hue
hue's JournalHere Are The 55 Democrats, Including Elizabeth Warren, Who Will Boycott Netanyahu's Speech
Source: Addicting Info
Here Are The 55 Democrats, Including Elizabeth Warren, Who Will Boycott Netanyahu’s Speech
Author: Ryan Denson March 3, 2015 1:55 am
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint session of Congress Tuesday in hopes of derailing the White House’s plan to allow Iran to maintain peaceful amounts of nuclear energy. Tensions are high due to the fact House Speaker John Boehner, without the consent or even acknowledgement from the president, invited Netanyahu.
Today, Senators Al Franken of Minnesota and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island announced that they will boycott the address. With their announcements, that brings the total number to 55, almost all Democrats (except Bernie Sanders) and Republican Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina. So far it is forty-eight members of the House and seven members of the Senate. That represents roughly 13% of Congress.
In his statement, Franken called the address a “bipartisan spectacle” and said he would not feel comfortable attending:
“This has unfortunately become a partisan spectacle, both because of the impending Israeli election and because it was done without consulting the Administration. I’d be uncomfortable being part of an event that I don’t believe should be happening. I’m confident that, once this episode is over, we can reaffirm our strong tradition of bipartisan support for Israel.”
Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/03/03/democrats-gaining-momentum-against-netanyahu/
Ashland Mayor Wants Environmental Impact Statement of Proposed Industrial Farm in Bayfield Co
http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2015/03/ashland-mayor-wants-environmental.htmlThe Mayor of the City of Ashland has requested a detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
The letter by Mayor Debra S. Lewis requesting the EIS is dated last Friday and comes as sentiment against the proposed Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) has rapidly grown in Bayfield and Ashland counties in far-northern Wisconsin.
Lewis' letter is reproduced below:
Ms. Cathy L. Stepp,
Secretary Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
P.O. Box 7921 Madison, WI 53707-7921
Via email: DNRSecretary@wisconsin.gov
Re: Badgerwood, LLC Hog Facility Reicks View Farm CAFO
Dear Ms. Stepp:
I write as the Mayor of the City of Ashland to respectfully request, in the strongest possible of terms, that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before taking any action to permit the operation of the proposed Badgerwood, LLC Hog Facility, also known as the Reicks View Farm Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) in the Town of Eileen, Bayfield County. While the CAFO would be located outside of the City of Ashland, some of the CAFO's greatest impacts would fall directly on the City of Ashland, due primarily to the location of the proposed CAFO near the headwaters of Fish Creek, and to Ashland's location, just seven or so miles east, at the mouth of Fish Creek, where Fish Creek enters Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay.
I understand that the types of permits required for the CAFO to operate have generally been excepted by Natural Resources rule from EIS requirements, either as a "minor action" or as an "equivalent analysis action." However, I believe that the Badgerwood CAFO is of such magnitude and complexity that the DNR should exercise its discretion under NR 150.20(4), Wis. Admin. Code, to follow EIS procedures. Virtually every factor listed in NR 150.20(4)(b) points to the appropriateness of an EIS in this case.
The Ashland City Council recently passed, unanimously, a resolution calling on the Bayfield County Board to exercise its authority to adopt more stringent standards than contained in ATCP 51 to regulate CAFOs. In issuing the call, the City Council cited its concerns for safe drinking water, beach safety, tourism, and public health factors. I am confident that if the timing of the DNR's decision on an EIS for the project allowed it, the Ashland City Council would take similar action specifically to request that an EIS be required. As it stands now, the City's resolution directed to Bayfield County does state our policy on the matter and as such should be considered as a factor under NR 150.20 (4)(b)(2), that the "project may be in conflict with local . . . environmental policies."
The City of Ashland has the following specific questions which can only be answered by the careful preparation of an EIS :
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Now that the taconite mine is shelved for now they want to assault WI pristine beauty with a hog farm (from out of state of course).
