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REPORT: Biggest Donor To Romney And GOP Did Business With Chinese Mob | ThinkProgress

Among the junket companies under scrutiny is a concern that records show was financed by Cheung Chi Tai, a Hong Kong businessman.

Cheung was named in a 1992 U.S. Senate report as a leader of a Chinese organized crime gang, or triad. A casino in Macau owned by Las Vegas Sands granted tens of millions of dollars in credit to a junket backed by Cheung,documents show.

Cheung did not respond to requests for comment.

Another document says that a Las Vegas Sands subsidiary did business with Charles Heung, a well-known Hong Kong film producer who was identified as an office holder in the Sun Yee On triad in the same 1992 Senate report. Heung, who has repeatedly denied any involvement in organized crime, did not return phone calls.

Okay. Anyone at all surprised?

REPORT: Republican Offices Have Fewer Women In High-Paying Jobs | ThinkProgress

For all House staff, women made on average $5,862.56 less annually than men. Female Republican House staff made on average $10,093.09 less annually than male Republican House staff. For all Senate staff, women made $7,277.69 less annually on average than male staff. Female Republican Senate staff made on average $9,805.85 less annually than male Republican Senate staff.

CBS’ Nancy Cordes reported Wednesday that Republicans’ many fruitless attempts at repealing the Affordable Care Act have taken up at least 80 hours of time on the House floor since 2010, amounting to two full work weeks. As the House, according to the Congressional Research Service, costs taxpayers $24 million a week to operate, those two weeks amounted to a total cost of approximately $48 million.

ThinkProgress

This is the Republican definition of “fiscal responsibility” in case you have forgotten.

Remember the Stop Online Piracy Act? It was the universally reviled anti-digital piracy bill that was coasting for a quick and quiet passage into law earlier this year until basically the entire internet rose up in protest. Now SOPA is coming back piece-by-piece, according to TechDirt, and if anyone is going to rise up in opposition this time, it should be the conservative media. Because the son of SOPA brings with it a dreaded “czar.

SOPA Returns On The Back Of A Czar | Blog | Media Matters for America

Again… really? Because the last time didn’t teach you anything.

The new SOPA-fragment bill coming before Congress is the Intellectual Property Attaché Act, which strengthens the powers of the titular diplomatic attachés to promote U.S. copyright laws abroad. The language of the bill, which is sponsored by SOPA author Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), is similar to the section of SOPA that called for intellectual property attachés “to address intellectual property rights violations in the countries where the attachés are assigned.”

Oh, hey, look who it is again.

South Carolina state Rep. Thad Viers, who’s running for a seat in Congress and was named a one of the National Republican Campaign Committee’s “On The Radar” candidates, was arrested on Friday for allegedly harassing a 28-year-old woman who broke off her relationship with him in July. Viers previously pleaded “no contest” and was fined $500 for harassing his ex-wife’s boyfriend with threatening and graphic answering machine messages in 2006, according to The Sun News. This time around, Viers allegedly called, texted, emailed and appeared at the victim’s home and work repeatedly. He has since dropped out of the race and yes that is his mug shot. 
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South Carolina state Rep. Thad Viers, who’s running for a seat in Congress and was named a one of the National Republican Campaign Committee’s “On The Radar” candidates, was arrested on Friday for allegedly harassing a 28-year-old woman who broke off her relationship with him in July.

Viers previously pleaded “no contest” and was fined $500 for harassing his ex-wife’s boyfriend with threatening and graphic answering machine messages in 2006, according to The Sun News. This time around, Viers allegedly called, texted, emailed and appeared at the victim’s home and work repeatedly.

He has since dropped out of the race and yes that is his mug shot. 

(Video is Audio)

The fact that Jones cut off one of her progressive colleagues is a minor issue, but arises against a background of mean-spirited and ideological decisions. Jones once wrote a dissenting opinion claiming that a female worker who “was repeatedly propositioned, was groped and grabbed, [had] pornography [] placed in her locker, and [had] other employees broadcast[] obscene comments about her over the company’s public address system” did not experience sexual harassment. At oral argument, she even suggested the woman would need to be raped to claim such harassment.

