array of issues. Frankly, I suspect much of that comes from the fact that Americans think posh British accents just sound inherently smarter. Ferguson is also conservative, which of course, makes him very attractive to traditional media suits. Criticizing Obama with an accent has so much more gravitas, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, as a historian, Ferguson sometimes likes to argue with what he calls "counterfactual history":

I think that's the key. It's not a matter of plucking imaginary scenarios out of the air. Virtual history -- and this is a very, very important point, which isn't understood by many people who dabble in "what if" questions -- is only legitimate if one can show that the alternative that you're discussing, the "what if" scenario you're discussing, was one that contemporaries seriously contemplated. In all the essays in the book Virtual History, the contributors were asked to make it absolutely clear what the evidence was for their alternative scenarios. After all, that's not difficult to do, because in the present, we don't know the future. We have plausible futures from which to choose. We make plans. We build scenarios. We do this in our everyday lives, because we've absolutely no idea what's coming a year from now. So it's not difficult to go back and find that in 1914 -- just to give that example again -- British politicians were imagining plausible scenarios, including non-intervention. That's how they made the decision. They set these scenarios out. They discussed them, and they opted for intervention because they saw a nightmare future of German domination of the continent.

That's the key point. You've got to look at the alternatives contemporaries considered. After all, if we are in the business, as Ranke said we should be, of capturing the past, "Viez aiglen les te vezen," as it actually or essentially was, that has to include the experience of decision-making, the experience of contemplating futures, including futures that never actually happened.

Right...it helps though--and you wouldn't think this would need to be explained to a Harvard professor--if you do have a basic grasp of the facts in the first place. But that's not going to bother Ferguson. He has published articles with half-truths and lacking basic fact-checking before.

Most conservatives are not big fans of Keynesian economics. Few take it to the level Ferguson opted to go this week at a conference for financial advisors, opting to take it to an ugly homophobic level:

Ferguson responded to a question about Keynes' famous philosophy of self-interest versus the economic philosophy of Edmund Burke, who believed there was a social contract among the living, as well as the dead. Ferguson asked the audience how many children Keynes had. He explained that Keynes had none because he was a homosexual and was married to a ballerina, with whom he likely talked of "poetry" rather than procreated. The audience went quiet at the remark. Some attendees later said they found the remarks offensive.

It gets worse.

Ferguson, who is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, and author of The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die, says it's only logical that Keynes would take this selfish worldview because he was an "effete" member of society. Apparently, in Ferguson's world, if you are gay or childless, you cannot care about future generations nor society.

Alrighty then. While it's true that Keynes did in fact have openly homosexual relations in and around the famed Bloombury Group, he also fell madly in love with Lydia Lopokova and married her. It was not a platonic arrangement as Lopokova did miscarry in 1927. He stayed with her until his death in 1946.

But moreover, his statement is just offensive on every level. So only straight people with children care about the future? The mind reels at the ugliness from which that stems. And Ferguson realized it quickly afterwards, issuing an unqualified apology:

My disagreements with Keynes’s economic philosophy have never had anything to do with his sexual orientation. It is simply false to suggest, as I did, that his approach to economic policy was inspired by any aspect of his personal life. As those who know me and my work are well aware, I detest all prejudice, sexual or otherwise.

My colleagues, students, and friends – straight and gay – have every right to be disappointed in me, as I am in myself. To them, and to everyone who heard my remarks at the conference or has read them since, I deeply and unreservedly apologize.

But sadly, here's the thing: this isn't the first time that Ferguson took a homophobic jab at Keynes, as Raw Story points out:

While Ferguson may be backing off the aspersions he cast at Keynes as a brief moment of public misspeech, economist Justin Wolfers pointed readers to this excerpt from Ferguson’s The Pity of War, in which takes a gratuitously homophobic swipe at Keynes, insinuating that the economist’s misgivings about World War I were traceable to the lack of anonymous gay sex in London.

