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Month: December 2014

Bracing for Thursday by @BloggersRUs

Bracing for Thursday
by Tom Sullivan

This is getting to be a Buffalo Springfield kind of thing, ain’t it?

Fast food workers in at least 150 cities nationwide will walk off the job on Dec. 4, demanding an industry-wide base wage of $15 per hour and the right to form a union. Workers unanimously voted on the date for the new strike during a Nov. 25 conference call, held shortly before the second anniversary of the movement’s first strike.

The first of the recent fast food strikes took place on Nov. 29, 2012, in New York City. Two hundred workers from various fast food restaurants around the city participated in that strike, making it the largest work stoppage to ever hit the fast food industry. Since then, the size of the movement has ballooned several times over: With the backing of the powerful service sector labor union SEIU, the campaign has come to include thousands of workers in the U.S.

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor:

The fast food strikes and other actions by low-wage workers have been a major source of momentum behind increasing the minimum wage. No one was talking about $15 an hour until fast food workers started fighting for it in late 2012. The Democratic proposal of a $10.10 federal minimum was generally portrayed in the media as a reach, the grounds for a compromise to something lower. $15 sounded impossible, yet now two major American cities—Seattle and San Francisco—are on their way there, while Chicago is about to pass a $13 an hour minimum wage, Oakland has approved a $12.25 wage, Washington, DC, and neighboring counties in Maryland are on their way to $11.50, and Massachusetts is going to $11. Doubtless some or all of these cities and states would have done something about the minimum wage without this level of worker organizing, but there’s no way we’d be seeing so many places going above $10.10.

Chicago passed its $13 an hour measure yesterday.

Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP and Moral Mondays organizer, spoke on the conference call, saying, “The battle for fair wages is as critical as the battle that young people waged in the 1960s when they came into the sit-in movement.”

San Diego Free Press:

The particulars of these events are not as important as what they represent: a growing sense of frustration with economic and social conditions. These actions are symbolic, intended to break through the “everybody knows” noise generated by the mass media.

Philly.com:

Millions of people make $8 to $10 an hour working as cashiers or in restaurants, or providing elder or child care – a far cry from a living wage. Despite working hard, many of these people live in poverty or on the edge of poverty.

This isn’t what America is about, and it can’t be reconciled with political rhetoric that says if you work hard and play by the rules, you will succeed in the United States.

In a season when the western world empathizes with Bob Cratchit’s struggles – with no heat for his office – to feed his fictional family, real families working for miserly wages and hours must choose between buying food and heating their homes. Food banks are sorely taxed. With every succeeding year, Dickens’ morality tale looks more and more like a quintessentially American story.

Those House Republicans are a bunch of liberal sell-outs

Those House Republicans are a bunch of liberal sell-outs


by digby

Are the House Republicans losing their nerve? Jeff Sessions thinks so:

Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) suggested that House Republicans are on the verge of breaking their campaign promise to fight President Obama’s administrative amnesty, judging by the legislative text currently being circulated.

Sessions said that the proposed language “fails to meet [the] test” established by Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, who promised earlier this year that the GOP would do everything possible to thwart Obama’s executive orders.

Laura Ingraham agrees wholeheartedly:

They agree on this too: it’s  time to really gin up hatred for immigrants

To those inclined to worry that using the spending power would backfire on Republicans, Sessions suggested that economic populism would lead to a GOP victory. 

“Polling shows voters believe that Americans should get preference for available jobs by almost a 10–1 margin,” Sessions said. ”Republicans should not be timid or apologetic, but mount a bold defense of struggling Americans.”

Real Americans only need apply.

Everyone insisted before the election that immigration wasn’t really the issue that right wingers cared about. I have been skeptical.  I think they care a great deal.  I guess we’re going to find out who’s right.

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Waiting for Roberts to give them a mulligan

Waiting for Roberts to give them a mulligan

by digby

Good old Mitch let’s the cat out of the bag:

Q: How do you approach the Affordable Care Act now?

A: McConnell:

“It bears the president’s name. The chances of his signing a full repeal are pretty limited. There are parts of it that are extremely toxic with the American people. The elimination of the 40 hour work week. The individual mandate. The medical device tax. The health insurance tax. I think you could anticipate those kinds of things being voted on in the Senate. Such votes have not been allowed in the past.