John Nichols: This is what Scott Walker has become
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/john-nichols-this-is-what-scott-walker-has-become/article_1fa0af16-0354-5613-81af-e9f4b2460d27.htmlI have known Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker since he was a young state legislator. We used to talk a good deal about our differing views on how to reform things: campaign finance rules, ethics regulations, social welfare programs.
We seldom reached agreement. But I gave him credit for respecting the search for common ground. And for understanding that a disagreement on a particular matter is never an excuse for ending the search — or for disregarding others who are engaged in it.
But that was long ago. Scott Walker has changed a great deal — and not, I fear, for the better.
He is deep into a political career that has come to mean more and more to him. And, now, he is grasping for a top rung on the ladder: the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2016.
On Thursday, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Walker was asked how he would respond to ISIS, and the “radical Islamic terrorism” he had condemned in his speech to the group. Walker told the crowd: “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the globe.”
Revealed: Democratic Super PAC Architect Moonlights for Walmart, Cable Lobby
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/02/revealed-democratic-super-pac-architect-moonlights-wal-mart-cable-lobby/According to a disclosure document obtained by The Intercept, Susan McCue — Sen. Harry Reid’s chief of staff from 1999–2006 and now co-founder and president of Senate Majority PAC, which claims to “fight to elect Democratic senators who will put working Americans ahead of the Kochs and their corporate interests” — has also consulted for numerous corporate clients. (McCue’s central role in the creation of Senate Majority PAC was first reported by the Huffington Post.)
McCue, through her public affairs company Message Global LLC, provided consulting services for the Motion Picture Association of America, the American Gaming Association, the National Business Aviation Association, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and Walmart, among other clients. None of these clients are mentioned anywhere on the Message Global website, which instead highlights its work for Bono’s One campaign and Humanity United. (Humanity United was established by Pierre Omidyar, founder of The Intercept’s parent company First Look Media.)
McCue’s corporate clients are among the most politically active lobbying interests inside the Beltway. The Motion Picture Association of America has pushed hard for new copyright-related legislation such as the notorious Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has been engaged in a pitched battle in opposition to so-called “net neutrality” regulations. And Walmart is known for its engagement on an enormous range of issues including its successful effort to kill the Employee Free Choice Act, a top priority of labor which would have made union organizing easier.
Jim Inhofe Brings A Snowball To The Senate Floor To Prove Climate Change Is A 'Hoax'
Source: HUFFPOST
WASHINGTON -- The Senate's most vocal critic of the scientific consensus on climate change, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, tossed a snowball on the Senate floor Thursday as part of his case for why global warming is a hoax.
Inhofe, who wrote the book The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, took to the floor to decry the "hysteria on global warming."
"In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, 'You know what this is?'" he said, holding up a snowball. "It's a snowball, from outside here. So it's very, very cold out. Very unseasonable."
"Catch this," he said to the presiding officer, tossing the blob of snow.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/26/jim-inhofe-climate-snow_n_6763868.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
Don’t Fall for Walker’s “Right to Work” Distraction
http://newiprogressive.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4924%3Adont-fall-for-walkers-right-to-work-distraction&catid=38%3Athe-state-news&Itemid=56MADISON – On Wednesday, Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) and Assistant Democratic Leader Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point) shared an important video that highlights Governor Walker’s stance on the Republicans’ extreme “Right to Work” proposal.
The video shows Governor Walker discussing the importance of private-sector unions during the Act 10 debate. The Governor said: “The bill I put forward isn’t aimed at state workers, and it certainly isn’t a battle with unions. If it was, we would have eliminated collective bargaining entirely or we would have gone after the private-sector unions. But we did not because they are our partners in economic development. We need them to help us put 250,000 people to work in the private sector over the next four years.”
Representatives Barca and Shankland urged accountability for Governor Walker on his deceitful actions on RTW and highlighted the fact that its timing is intended to distract the people of Wisconsin from the incredibly harmful Walker budget.