Sigh. Would it be too much to hope that Harvard reconsider allowing this man to teach students? I know that there's nothing he could do to get taken off television.

via Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/niall-ferguson-uses-homophobic-slur-d

Crooks and Liars johalputt Nicole Belle

10:11

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[h/t Heather at VideoCafe]

Meet Allen Tharp. Mr Tharp is president of Allen Tharp & Associates, Inc. in San Antonio, Texas. As the current president of the San Antonio Tea Party, Mr. Tharp would like for you to believe he is barely scraping by as a local restaurant service business. Because he is barely scraping by, he wants you to be very sad for him if he has to pay his workers more than one extra dime more than he's paying them now, or God forbid, provide health insurance or pay the penalty for not providing it.

That's what Mr. Tharp wants Cavuto, his guests, and everyone who is gullible enough to buy his bill of goods to know. Here are some things he hopes you and Fox viewers will overlook:

• Tharp is a government contractor. His business has ballooned in the last three years after he landed the exclusive contract to provide food services to Lackland Air Force Base. Tharp is classified as a "SBA Certificated 8a Program Participant,Small Disadvantaged". That means he gets preferential consideration on contract bids. This hasn't stopped Tharp from claiming he built it all without the assistance of government.


• Tharp's business isn't all that small. A single division of his business, Golden Chick restaurants, was expected to rake in $75 million in 2012. Tharp unashamedly confesses that he has taken advantage of the current economic conditions to get cut-rate land and building contractor prices.

Someone needs to tell Mr. Tharp that a big chunk of his profits is being paid for by the government he despises. Someone should also point out that someone looking to expand their business into China and a large chunk of Texas should think twice about filing a federal lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act and whining on national television about how he will cut employees' hours before he will provide insurance coverage for his employees.

People like this honestly make me sick and they might make you sick too. He's all about pimping himself as a disadvantaged small business to get the fat government contracts but doesn't give enough of a damn about his employees to provide health insurance? I wouldn't eat in his restaurants. That's a public health hazard. One employee gets norovirus, breathes on the food, and wham! Customers take home more than their golden chicks.

This taxpayer says if he can't manage to pony up for his employees, I might not be inclined to patronize any of his restaurants, and will suggest that my Texas friends follow suit.

via Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/cavuto-paints-restaurant-chain-ceo-and-tea-

Crooks and Liars johalputt karoli

09:24

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Again with the Nazis. What is it with these people?

Anyway, I love the way Joe's essay, linked by the tweet above, begins:

Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler had many things in common when they ruled their respective countries in the early part of last century.

For instance, they both were foreigners who had mustaches. Do you think that's a COINCIDENCE PEOPLE?! (And I'm not sure I'd call the 1930s the "early part" of the 20th century.)

Anyway, here's Joe's irrefutable proof that Liberals = Hitler.

1) Lenin/Stalin/Marx believed in killing people. A lot of people. That is Communism/ Marxism

2) Stalin admired Hitler, Hitler Admire Stalin and Lenin. Nazism are very close cousins, if not brothers to communism/marxism

3) The atrocities committed by Stalin/Lenin/Hitler are the same. They starved men, women and children. They buried people alive in mass unmarked graves. They brutally tortured and murdered entire “classes” of people.

4) Hitler and Stalin wanted a “New Man” a new race…. (Most of you in the occupy movement wouldn’t make the cut, think about it)

Q.E.D.! Suck it, lefties.

via Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/blue-texan/stupid-right-wing-tweets-joe-plumber--0

Blue Texan Crooks and Liars johalputt

09:23

Time for a little stroll down memory lane. This is what I wrote about Penny Pritzer, Obama's just-announced appointee as Commerce Secretary, back in February:

Penny Pritzker, union buster.

Penny Pritzker, sub-prime lender who drove Superior Bank into the ground.

Penny Pritzker, Chicago Board of Ed members who thinks your children only deserve enough education to make them a member of the workforce.

Penny Pritzker, billionaire tax dodger.

Penny Pritzker, potential Secretary of Commerce nominee? Is this a joke?

No, it was not. Okay, just kidding. Yes, it was. The joke's on us. Ha, ha!

(MoneyWatch) The position of U.S. Commerce Secretary has often been a political plum for top fundraisers, so it was no surprise that President Obama continued that tradition today when he named Penny Pritzker, the Chicago billionaire heiress to the Hyatt fortune.