In other dissent, Jones wrote that a 15-year-old student who was molested by her high school teacher for over a year could not sue the school district because there is “no broad constitutional purpose to be served by recognizing for [a victim’s] benefit a constitutional right not to have her bodily integrity compromised by a teacher’s sexual abuse.”

Jones ranks fourth in the nation among judges who have attended corporate junkets, and she once joined a dissent claiming that a death row defendant whose lawyer slept through much of his trial was not denied his constitutional right to counsel.

//Excuse me, but what is this vile bitch still doing in a court room?

So John Boehner just finished his long awaited speech on creating jobs … but instead of offering any new ideas or new proposals, instead of showing any willingness to pass President Obama’s American Jobs Act, he spent the better part of an hour recycling the same old Republican rhetoric about taxes, spending and regulation. Yawn. As anyone with a pulse could have predicted, Boehner blamed weak job growth on President Obama, saying: “Job creators in America are essentially on strike,” Mr. Boehner said, according to excerpts released by the Speaker’s office. “The problem is not confusion about the policies. The problem is the policies.” That’s got to be the stupidest thing John Boehner has ever said. He’s basically saying that business owners would rather protest the nation’s fiscal and regulatory policy than make sense. But businesses don’t go “on strike” when there’s demand for their services and profit to be made. And even if they did, other businesses step in and meet the demand. No, the problem is not that “job creators” have gone “on strike.” The problem is that there isn’t enough demand for their products and services. Boehner’s fundamental misunderstanding of this basic fact is reflected in his belief that the deficit reduction super committee is actually a jobs committee: “The joint committee is a jobs committee. Its mission is to reduce the deficit that is threatening job creation in our country.” If there were any truth to what Boehner said, if “job creators” really were “on strike” and if they really did believe that “the joint committee is a jobs committee,” then job growth would have soared after the conclusion of the debt deal in early August. Daily KOS
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So John Boehner just finished his long awaited speech on creating jobs … but instead of offering any new ideas or new proposals, instead of showing any willingness to pass President Obama’s American Jobs Act, he spent the better part of an hour recycling the same old Republican rhetoric about taxes, spending and regulation.

Yawn.

As anyone with a pulse could have predicted, Boehner blamed weak job growth on President Obama, saying:

“Job creators in America are essentially on strike,” Mr. Boehner said, according to excerpts released by the Speaker’s office. “The problem is not confusion about the policies. The problem is the policies.”

That’s got to be the stupidest thing John Boehner has ever said. He’s basically saying that business owners would rather protest the nation’s fiscal and regulatory policy than make sense. But businesses don’t go “on strike” when there’s demand for their services and profit to be made. And even if they did, other businesses step in and meet the demand.

No, the problem is not that “job creators” have gone “on strike.” The problem is that there isn’t enough demand for their products and services. Boehner’s fundamental misunderstanding of this basic fact is reflected in his belief that the deficit reduction super committee is actually a jobs committee:

“The joint committee is a jobs committee. Its mission is to reduce the deficit that is threatening job creation in our country.”

If there were any truth to what Boehner said, if “job creators” really were “on strike” and if they really did believe that “the joint committee is a jobs committee,” then job growth would have soared after the conclusion of the debt deal in early August.

Daily KOS

radiopropulsive: timetruthhumor: what’s wrong with ron paul? He doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state. He believes abortion should be illegal. He doesn’t support the repeal of DoMA and didn’t support the repeal of DADT. He doesn’t support putting more money into inner-city schools, but does support vouchers for religious schools. He believes creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools. He doesn’t believe HIV causes AIDS. While he doesn’t support a federal ban on gay marriage, he also doesn’t support a federal law legalizing gay marriage. Some see this as a states’ rights issue, and this is how he frames it, but he does support other federal legalization movements (drugs, for example). His newsletter spouted horrible racist content for twenty years. He denies writing any of it, but if he allowed this content to go out under his name, he either approved it or was so ignorant of both the type of people he associates with and the type of content going under his name that he shouldn’t be trusted to run anything. He believes in reinstating the gold standard, which most economists believe was one of the major causes of several financial crises during the early part of the 20th Century, including the Great Depression. He believes in free market capitalism. He wants to get rid of Affirmative Action. He is a frequent guest on the Alex Jones radio show. Alex Jones is a government-hating conspiracy theorist nutter. If you don’t know who Alex Jones is, then Google him. Any of these items should keep a sane liberal from voting for Ron Paul. His stance on drugs and wars win him a lot of liberal fans, but only if they don’t look at literally anything else he stands for. Source: steviemcfly  this is exactly the problem i come across and i’ve noticed that the so-called liberals who support him because he is anti-war on terror and drugs are mostly straight white males. telling!
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radiopropulsive:

timetruthhumor:

what’s wrong with ron paul?

  • He doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state.
  • He believes abortion should be illegal.
  • He doesn’t support the repeal of DoMA and didn’t support the repeal of DADT.
  • He doesn’t support putting more money into inner-city schools, but does support vouchers for religious schools.
  • He believes creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools.
  • He doesn’t believe HIV causes AIDS.
  • While he doesn’t support a federal ban on gay marriage, he also doesn’t support a federal law legalizing gay marriage. Some see this as a states’ rights issue, and this is how he frames it, but he does support other federal legalization movements (drugs, for example).
  • His newsletter spouted horrible racist content for twenty years. He denies writing any of it, but if he allowed this content to go out under his name, he either approved it or was so ignorant of both the type of people he associates with and the type of content going under his name that he shouldn’t be trusted to run anything.
  • He believes in reinstating the gold standard, which most economists believe was one of the major causes of several financial crises during the early part of the 20th Century, including the Great Depression.
  • He believes in free market capitalism.
  • He wants to get rid of Affirmative Action.
  • He is a frequent guest on the Alex Jones radio show. Alex Jones is a government-hating conspiracy theorist nutter. If you don’t know who Alex Jones is, then Google him.
  • Any of these items should keep a sane liberal from voting for Ron Paul.

His stance on drugs and wars win him a lot of liberal fans, but only if they don’t look at literally anything else he stands for.

Source: steviemcfly 

this is exactly the problem i come across

and i’ve noticed that the so-called liberals who support him because he is anti-war on terror and drugs are mostly straight white males. telling!

(Source: truth-has-a-liberal-bias)

On Palin

This is a response to some one who was accusing people of being afraid or being a sexist because they didn’t like or would not vote for Sarah Palin:

She her self is a self-hating women. She works to keep women in the kitchen despite her position; I work to give women the opportunity to do anything they wish including, but not limited to, traditional roles.

Voting for some one just because they have a vagina is not being “feminist” it is just plain being stupid, but I suppose that you conservative not-really-feminists don’t grasp the concept of what sexism and misogyny really are. FYI, there are penis owners whom are more “feminist” than Palin could ever hope to be.

She isn’t running and she won’t run because she’s won’t make as much money. In case you haven’t noticed; she is only about her self and only her self, in addition to not having any real political skills, debate skills, knowledge of the world, history, negotiation skills, or skills in foreign diplomacy. Oh, and there is that half-term thing; which says… she can’t finish a job.

I’m sorry that you don’t want to see that many people have many valid reasons for not liking her and that none of these reasons include sexism, fear or anything else you lunatics try to attribute to them.

Most of this can really be applied to all the carbon copied self proclaimed “feminist” conservative women. I think what irks me the most out of all of this is that they don’t seem to grasp the fact that they are only tolerated by the anti-woman GOP because they are vagina holders that puke up the very same talking points of their white male handlers on a daily basis. They are, even if they don’t want to admit it, nothing more than a selling point to push an agenda that is harmful to not only women, but to children as well.

“A litmus test for feminists is to agree with abortion and Obamacare and so I think there is really no such thing as a conservative feminist. They are the women of the left,” Schlafly said. “[The feminists] are really spooked by Palin because she’s done everything and she is a success. Besides she is pretty and they cannot stand her.”

