by David Safier As I write this, the first episode of PBS's new documentary, "Latino Americans," is re-airing — 2-4pm. The next episode airs Tuesday, 8pm. I haven't heard any comments about the show from Tucsonans more knowledgeable than I am, but for someone like me with a huge hole where my understanding of Latino-American … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
If someone really wants to commit suicide, there is very little one can do to stop them. Eventually they will succeed.
Today the House GOP caved in to demands from hedge fund billionaire-funded conservative organizations and the insurrectionist economic terrorists of the Tea Party, led by an interloper from the Senate, demagogue Sen. Ted "Calgary" Cruz, and collectively jumped off the cliff together like lemmings to commit political suicide. Only one Tea-Publican, Rep. Scott Rigell (VA), stood at the edge of the cliff and said "Wait a minute . . something feels wrong." House passes budget defunding health-care law:
The House passed a short-term spending plan Friday morning that would
continue funding government operations only through mid-December but withhold
funding for President Obama’s signature health-care law,
firing the opening salvo in what promises to be a contentious 10 days
of debate on Capitol Hill over extending government operations by only
three months.
The legislation would fund federal agencies at an annualized rate of
more than $986 billion but would also leave in place automatic spending
cuts known as sequestration, set to take effect in January. It would
include language to prohibit any funding going to implementing the
health-care law and, additionally, authorize the Treasury to pay some
bills and not others in the event that no deal is reached in October on
increasing the country’s debt limit. [Something which is practicably impossible, but Tea-Publicans believe this fantasy.]
House Republican leaders declared victory Friday after the vote, and
they immediately ramped up pressure on the Senate to take up the fight.
President Ronald Reagan has been elevated to God-like status by contemporary Republicans– particularly those who still believe in trickledown economics, union-busting, Welfare Queens, the "vegetable" ketchup, and spending BIG BUCKS on the military-industrial complex, while taking food out of the mouths of children.
So, although the Gipper might agree in theory with the cannibals in the House of Representatives who are trying to destroy the social fabric of our country by denying food to the poor, he would not agree with their irresponsible tactic of repeatedly bringing the country to the brink of a shutdown just to make political points.
Check out this recording from 1987 (below) in which he scolds Congress for exactly the brinksmanship that his contemporary fans are pursuing now.
by David Safier On our cable access show, "Education: The Rest of the Story," Ann-Eve Pedersen addresses the myth that the education will be improved if schools adopt the for-profit business model. Ann-Eve's research uncovered the BASIS application for a San Antonio, Texas, charter with 72 blacked-out pages I posted about recently (BASIS Charters' educational … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
So the radical extremist Tea-Publicans in the House voted to cut $40 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aka food stamps, with only 15 GOP members voting against it. This follows a months-long campaign by the conservative media entertainment complex to demonize the working poor.
There was a time in this country that there was bipartisan consensus that aiding the working poor was good public policy and the the morally just thing to do. Recently, former senators Bob Dole (R-KS) and Tom Daschle (D-SD) wrote this op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Stop playing politics with hunger:
One of the biggest pieces of business Congress
has yet to resolve is the farm bill, legislation that has enjoyed
bipartisan support for decades. Unfortunately, the process to
reauthorize this crucial bill has taken a sharp and disheartening turn
this year. The Senate and the House are in a standoff over extremely
different versions of it with a deadline looming this month.
At stake is the ability
of millions of Americans who still struggle in our economy to provide
adequate and healthy meals for their children and families. In an
unprecedented move, the House stripped the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
or SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), from the bill with an
intention to pass a separate nutrition bill, one with significant cuts
to programs that fight hunger.
There have always been disagreements between our parties over the
farm bill, but for decades we have reached across the aisle to tackle
the concerns on both sides. We proudly count ourselves among a series of
bipartisan teams of legislators who worked past those differences to
address hunger through provisions in the farm bill.