Said to be worth nearly $2 billion, Pritzker put together nearly $800 million for Obama's presidential campaigns.

Pritzker's appointment shows that the administration is abandoning even a fig leaf of a relationship with labor unions -- Hyatt has had many run-ins with its work force, and Pritzker herself was deeply unpopular with the Chicago Teachers Union during her tenure on the Chicago Board of Education.

The appointment also suggests the administration is betting that people don't care much anymore about the subprime meltdown that succeeded in bringing the world to the brink of financial ruin. Her role in the banking business may startle those not familiar with the history of the subprime meltdown.

The Pritzker family, along with a partner, bought the failed Lyons Savings Bank in 1988 for $42.5 million, getting $645 million in tax credits in the process and rechristening it Superior Bank. Under Pritzker, who served on the board, Superior bought Alliance Funding, which moved aggressively into subprime lending.

Bert Ely, an independent banking analyst who testified about the failure of Superior, noted the garish pitch the bank was making at the time. "I remember the basic message to mortgage brokers: 'Send us the applications that no one else will accept.' "

As one of the earliest pioneers of risky loans that were then bundled off and sold as securities, Superior was also one of the practice's earliest casualties: The bank collapsed in 2001. "The kinds of lending they were doing were outrageous," Ely said. "But what was also outrageous was that when Superior failed -- there were a lot of uninsured depositors who took losses. It was more outrageous given the wealth of the family, which may have walked away without any losses."

Tim Anderson, a retired banking consultant who has written and testified about the failure of Superior, said Penny Pritzker played a direct role in persuading people to park their money in a bank that was taking wild-eyed risks. He points to a letter she wrote in May 2001 to bank employees and managers, assuring them that the bank was being recapitalized. But while that pledge of support may have convinced people that the bank was sound, the recapitalization never occurred. In fact, the bank failed two months later.

The letter was also indicative of the approach the bank was taking, and of Pritzker's hands-on role in strategy. "Our commitment to subprime has never been stronger," she wrote.

Anderson said that when Pritzker goes before the Senate to defend her nomination, these questions should be front and center. "What has not been focused on until now is what was Penny's role in the subprime mortgage meltdown," he said. "It was the Pritzkers who got investment-grade ratings on subprime debt. It was the Pritzkers who were into subprime lending long before Wells Fargo, Countrywide and Washington Mutual. They were in the forefront of the subprime fiasco, but they have never been held accountable.

"The Senate needs to ask her what was her role in the subprime mess. Not her family's, but hers."

Meanwhile, in the world of labor unions, Pritzker's enemies are legion.

"Penny Pritzker has a long and storied history as being an anti-labor, anti-worker kind of boss," Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis said in March when Pritzker resigned her seat on the Chicago school board. "She has supported policies that have had an adverse impact on working-class families and their children. As a member of the board of education, she has worked to close schools, destabilize neighborhoods and disrupt the economic lives of thousands of public school employees."

via Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/obama-nominates-sleazy-subprime-banke

Crooks and Liars johalputt Susie Madrak

09:22

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I told you before that the only difference between PA Gov. Tom Corbett and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is that Corbett made sure to avoid saying things in front of TV cameras that might turn up on YouTube. Well, there you go.

The ALEC-subordinate gov was being interviewed on PAMatters.com when the topic of the state's poor job statistics came up --- and there it was, finally: A classic Corbett moment.

First, he complains the statistics are "misleading." He said we were in better shape than other states when the recession hit, so those other states are growing faster now because they were in worse shape. (Although we went from 7th to 49th in job growth since he became governor. Oh, and he previously blamed unemployment on... unemployment benefits, the favored bugaboo of all good Republicans who kiss the Koch rings.)

"The other area is, there are many employers that say, 'We're looking for people but we can't find anybody that has passed a drug test,' a lot of them. And that's a concern for me because we're having a serious problem with that."

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It's the triple axle of Republican spin, the old "many people have told me" trick of trying to pass off anecdotes as data! He and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley must be working out of the same ALEC playbook.

