Michele Bachmann still won't pay staff, so staff rats her out to the feds

The juicy tale of how batshit crazy Rep. Michele Bachmann screwed over her presidential campaign staff is fast becoming the greatest soap opera EVER!

SOAP OPERA

YEEEEE HAAAAWWWWW!!!!!!

Today's Newsnotes

Walmart to hire 100,000 American veterans. Also plans a "Buy American" campaign.

Congressional Rebublican'ts are preparing to destroy America

HERE.

The middle class is slipping away.

HERE.

Thousands of Russians have marched in opposition to a law banning child adoptions by Americans.

HERE.

Bold new conservative ideas still mostly involve screwing the poor

The Republicans, we’re told, are going to have to start making some big changes if they want to start winning elections again. (Besides all the congressional elections they handily win.) Americans are tired of their stale rhetoric and old, white standard-bearers. The party needs fresh blood and bold ideas. It needs people like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a GOP rising star and highly regarded “ideas” guy.

After the election, Jindal told Politico that the Republicans had to totally rebrand themselves to escape being known as “the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything.” And so Bobby Jindal’s big new idea for Louisiana is … eliminating all income taxes. And shifting the tax burden onto poor and working people.

NEW ORLEANS, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Republican Governor Bobby Jindal said on Thursday he wants to eliminate all Louisiana personal and corporate income taxes to simplify the state’s tax code and make it more friendly to business.

Bold! Fresh! New! But how will Louisiana get money to pay for stuff? Easy!

Political analyst John Maginnis, who on Thursday reported in his email newsletter LaPolitics Weekly that Jindal will propose balancing the tax loss by raising the sales tax, now at 4 percent, said the strategy fits with the governor’s interest in keeping a high national profile.

The thing about sales taxes is that they are inherently and extremely regressive, hitting poorer people much harder than richer people, because the poor spend a greater proportion of their income on goods subject to the sales tax than rich people do.

HERE.

Stop Shortchanging Kids' Education To Pass Tax Cuts

If you shortchange kids' education, they'll wind up dumber. Dumber people will make less income when they go to work. Less income means a lower standard of living, a loss far higher than the amount of money an individual would receive from a tax cut. Less income means a lower amount of taxes flowing into the State of Kansas. A double whammy if I ever saw one!

Kansas is unconstitutionally short-changing its students by underfunding educationneeds and must increase spending by about $400 million, a three-judge panel ruled unanimously on Friday. The court said it was "illogical" for the state to argue that it could not adequately fund schools at the same time it slashed income taxes.

The ruling is the latest in a series of court victories for a group of public school districts, parents and students in Kansas who have demanded for years that the state provide more money for education.

A funding plan was devised for Kansas in 2006 through a settlement of a prior lawsuit but the groups filed suit again in 2010 when the state made an estimated $300 million in funding cuts. The state made even more cuts in 2011. There have been $511 million in cuts to the base funding between fiscal year 2009 and fiscal 2012.

"This is just a wonderful victory for these school kids in Kansas," said lawyer John Robb, whose firm represents the plaintiffs in the case, which was filed in Shawnee County District Court in Topeka, Kansas. "The (state) constitution says they have rights to an adequately funded education," Robb said. "And the courts have said yes ... it means what it says."

HERE.

A Little Context On The 2nd Amendment

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Our founders were from England. In England at the time they trained men in local counties to be ready for war when the troops in the army ran thin, these were called militias. The "well-regulated" meant well-trained. The militias were just that, armed and trained to go at a moments notice. Our founders thought, "hey, that's a good idea!" So they wrote in to have something very similar here. We now call those same "militias" something else, the National Guard. They wanted to have well-trained armed troops at the ready because we didn't have a nationalized defense yet as the states and nation were forming. I highly doubt they meant you have the right to your own personal arsenal of firepower to use against the very nation our founders fought to form. Modern day militias (by definition) are treasonous. So if you want to become well-trained and join the National Guard, have at it... it's your second amendment right.

