Mapping Device of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC )

Until they became public, and under scrutiny, no one really knew the integral depths ALEC has become at almost every level! Local, state and federal legislatures have been corrupted. From ALEC Exposed.org "These bills and resolutions reach into almost every area of American life: worker and consumer rights, education, the rights of Americans injured or killed by corporations, taxes, health care, immigration, and the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink. Only by seeing the depth and breadth and language of the bills can one fully understand the power and sweep of corporate influence behind the scenes on bills affecting the rights and future of every American in every single state." I have been working with a friend from Southern Arizona, Lisa Hoffman, and she has compiled an interactive map, it will take your breath away how deep the inner workings have gone. Follow the mapping device, click on the names, see how deep this collusion has been. One masterful Machiavellian scheme by the conservatives is the only way to describe it! Who said there wasn't a "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" going on? We know that it was no conspiracy, it was the complete truth!

Here's what Republicans think of Americans with jobs

The voice pleading at the end belongs to Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer.

Best Fails of 2011

As a tribute to all the rest of us who know better, here are some of the truly idiotic humans who we hope also fail to breed:

Possibly the worst, most disgusting political ad ever

I just saw the Black Keys for the first time a few nights ago on Letterman. What a terrific band!

Pre-Holiday Bits & Pieces

Pondering the effects of Greece leaving the Euro

It's SGR Hell Time Again

Because of our semi-incompentent federal government, each year around this time we must go throught the agonizing process of renewing appropriate Medicare reimbursement rates for physicians. It's up again for vote in congress, and I'm sure Republicans will do everything in their power to try to fuck it up, like they do with almost everything else. This video helps explain the faults of the SGR process:

Post-Thanksgiving Bits and Pieces

• WOW
• A public apology to Obama
• This is a great service if you need a temporary email address for one hour (such as for registering at a new web site for a one-time activity)
• There's a good chance that your smartphone is being tracked. UPDATE: So some users are now suing.
• Legalizing marijuana will reduce traffic fatalities
• Soccer and violent video games can cause brain damage.
• Provisions of the new NBA settlement
• Pre-order the first universal remote that controls everything.
• If you visit Wisconsin, don't let your 6-year-old son play "butt-doctor" with a little girl.
• Animated GOP Presidential Horse Race

The Brown Request

California Governor Brown goes directly to the voters:

When I became Governor again -- 28 years after my last term ended in 1983 -- California was facing a $26.6 billion budget deficit. It was the result of years of failing to match spending with tax revenues as budget gimmicks instead of honest budgeting became the norm.

 

In January, I proposed a budget that combined deep cuts with a temporary extension of some existing taxes. It was a balanced approach that would have finally closed our budget gap.

 

I asked the legislature to enact this plan and to allow you, the people of California, to vote on it. I believed that you had the right to weigh in on this important choice: should we decently fund our schools or lower our taxes? I don’t know how you would have voted, but we will never know. The Republicans refused to provide the four votes needed to put this measure on the ballot.

 

Forced to act alone, Democrats went ahead and enacted massive cuts and the first honest on-time budget in a decade. But without the tax extensions, it was simply not possible to eliminate the state’s structural deficit.

 

The good news is that our financial condition is much better than a year ago. We cut the ongoing budget deficit by more than half, reduced the state’s workforce by about 5500 positions and cut unnecessary expenses like cell phones and state cars. We actually cut state expenses by over $10 billion. Spending is now at levels not seen since the seventies. Our state’s credit rating has moved from “negative” to “stable,” laying the foundation for job creation and a stronger economic recovery.

 

Unfortunately, the deep cuts we made came at a huge cost. Schools have been hurt and state funding for our universities has been reduced by 25%. Support for the elderly and the disabled has fallen to where it was in 1983. Our courts suffered debilitating reductions.

 

The stark truth is that without new tax revenues, we will have no other choice but to make deeper and more damaging cuts to schools, universities, public safety and our courts.

 

That is why I am filing today an initiative with the Attorney General’s office that would generate nearly $7 billion in dedicated funding to protect education and public safety. I am going directly to the voters because I don’t want to get bogged down in partisan gridlock as happened this year. The stakes are too high.

 

My proposal is straightforward and fair. It proposes a temporary tax increase on the wealthy, a modest and temporary increase in the sales tax, and guarantees that the new revenues be spent only on education. Here are the details:

 

• Millionaires and high-income earners will pay up to 2% higher income taxes for five years. No family making less than $500,000 a year will see their income taxes rise. In fact, fewer than 2% of California taxpayers will be affected by this increase.
• There will be a temporary ½ cent increase in the sales tax. Even with this temporary increase, sales taxes will still be lower than what they were less than six months ago.
• This initiative dedicates funding only to education and public safety--not on other programs that we simply cannot afford.
• This initiative will not solve all of our fiscal problems. But it will stop further cuts to education and public safety.

 

I ask you to join with me to get our state back on track.

You just never know how California voters will respond...

Change

A sappy short for the holidays that will make you cry anyway:

HOW TO FIX EVERYTHING

Exposing ALEC's Corporate Influence On State Government

From yesterday's press conference in Phoenix, AZ at the Capitol.