Yesterday afternoon, Corbett's office referred the Huffington Post to Dave N. Taylor, director of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association:

Taylor said drug use is part of an overall workforce readiness problem that includes things like basic communication skills and punctuality.

"Our manufacturing employers have to go through hundreds of applicants just to get a handful who are qualified," Taylor said, noting that employers need clean workers in order to obtain insurance. "I don't believe that many people understand that by being recreational drug users they're rendering themselves unemployable."

One problem figuring out exactly how many job applicants disqualify themselves with drugs, Taylor said, is that some people drop out of the application process as soon as they know there's a drug test.

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I don't do drugs, but I've killed applications for that very reason because I resent how they've spread to every job sector out there. I'll bet I'm not the only person who feels that way, either. But the people I know who do use drugs have all figured out how to beat the tests, and they're all gainfully employed. Go figure!

And they're lumping all these factors in together. I'm sure drug use is a factor in some jobs, but it would be nice if instead of telling people they're not educated enough (or too stoned) to get jobs, Gov. Corbett concerned himself with addressing the underlying issues, like this:

Philadelphia has the highest rate of deep poverty - people with incomes below half of the poverty line - of any of the nation's 10 most populous cities.

The annual salary for a single person at half the poverty line is around $5,700; for a family of four, it's around $11,700.

Philadelphia's deep-poverty rate is 12.9 percent, or around 200,000 people.

Phoenix, Chicago, and Dallas are the nearest to Philadelphia, with deep-poverty rates of more than 10 percent.

The numbers come from an examination of the 2009 through 2011 three-year estimate of the U.S. Census American Community Survey by The Inquirer and Temple University sociologist David Elesh.

[...] The Philadelphia deep-poverty figure wasn't a complete surprise for antipoverty advocates, since the city already has the highest poverty rate - 28.4 percent - of any of America's biggest cities.

Still, it's significant, because while many people who live just below the poverty line often move out of poverty, those in deep poverty are in such a profoundly disadvantaged state that they're more likely to stay mired in it, according to Judith Levine, a Temple sociologist. "Poverty becomes a long-term experience, and it's very different, especially for children," she said.

Children in deep poverty do worse in school than less poor kids, said Arloc Sherman, researcher with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

"The consequences may last decades," he said.

Yet the Republican-controlled state legislature, under Corbett, continues their push to starve the Philadelphia public schools of adequate funding, all the while showering cash on fly-by-night for-profit charter schools. (And Wall Street.) If Gov. Corbett actually gave a rat's ass about getting adequately trained employees for manufacturing jobs, he might start with the largest city's abysmal literacy rate. Because if you can't read any higher than a third-grade level, odds are you're not going to community college to train for a decent job.

But Corbett is just another soulless Republican scumbag -- and that's an insult to prophylactics, which at least serve a useful function. State Senate Majority Leader Dom Pillegi, another scumbag who got his start as a bagman in the famously corrupt Delaware County, is pushing hard to change the state's electoral system to ensure a Republican presidential win -- and it also might save Corbett's bacon. (This is why I despise the Republican party. When they can't win on the merits, they lie, cheat, steal or change the rules to win. They don't like actual democracy, because it's the only thing standing between them and total control.)

Tom Corbett is a pimple on the ass of humanity, and I will dance all night on his political grave when Pennsylvanians finally kick his lying, greedy ass to the curb. From these lips to God's ears!

via Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/what-earth-pennsylvania-gov-tom-corbe

Crooks and Liars johalputt Susie Madrak

09:22

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Here's your quote of the day from Chris Matthews after Bob Shrum told him that the only reason Republicans got control of the House is because of gerrymandering:

MATTHEWS: I think the problem is the way the votes get counted. Democrats are just doing too damn well in the big cities. They're wasting votes. [...] They need a lot more than 51 percent of the population for them to carry it because they wasted the votes in the big cities.

Here's the problem with that. Even Republicans were bragging that gerrymandering is why they won the House. It was a strategy and they're proud of it.

And what's that word for when you lump as many of the other party's voters into the same district so that their votes won't count? I know it will come to me sooner or later.

via Crooks and Liars http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/matthews-downplays-role-gerrymandering-gop

Crooks and Liars Heather johalputt

09:22

Gov. Bob in happier times!