HERE.

Whattup With The Right Wing????

‘Absolute Proof Sandy Hook Was Staged’ – ‘Newtown Truthers’ Hit A New Low (VIDEO) by Lorraine Devon Wilke:

In the frightening world of paranoia and conspiracy that exists for many of the zealots in this country so terrified of losing their guns, so anti-government that they fabricate every kind wild theory they can conjure, the theory that the Sandy Hook shootings are a grand hoax created by the Obama Administration to ratchet up enthusiasm for gun control has to be the lowest. Read more

Millions Of Americans Renounced GOP In 2012, Says Gallup by Liberal Lamp Post:

After party affiliations were essentially tied from 2010-2011, Dems earned a 5 percentage point lead with Americans in 2012, with 47 percent (ironic, isn’t it) identifying with Democrats, while only 42 percent reported identifying with Republicans, according to new Gallup poll data. Read more

Leading Gun Advocate Killed By Gunshot To The Head written by Nathaniel Downes:

For almost a month now, gun advocates have been making a stronger-than-usual effort to push the idea that guns prevent crimes. The statements by Kelly point out the flaw in this argument: the majority of crimes do not announce themselves beforehand, they come as a surprise and therefore either the gun would not prevent the crime, or, worse, it may have caused an escalation of it. Read more

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Lets Vigilante Patrols Loose To ‘Protect’ Schools by T. Steelman:

While some parents and teachers are happy about it, many others are less than thrilled. Muddying the waters is the lack of identification of the volunteer force. Well, that, and the fact that some of them have criminal backgrounds. Read more

Standard Right Wing Propaganda: Guns And Religion Don’t Kill People, Abortions Do! by Justin “Filthy Liberal Scum” Rosario:

Here’s the thing about conservative arguments: If they can’t fit on a bumper sticker, it’s too long for their intended audience and they run the risk of a disastrous second glance. Read more

Florida Gov. Rick Scott Claims Obamacare Medicaid 25 Times More Expensive Than It Is by Justin Acuff:

Republican Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) overinflated the numbers for how much the Affordable Care Act’s expanded Medicaid program will cost by an incredible 2,500%, all to avoid a Democratic idea that conservatives seem to literally be willing to oppose to the death (not theirs, of course, but everyone else’s). Read more

Fox News: ‘The Biggest Myth Of All Time Is That Sweatshops Are Bad’ by Cicero:

Mr. Gutfeld is saying that long hours at low wages and in unhealthy conditions being perceived as ‘bad’ is an unfounded or false notion. Was he joking? Read more

Richard Nixon Versus The Tea Party Republicans by Wendi Petit:

While mere mention of his name to any lifelong Democrat will likely bring a sharp rebuke and a look of shock, the truth is, his policies would fit very neatly into today’s Democratic Party. Read more

Representative Claims He’s Scared For Family After Voting Against Boehner For Speaker by Justin Acuff:

For my principled vote, Washington insiders are coming after me. I need your help and the help of 100 fellow conservatives immediately. Read more

Limbaugh Equates Acceptance of Gay Marriage to ‘Normalization’ of Pedophilia by Cicero:

In an attempt to out-crazy fellow radio shock jock Alex Jones, Limbaugh announced on his radio program yesterday that the left is pushing to “normalize pedophilia” Read more

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/01/10/your-morning-addiction-1102013-right-wingers-are-vile-people/

Another Rebublican Tool Bashing The Poor And Middle Class

O’Reilly: ‘Asian People Aren’t Liberal By Nature’ Because ‘They’re Usually More Industrious And Hard-Working’

On The O’Reilly Factor last night, after exploring the roots of Hawaii’s liberalism, host Bill O’Reilly remarked how it’s odd that the state is so heavily Democratic given that “Asian people aren’t liberal by nature” because, as he believes, they are industrious people unlike the stereotypical liberal.