Who may ultimately take it down is the Supreme Court of the United States. I mean there’s a very significant case that will be decided before June on the question of whether the language of the law means what the language of the law says, which is that subsidies are only available for states that set up state exchanges. Many states have not. If that were to be the case, I would assume that you could have a mulligan here, a major do-over of the whole thing — that opportunity presented to us by the Supreme Court, as opposed to actually getting the president to sign a full repeal, which is not likely to happen.”

And too bad about the people who’ll be screwed. Whatever. I’m sure their “do-over” will depend on tort-reform and selling insurance across state lines which will solve everything.

I’m sure John Roberts is listening …

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QOTD: Raul Labrador

QOTD: Raul Labrador

by digby

Via Roll Call:

“We had a shutdown a year ago, and we just got the biggest majority we’ve ever had in the House since 1928, and one of the largest majorities we’ve ever had in the Senate. So I don’t understand their reasoning for taking anything off the table.”

Let’s not pretend that he’s the only one who’s thought of this. If they don’t shut down the government it’s not because they fear electoral repercussions. Why would they?

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There are always new “dark conspiracies” in a patented Clinton scandal

There are always new “dark conspiracies” in a patented Clinton scandal

by digby

To all those earnest liberals who believed that the House Intelligence Committee on Benghazi finding no conspiracy put the issue to bed, you really need to think again:

“Benghazi was the definition of an intelligence failure,” Paul begins, dismissing the entire committee report as unserious.

“It was, in fact, one of the worst intelligence failures in our history, a strategic blunder that resulted in the murder of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans… The ultimate blame lies with the Obama administration and more directly with Hillary Clinton who oversaw this tragedy during her tenure as secretary of state.”

Paul then asks of the “persistent allegations hinting at dark conspiracies” noted by the Associated Press, “None of these accusations contain even a modicum of truth?”

Later, Paul quotes Clinton’s notorious line, “What difference, at this point, does it make?” referring to what served as the catalyst for the attacks, an anti-Muslim video or a push by radical Islamists. “It makes huge difference, Mrs. Clinton,” Paul writes. “This new Benghazi ‘intelligence’ report is little more than a C.Y.A. attempt designed to protect incompetent politicians and government agents at the expense of justice for the victims of September 11, 2012… And yes, Hillary, it still matters.”

Asked on what intelligence Paul has based his conclusion that the Republican-led committee’s findings were incorrect, his senior aide, Doug Stafford, deflected by saying, “Senator Paul doesn’t believe the questions have all been answered, nor does he believe those responsible for this failure have been held accountable, especially Secretary Clinton.”

That’s from Rand Paul’s Breitbart exclusive op-ed today insisting that “the truth” has not been found.

I was surprised by some loiberals’ smug reaction to the House report. Most of them are old enough to have lived through the Clinton Scandals of the 1990s and should know better. Benghazi is a Clinton scandal and they are not subject to the normal rules of fact and reason. There are “dark conspiracies” that must be rooted out and if they are dismissed by investigators it’s only because the conspiracies are much darker than they thought and the investigator was simply incompetent to find out what they were.

Case in point:

Attorney General Janet Reno appointed [Republican Robert] Fiske as the “special prosecutor” to investigate the Whitewater controversy and the death of White House Counsel Vincent Foster in January 1994. Fiske conducted investigations, and released an interim report on June 30 that in summary concluded that President Bill Clinton and White House officials had not interfered with the Resolution Trust Corporation, which was investigating the failed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, a partner of the Whitewater Development Corporation. Fiske’s report also concluded that Vince Foster committed suicide.

On the same day that Fiske released this report, President Clinton signed the Independent Counsel Reauthorization Act of 1994, effectively abolishing the position of Special Prosecutor and replacing it with the position of Independent Counsel. Under the new law, the Special Division had sole authority to select Independent Counsels. Janet Reno formally requested that Robert Fiske be chosen, and allowed to continue his investigation. On August 5, the Special Division, headed by Judge David Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, decided to replace Fiske with former D.C. Circuit judge Kenneth Starr.