This seems like such small beans compared to the crimes of the bankers who crashed the world's economy and bled it dry. On the other hand, it is wingnut Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, one of the "new faces" of the Republican party, so we can enjoy watching this particular sideshow:

FBI agents are conducting interviews about the relationship between Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, his wife, Maureen, and a major campaign donor who paid for the food at the wedding of the governor’s daughter, according to four people familiar with the questioning.

The agents have been asking associates of the McDonnells about gifts provided to the family by Star Scientific chief executive Jonnie R. Williams Sr. and actions the Republican governor and his wife have taken that may have boosted the company, the people said.

Among the topics being explored, they said, is the $15,000 catering bill that Williams paid for the 2011 wedding of McDonnell’s daughter at Virginia’s historic Executive Mansion. But questions have extended to other, previously undisclosed gifts from Williams to Maureen McDonnell as well, they said.

The interviews, at which Virginia State Police investigators were present, began in recent months as an outgrowth of a federal investigation into securities transactions involving Star Scientific, which produces a dietary supplement called Anatabloc. The company disclosed that probe in a regulatory filing last month, saying it had received subpoenas from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Now, federal officials are trying to determine whether to expand that investigation into a broader look at whether McDonnell or his administration took any action to benefit Star Scientific in exchange for monetary or other benefits, according to the four people familiar with the interviews. It is unclear whether the probe will be broadened.

U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride declined to comment, as did spokespeople for the FBI’s Richmond division and the state police.

Tucker Martin, a spokesman for McDonnell, a possible 2016 presidential contender, said, “It is the policy of the governor’s office to not comment on any possible investigations.”

via Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/feds-investigating-relationship-betwe

Crooks and Liars johalputt Susie Madrak

09:22

The Faulkner County Citizens Advisory Group conducted independent tests on the air and water from Lake Conway in response to the Exxon tar sands oil spill, and presented the findings during a Townhall gathering in Mayflower, Arkansas this week. Residents were alarmed by what they heard.

KTHV 11:

John Hammons lives near an area known as "The Cove," a body of water sitting across from Lake Conway in Mayflower.

"We can smell it. So I know it's there," Hammons said, who is concerned about his three children and wife, who is seven months pregnant.

"She's broken out in hives, had nose bleeds, (and) respiratory problems," he explained.

The Hammons were among a group of concerned people in the area who met for the town hall meeting.

Chemist Wilma Subra said ExxonMobil is being attentive to those inside the Northwoods subdivision, where thousands of gallons of heavy crude oil spilled nearly one month ago, but others in the area have suffered with little attention.

"There's a population all around that's been made very, very sick by the emissions," Subra said.

To evaluate the situation, Subra independently analyzed air and water data captured from the Lake Conway area, claiming the carcinogen Benzene is present in the region.

While Exxon denies the claims, State health officials are saying the same thing as Exxon -- that "all air quality tests returned safe levels for people in the area."

Yet Subra's claims were echoed by Scott Smith of OPFLEX Solutions, a company that offers solutions for absorbing oil. Smith's preliminary findings indicate the presence of tar sands oil in Lake Conway, both in "the cove" of Lake Conway and in the larger lake beyond the cove.

Also, InsideClimate News has reported that the oil spill probe has fallen to an understaffed governmental agency with close ties to the oil industry, including PHMSA administrator Cynthia Quarterman, for example, having served as legal counsel for Enbridge, the culprit in the Michigan spill, before moving to her current position at the federal agency.

You can view a series of recordings taken by an attendee of Mayflower's Town Hall meeting if you just click here.

via Crooks and Liars http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/independent-analysis-mayflower-finds-b

Crooks and Liars Diane Sweet johalputt

09:22

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I don't think we're ever going to top the Donald getting roasted a few years ago, or Stephen Colbert and his appearance back in 2006, but for anyone who missed it and wants to watch, here's President Obama at this year's White House Correspondents Dinner.

He managed to get in a few good zingers aimed at Fox, CNN, the conspiracy theorists, birthers and Maureen Dowd among others.