Following a video segment in which The Factor‘scrack ambush reporter Jesse Watters“explored” why Hawaii is so Democratic by interviewing beautiful bikini-clad women along the beach, O’Reilly remarked that “the state is in enormous debt” and has “a lot of social problems” because of “rampant addiction” from a lack of drug law enforcement.

He continued on to express “shock” at how the state is very liberal despite 35-percent of its population being Asian, whom he views as unlike those slovenly liberals:

“Asian people are not liberal, you know, by nature,” he said. “They’re usually more industrious and hard-working.”

Here.

Rebublican Threatens To Shut Down Gummit Unless They Can Screw The Middle Class and Poor Peeps

Republicans are already threatening to refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless their demands are met. On MSNBC this morning, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) said that Republicans should be willing to shut down the government if Democrats don’t agree to a “restructuring the entitlement programs” — code for cuts to benefits.

Here.

Here's a better idea: How about Congress work harder to create jobs so fewer peeps need entitlements? 

“Under the big picture, this was an entirely predictable election outcome.” Well, except on Faux Noise.

Barack Obama is the first president in more than five decades to win at least 51 percent of the national popular vote twice, according to a revised vote count in New York eight weeks after the Nov. 6 election.

State election officials submitted a final tally Dec. 31 that added about 400,000 votes, most of them from provisional ballots in the Democratic-stronghold of New York City that were counted late in part because of complications caused by Hurricane Sandy.

Enlarge image

President Barack Obama is the first president to achieve the 51 percent mark in two elections since Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, who did it in 1952 and 1956, and the first Democrat to do so since Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won four consecutive White House races. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

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Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama speaks to supporters in Chicago about his victory over Mitt Romney, the shared goals of Americans and the need for Republicans and Democrats to work together. (Source: Bloomberg)

The president nationally won 65.9 million votes -- or 51.1 percent -- against Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who took 60.9 million votes and 47.2 percent of the total cast, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Obama is the first president to achieve the 51 percent mark in two elections since Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, who did it in 1952 and 1956, and the first Democrat to do so sinceFranklin D. Roosevelt, who won four consecutive White House races. Roosevelt received 53.4 percent of the vote -- his lowest -- in his last race in 1944.

Obama, 51, benefited from political factors that included a lack of serious opposition for his party’s nomination or from well-known third-party challengers, and an absence of social unrest, scandal or foreign-policy disasters during his first term, Allan Lichtman, a professor of history at American University inWashington, said in an interview.

“Under the big picture, this was an entirely predictable election outcome,” Lichtman said.

Here.

SHAME: House GOP Lets Violence Against Women Act Die

Despite a late-stage intervention by Vice President Joe Biden, House Republican leaders failed to advance the Senate's 2012 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, an embattled bill that would have extended domestic violence protections to 30 million LGBT individuals, undocumented immigrants and Native American women.

"The House leadership would not bring it up, just like they wouldn't bring up funding for Sandy [hurricane damage] last night," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a key backer of the Senate version of the bill, in an interview with HuffPost. "I think they are still so kowtowing to the extreme on the right that they're not even listening to the moderates, and particularly the women, in their caucus who are saying they support this."

In April, the Senate with bipartisan support passed a version of VAWA that extended protections to three groups of domestic violence victims who had not been covered by the original law, but House Republicans refused to support the legislation with those provisions, saying the measures were politically driven. Instead, they passed their own VAWA bill without the additional protections. In recent weeks, however, even some House Republicans who voted for the pared-down House bill have said they would now support the broader Senate bill -- and predicted it would pass if Republican leaders let it come to the floor for a vote.

Here.

O'Bama To Begin Immigration Push

Despite a bruising fiscal cliff battle that managed to set the stage for an even more heated showdown that will likely take place in a matter of months, President Barack Obama is planning to move full steam ahead with the rest of his domestic policy agenda.