“By his own words, Governor Walker knows that our private-sector unions are critical partners in economic development that put people to work,” Rep. Peter Barca said. “He knows that private-sector unions play an important role in training a safe and effective workforce. Up until a couple weeks ago, he said that Right to Work is a distraction that will hurt efforts to get Wisconsin’s sputtering economy going again. The Governor said that jobs are his top priority and this video again exposes that jobs were never his top priority.”
“The Governor is not just a flip-flopper, he is a master manipulator,” Rep. Shankland added. “There is little doubt that Governor Walker is using this issue to curry favor with right-wing funding sources and distract from his $2.2 billion budget deficit and a state economy that lags behind most of the nation. Democrats are not going to stand idly by as he further harms the middle-class workers and families who are the backbone of this state.”
House Republicans Slip Anti-Abortion Language Into Education Bill
Source: HUFFPOST
House Republicans attached language to a major education bill Wednesday night that would financially penalize school districts that allow school-based health centers to provide information about abortion to pregnant high school students.
The amendment to the Student Success Act, a GOP overhaul of No Child Left Behind, would withhold federal funding from school districts that contract with health centers unless the center certifies that it will not provide abortions or give students any information about abortion, including directions to the nearest abortion provider. (School-based health centers already do not provide abortion services.)
The House Rules Committee slipped the new language into a part of the bill known as the "manager's amendment," which is normally reserved for non-controversial fixes to a piece of legislation that are agreed to ahead of time.
"This amendment is a cowardly attack on young people's access to the full range of information about their reproductive health care," said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. "This provision ties the hands of health care professionals in schools, and would deny teens access to important and basic information about their health care options."
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/26/abortion-education-bill_n_6761816.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
Repukes=shifty creatures.
One Wisconsin Now Research Reveals Gov. Walker Campaign Co-Chair as Major Financier of Propaganda Ca
One Wisconsin Now Research Reveals Gov. Walker Campaign Co-Chair as Major Financier of Propaganda Campaign Paving Way for Wrong For Wisconsin Right to Work Law
http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/press/one-wisconsin-now-research-reveals-gov-walker-campaign-co-chair-as-major-financier-of-propaganda-cam.html
Over $8 Million to Fund Nationwide Web of Front Groups Promoting Law That Cuts Wages and Benefits, Public Education Funding, Healthcare Coverage
MADISON, Wis. — Late last week, while traveling out of state, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker dropped his pre-November 2014 election charade of opposition to a right to work law that could cut the average Wisconsin family’s wages by over $5,000 per year. One Wisconsin Now’s research of the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, headed by Gov. Walker’s campaign co-chair, reveals the stage has been set for Walker’s latest assault on Wisconsin’s middle class for his personal political benefit with a well-financed propaganda campaign utilizing a nationwide web of front groups.
“Once again we see the ‘Wisconsin Money Badger’ Michael Grebe and his Bradley Foundation paving the way for Gov. Walker’s right-wing, Tea Party agenda with a massive propaganda campaign,” said One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. “This time it’s the wrong for Wisconsin right to work law that cuts wages and benefits not just for union members but all Wisconsin workers.”
According to One Wisconsin Now’s review of federal tax records, the Bradley Foundation doled out over $8 million in 2012 and 2013, the latest years for which information available, to support the operations of a web of nearly three dozen groups promoting right to work laws and radical privatization policies that empower the wealthy and corporate CEOs at the expense of the middle class. The Bradley Foundation, having nearly half a billion dollars in assets, regularly hands out $30-40 million a year, making it perhaps the largest right wing funding foundation in America.
Groups operating in Wisconsin, including the MacIver Institute, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, Media Trackers and the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Foundation, took in excess of $2.9 million.
Groups operating in other Midwestern states and nationally benefitted from Grebe and the Bradley Foundation’s largesse. Right-wing policy shops, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the State Policy Network, took in over $200,000 in 2011 and 2012. Nearly $500,000 went to the virulently anti-organized labor Center for Union Facts and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund.