Here's part two.

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And part three.

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via Crooks and Liars http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/president-obama-2014-white-house-correspon

Crooks and Liars Heather johalputt

10:08

There's more to the madness in North Carolina than voter suppression efforts and bills to allow an official state religion. Gov. Pat McCrory's legislature is steamrolling Democrats and Republicans alike.

The legislature is debating a bill to forcibly transfer the city of Asheville's municipal water system and 22,000-acre mountain watershed to a state-controlled regional authority, leaving a huge hole in the city's budget. The bill's author, state Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe, and Rep. Bill Brawley, R-Mecklenburg, have connections with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, is on ALEC’s board of directors. They have cities in their sights.

My op-ed appeared in the Asheville, NC Citizen-Times on Friday.

Asheville Water System Burnett Reservoir with Blue Ridge Parkway above. Photo by David Oppenheimer - Performance Impressions

State Senator Tommy Tucker, R-Waxhaw, told a publisher at a recent hearing, “I am the senator. You are the citizen. You need to be quiet.” Some politicians don’t want to govern. They want to rule.

Forcibly regionalizing water systems, for example. Buncombe County Republican Reps. Tim Moffitt and Nathan Ramsey, and Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, tell constituents their water bill addresses a unique situation in Buncombe County. The words Buncombe and Asheville appear nowhere in it.

In fact, House Bill 488 is not about Asheville, McGrady told colleagues on the House floor. (We’ll come back to that in a minute.)

If Buncombe’s situation is unique, why is the legislature forcing unwanted solutions on cities across North Carolina?

Because “Raleigh knows best,” Rob Christensen wrote in the Raleigh News and Observer. Sanford Republican Rep. Mike Stone insists that Sanford change its town council and school board elections to partisan races.

Sanford’s mayor objects. She asked if townspeople could at least vote on it in a referendum. Not a chance.

A radio program affiliated with Central Carolina Community College criticized Stone’s bill. Stone’s office e-mailed the school “questioning the station’s radio programming, budget and source of funding.”

The school placed the show on “indefinite suspension.”

Rep. Bill Brawley, R-Mecklenburg, co-sponsored a bill with Moffitt and Ramsey to transfer Charlotte-Douglas airport to a regional authority. Brawley has a reason. Cities are “arrogant.”

Brawley, former Co-Chair of the House Select Committee on Public-Private Partnerships (P3), and House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, want to add High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes to I-77 north of Charlotte.

The GOP-led Iredell County Board of Commissioners and Widen I-77 (a citizen’s group) oppose the plan. They contend that letting a P3 charge fees for 50 years won’t solve congestion and will cost more than normal lanes. (Video.)

Brawley’s own Mecklenburg County Republican Party passed a resolution opposing toll lanes.

For a sense of how a P3 works, Google “Chicago parking meter debacle.”

Remember those St. Patrick’s Day parades in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “The Fugitive”? Now, Chicago must ask permission to close streets and must reimburse P3 investors in Abu Dhabi. For 75 years.

Chicago has the highest parking rates in North America. Prices have increased five years in a row.

(Rep. Moffitt, the other former Co-Chair of the House Select Committee on Public-Private Partnerships, promises that privatization won’t happen under his House Bill 488.)

Now about that bill. If regionalizing infrastructure is “a good outcome for all,” as Reps. McGrady and Ramsey wrote recently, why did Speaker Pro Tem Paul “Skip” Stam, R-Wake, insist that Wake County be protected from House Bill 488?

“I wouldn’t agree to turn over the assets of Apex and Cary to Raleigh,” Stam told a committee meeting.

“It’s really a local bill, but it’s phrased generally to attempt to get around the (state) constitution.”

So the House approved some clever amendment language to exempt Wake from House Bill 488. And to get around the state constitution, without mentioning Wake County by name either.

Unconstitutional. Unwanted. By force.

That’s how this clever legislature rules.

via Crooks and Liars http://crooksandliars.com/tom-sullivan/big-government-conservatives-flex-the

Crooks and Liars johalputt Tom Sullivan

09:22