An Obama administration official said the president plans to push for immigration reform this January. The official, who spoke about legislative plans only on condition of anonymity, said that coming standoffs over deficit reduction are unlikely to drain momentum from other priorities. The White House plans to push forward quickly, not just on immigration reform but gun control laws as well.

The timeframe is likely to be cheered by Democrats and immigration reform advocates alike, who have privately expressed fears that Obama's second term will be drowned out in seemingly unending showdowns between parties. The just-completed fiscal cliff deal is giving way to a two-month deadline to resolve delayed sequestration cuts, an expiring continuing resolution to fund the government and a debt ceiling that will soon be hit.

With those bitter battles ahead, the possibility of passing other complicated legislation would seem diminished.

Here.

SHAME ON YOU!

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) lit into House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Republicans Wednesday for not holding a vote on a Hurricane Sandy relief bill.

"There is only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims: the House majority and their speaker, John Boehner," he said. "This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. Natural disasters happen in red states and blue states and states with Democratic governors and Republican governors. We respond to innocent victims of natural disasters, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans. Or at least we did until last night. Last night, politics was placed before oaths to serve our citizens. For me, it was disappointing and disgusting to watch."

House Republicans declined to schedule a vote for Sandy aid Tuesday night, after voting to pass a fiscal cliff deal. If the House does not pass a disaster relief bill before noon on Thursday, when the new session of Congress begins, lawmakers will have to start over.

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The next Speaker of the House

Vote 'em out!

House pulls plug on Sandy aid bill

House Republicans abruptly pulled the plug Tuesday night on their promise to take up this week an emergency supplemental disaster aid bill for Northeast states damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

The decision is a stunning reversal since just hours before New Jersey lawmakers were preparing for floor debate Wednesday as outlined under a strategy promoted by no less than Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/house-pulls-plug-on-sandy-aid-bill-85661.html#ixzz2GphpVlM1

WAR In The Rebublican Party!

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives split over the "fiscal cliff" deal that Congress passed on New Year's Day.

While House Speaker John Boehner supported the measure, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy voted against the legislation.

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the GOP's former vice presidential nominee, backed the deal. According to BuzzFeed, Ryan was expected to cast a vote against the measure, but at the last minute changed his mind.

Cantor made no secret of his opposition to the bill passed by the Senate before the House on Tuesday night. Politico reports that the Virginia Republican's deputy chief of staff, Doug Heye, said that the House leader was "disappointed" with the measure approved by the upper congressional chamber. "That's why you saw him working all day to find an alternative with the leadership.

Read about it here.

Meanwhile:

New York Republican Rep. Peter King went to war with his Republican colleagues on Wednesday after leaders spiked a Hurricane Sandy relief bill, calling on New Yorkers to stop all donations to GOP House members.

“These Republicans have no problem finding New York when they’re out raising millions of dollars,” King said on Fox News. “They’re in New York all the time filling their pockets with money from New Yorkers. I’m saying right now, anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to congressional Republicans is out of their minds. Because what they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. It was an absolute disgrace.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/issa-sandy-bill-was-a-pork-fest-85668.html#ixzz2GpgvYxQ7

Gettin' Schooled

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) schooled the hosts of Fox & Friends on the details of the deal to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff” during an appearance to explain his opposition to the Senate-passed compromise on Wednesday morning. Smith also laughed off the network’s suggestion that President Obama has not offered specific spending cuts.

Smith said he voted against the “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012” because the measure locked in low revenue levels that could necessitate dramatic spending cuts in the future. The Fox News hosts appeared incredulous, however, arguing that Obama failed to put any spending cuts on the table or show leadership on entitlement reform. Once Smith pointed to Obama’s proposal to change the growth of Social Security benefits, co-host Steve Doocy quickly dismissed the plan as a “nonstarter.” The Congressman laughed at the network’s attempt to criticize Obama and then debunked its claim that the GOP offered more specific spending reductions than the president.

More.