Palin is not a feminist; Phyllis Schlafly February 2011

I’m just really unsure what is wrong with this crazy old bat; though I will agree with her on one thing. There is no conservative feminists and Sarah Palin is not a feminist, but it is far from the reasons she want’s to believe that it is and this quote illustrates wonderfully the mindset of the right wing.

Feminists don’t play the victim or believe that women can never succeed; we aren’t blind nor are we stupid. Recognizing that it is harder for a women to succeed than it is a cis-man isn’t any more of a “victimology” than it is to recognize that it is easier for white individuals to succeed than it is minority individuals. Though I suppose that this is the same principle of the “reverse racism” lie that so many on the right cite as a reason for their racist behaviors (see: “feminists are man-haters”).

Being feminist also doesn’t mean you have to agree with abortion. Abortion is a personal decision and being “pro-choice” doesn’t mean that you have to personally decide to get an abortion. This lie is one of the worst and most annoying ones that comes out of the extreme right. We don’t want people to have to ever be in the position to make that choice by using family planning, actual sex education on prevention methods, making birth control available to every women (and man) regardless of social status, and most importantly giving woman and men complete control over their bodies. So extreme isn’t it?

The health care issue isn’t exactly a feminist issue as it is an equality issue that happens to primarily affect single women, children, and minorities. The very fact that she attributes this to feminist ideologies tells me that she doesn’t wholly believe the filth that she spews almost daily… or she really is okay with white cisgender men having all the power and privilege and that makes her a sexist and a racist! Big shock? Didn’t think so.

Palin is not a feminist because she has an extreme anti-equality position that isn’t limited to any one group. Despite her insistence that she isn’t a racist, sexist or classist; she has on every occasion taken a position that removes or limits the rights of various minority groups. Simple no?

Lastly, pretty and successful are matters of opinion. Personally, I don’t find her attractive nor do I find some one whose existence consists of Facebook and twitter “successful”.

Dear GOP,

Many people who are on food stamps are single mother who work full time jobs and cannot afford items like toilet paper after the bills are paid. Why do you want to make it harder for these women to feed their children? Why are you still pretending that people on public assistance are living this life of luxury?

It makes me sick to see rich white men pretending to have some kind of idea what it is like to live that way whom have the audacity to state that they are buying HDTV’s with their welfare checks.

So here are some facts:

TANF Average Per Month:

Food Stamp Allowance per Family Size (monthly):

Other things the right likes to ignore:

Families in poverty pay more for child care.

Cost of living varies by state.

Section 8 housing lists have been closed in many states for years; leaving families to rent housing that is dilapidated or too small for their needs. Average rent is around 300-400 a month.

Electric and gas bills for these properties also need to be paid. Since many of this housing fails to update or repair doors and windows; bills are proportionately more for these properties than they would be in other areas. Assistance for these bills are limited and almost always only offered to individuals in extreme circumstances.

Lastly, for 2011 the yearly average income for families in poverty is $22,350 for a family of FOUR.

Yep, that sure is a live of laze about luxury all right. -roll-

House GOP Says OKAY to Socialism for Big Oil!

Think Progress:

House Republicans voted in lockstep this afternoon to protect corporate welfare for Big Oil, even as they call for draconian cuts to programs that everyday Americans depend on each day.  As the House of Representatives moved toward approving a stopgap resolution to avert a government shutdown for another two weeks, Democrats offered a motion to recommit that would have stripped the five largest oil companies of taxpayer subsidies, saving tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds.  The motion failed on a vote of 176-249, with all Republicans voting against (approximately a dozen Democrats joined the GOP). A similar vote two weeks ago to recoup $53 billion in taxpayer funds from Big Oil was also voted down, largely along party lines. The former CEO of Shell Oil, John Hoffmeister, recently said Big Oil doesn’t need subsidies “in face of sustained high oil prices.”  From 2005 to 2009, the largest oil companies have made a combined $485 billion in profits.

So let me get this straight Gee Oh’ Pee, its not okay to use tax dollars to subsidize Oil companies (corporate welfare) that aren’t even based in the United States is fine and dandy, but using tax dollars for things like, I don’t know keeping people alive, is “socialism”.

And we are supposed to believe that you are serious about cutting the budget. Please.

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