Benghazi was chosen a long time ago to be the first Clinton scandal for her run 2016.  The facts are irrelevant. The idea here is to create two parallel narratives. The first is that Hillary is an incompetent woman who can’t possibly run the country. The other is to put people on notice that if the is elected the patented “Clinton Scandals” are back. The first is for the benefit of the conservative. The other is directed as a warning shot to Democrats who might have a vague recollection of Clinton scandal fatigue. (There’s a third narrative about the Clintons being financially corrupt a la Whitewater as well, but Benghazi runs on a separate track.)

This is just the beginning. I don’t know why the right loves this theme so much but they clearly do. They failed to destroy them the first time with this stuff but who knows? Maybe they figure the second time’s the charm.

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Who are the ones picking the scab? #Fergusonpolice

Who are the ones picking the scab?

by digby

The Ferguson police are all up in arms at the St Louis Rams for not punishing their players for exercising their first amendment rights.  They say that the tram is just “picking the scab” of the Michael brown tragedy and won’t let it heal.

Meanwhile:

Police are investigating Michael Brown’s stepfather for his actions in the hours after a grand jury determined that the officer who fatally shot Brown would not be charged, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said Tuesday.

CNN reports that police are trying to determine whether Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, was attempting to incite a riot on Nov. 24 when he screamed “Burn this —- down” to a crowd of protesters after St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced the grand jury’s decision.

Jackson also told Fox News that charges against Head are possible.

“We are pursuing those comments, and there is a lot of discussion going on about that right now,” Jackson told Sean Hannity. “But I really can’t get into that right now.”

“Picking the scab” is this constant whining and blubbering about not being given enough respect by an allegedly professional police department. “Picking the scab” is pursuing the stepfather of the unarmed teenager your cop killed because of something he said in the emotional moments after he heard that the cop who did it will not be charged for anything.

It’s perfectly fine for the police to pursue looters and arsonists. Those are clear cut crimes. But “incitement”? Maybe they ought to take a look at the prosecutor McCullough and ask him why he decided to give a defense summation for half an hour on television in the middle of the night. It sure did seem like someone was looking to create some trouble and that it was the man in the suit defending his cops like he was Perry Mason.

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Paul Ryan’s Compassionate Conservatism trial balloon deflates

Paul Ryan’s Compassionate Conservatism trial balloon deflates

by digby

I wrote about Lyin’ Ryans new push for bogus “tax reform” a while back for Salon. Let’s just say that his inner Randroid is alive and well. People are starting to notice that Ryan and the other “compassionate conservatives” who allegedly care about the poor are strangely silent now that the Earned Income Tax credit (the biggest tax break for working people) is slated to expire and the chance to make it permanent in a tax deal could be on the table. What a surprise.

Dylan Matthews at Vox comments:

Republican EITC/CTC fans like Ryan, Lee, and Rubio haven’t ever explicitly supported making the 2009 expansions permanent. Ryan’s poverty plan mentions the EITC expansion but doesn’t state an opinion on it.

But now that the future of the expansions is a topic of active Congressional dispute, their silence is becoming more conspicuous. Ryan spokesman William Allison says the Congressman, who’ll take over Ways and Means from Camp next year, will “respect Chairman Camp’s jurisdiction and defer to the current Ways and Means operation” rather than weighing in.

Lee appears actively opposed to making the credits permanent in the tax deal. Asked if Lee supports making the credit expansions permanent, spokesman Brian Phillips replied, “Not this way. Both programs need reform and should be addressed in standalone bills. And the EITC should be coupled with broader welfare reform.” A spokesman for Rubio has yet to respond to a request for comment.

All this plays into a sense that Republican support for low-income credits is insincere and/or contingent on cuts to other benefits. “The ultimate trouble is that the EITC costs money,” Jonathan Chait once noted. “And when you get into the gritty reality, Republicans are not willing to devote resources to it.”