Bradley also sent $140,000 to the notorious Koch brothers aligned Americans for Prosperity Foundation that partnered with the Wisconsin MacIver Institute to run a multi-million dollar ad campaign that declared "it's working" in relation to the polices enacted by Gov. Walker resulting in Wisconsin having among the worst records in job creation and wage growth in the nation.
One Wisconsin Now Research Reveals Gov. Walker Campaign Co-Chair as Major Financier of Propaganda Ca
One Wisconsin Now Research Reveals Gov. Walker Campaign Co-Chair as Major Financier of Propaganda Campaign Paving Way for Wrong For Wisconsin Right to Work Law
http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/press/one-wisconsin-now-research-reveals-gov-walker-campaign-co-chair-as-major-financier-of-propaganda-cam.html
Over $8 Million to Fund Nationwide Web of Front Groups Promoting Law That Cuts Wages and Benefits, Public Education Funding, Healthcare Coverage
MADISON, Wis. — Late last week, while traveling out of state, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker dropped his pre-November 2014 election charade of opposition to a right to work law that could cut the average Wisconsin family’s wages by over $5,000 per year. One Wisconsin Now’s research of the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, headed by Gov. Walker’s campaign co-chair, reveals the stage has been set for Walker’s latest assault on Wisconsin’s middle class for his personal political benefit with a well-financed propaganda campaign utilizing a nationwide web of front groups.
“Once again we see the ‘Wisconsin Money Badger’ Michael Grebe and his Bradley Foundation paving the way for Gov. Walker’s right-wing, Tea Party agenda with a massive propaganda campaign,” said One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. “This time it’s the wrong for Wisconsin right to work law that cuts wages and benefits not just for union members but all Wisconsin workers.”
According to One Wisconsin Now’s review of federal tax records, the Bradley Foundation doled out over $8 million in 2012 and 2013, the latest years for which information available, to support the operations of a web of nearly three dozen groups promoting right to work laws and radical privatization policies that empower the wealthy and corporate CEOs at the expense of the middle class. The Bradley Foundation, having nearly half a billion dollars in assets, regularly hands out $30-40 million a year, making it perhaps the largest right wing funding foundation in America.
Groups operating in Wisconsin, including the MacIver Institute, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, Media Trackers and the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Foundation, took in excess of $2.9 million.
Groups operating in other Midwestern states and nationally benefitted from Grebe and the Bradley Foundation’s largesse. Right-wing policy shops, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the State Policy Network, took in over $200,000 in 2011 and 2012. Nearly $500,000 went to the virulently anti-organized labor Center for Union Facts and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund.
Bradley also sent $140,000 to the notorious Koch brothers aligned Americans for Prosperity Foundation that partnered with the Wisconsin MacIver Institute to run a multi-million dollar ad campaign that declared "it's working" in relation to the polices enacted by Gov. Walker resulting in Wisconsin having among the worst records in job creation and wage growth in the nation.
Walker leads in early Iowa poll
Source: CNN News
(CNN)Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is capping off more than a week of bad headlines with some good news out of the first-in-the nation caucus state.
Walker is leading a crowded field of potential presidential candidates in Iowa with 25% of likely Republican caucus-goers throwing their support to Walker in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. The Iowa caucus will be the first test for presidential hopefuls and while the last two GOP winners didn't get far in the primary process, the caucus is a crucial test of conservative credentials and can help signal some candidates off the campaign trail.
Libertarian favorite Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky came in second in the poll with 13% of support while former Gov. Mike Huckabee, the 2008 caucus winner, and Tea Party darling Ben Carson closely followed with 11% each.
Walker also topped the list of second picks, with 13% listing Walker as their second choice.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/25/politics/scott-walker-iowa-quinnipiac-poll/index.html
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