It’s possible that this is a Paul Ryan negotiating tool to entice the president and the Democrats to sign on to big tax cuts for rich people. But, as we’ve seen over and over again the last six years, these “negotiations” inevitably seem to go sideways now that a bunch of Tea Partiers are driving the GOP bus. So don’t kid yourself. They could let these credits expire. Remember, a large number of the Right believe that poor people don’t pay enough in taxes. In fact, they believe that the poore 47% of Americans don’t pay enough in taxes.

Recall:

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what…who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims. …These are people who pay no income tax. …and so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

This is what they believe. So if the EITC expires, they won’t lose any sleep over it. Poor people need to “pay in” and stop taking from the hard working 53%. And the beauty of it is that the right wing media will tell poorer Republicans whose taxes will rise (and there are plenty of them) that it’s because of all the freeloaders on welfare. Win-win.

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What are we so afraid of?

What are we so afraid of?

by digby

Marcy Wheeler wrote a great piece over at Salon discussing the contrast between our leaders decrying violence at home while escalating violence overseas in the past couple of weeks. As she adroitly observes, America is overwhelmed by fear:

Because fear incited by provocative videos posted online likely explains why Americans ignored the resurgence of violence in Iraq until a few Americans were killed (and ignore the frequent beheadings carried out by our allies the Saudis). “As long as ISIS is beheading Americans there’s no way the president can stand up and say that Syria isn’t our problem,” Drew reported a source asserting.

And whatever else you think of Darren Wilson’s testimony – which conflicted in some ways with what he reportedly said immediately after the shooting — he used the language of fear and dehumanization to justify the killing. The big black teenager he shot, Mike Brown, was like “Hulk Hogan,” Wilson said. “It looks like a demon,” Wilson described Brown’s face. Brown “made like a grunting” before Wilson fired the fatal shots. “[T]he only other option I thought I had was my gun,” Wilson explained to the grand jury to explain why he started shooting Brown. As for 12-year-old Rice, he and his toy gun elicited a response from a caller for this reason: He was “scaring the s___ out of people.”

I think this is right. Americans are obsessed with the boogeyman, soiling our trousers in fear that someone who doesn’t look like us is going to kill us in our beds. What is it, exactly, that so many of us are so afraid of? We’re the richest, most powerful country in the world. Is it that we know somewhere deep down that we have not been as benevolent as we like to think?

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“Little techie brats” by @BloggersRUs

“Little techie brats”
by Tom Sullivan

Up Next: Staten Island.

Protests continued across the country (and on the floor of the House) over a St. Louis County, MO grand jury’s decision not to indict former officer Darren Wilson for the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson. But in Staten Island, police are bracing this week for a local grand jury’s decision in another case involving a police officer and the death of an unarmed black man:

With a grand jury expected to come to a decision in the in-custody death of Eric Garner this week, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton met with Staten Island leaders Monday to discuss community concerns and new NYPD initiatives.

The grand jury is to decide whether Officer Daniel Pantaleo will face criminal charges in Garner’s July 17 death outside a Staten Island convenience store. Garner died after being placed in an apparent chokehold during an arrest attempt. Police suspected Garner of selling illegal cigarettes.

Cigarettes? Cigarillos? Perhaps the Surgeon General should add a health warning on tobacco products about the risk of death by summary execution. You don’t even have to smoke them.

The NYPD is already frustrated over Ferguson-related protests in the city last week. The New York Post reports that protesters “ran rings around the NYPD.” Protesters’ secret weapon (according to Gawker)? “[t]he cutting edge of 2006 technology: Twitter and disposable cell phones.” Per the Post:

“They wore me out,” said one counterterror expert who monitored the protests. “Their ability to strategize on the fly is something we haven’t dealt with before to this degree.”

Clearly a situation that requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part. Involving deployment of surplus military hardware, perhaps?

“A lot of these anarchists are from the Occupy Wall Street group. They are little rich kids, little techie brats,” a source said.

“They get their money from Mommy and Daddy. And they travel from the West Coast to the East Coast and everywhere in between to disrupt events that involve corporate America, world summits, civil rights and especially those that involve law enforcement.”

“They have their little MacBook Air computers, their Wi-Fi, their smartphones, and they’re off to the races. We’re reacting to these situations, which means we are not fully in control of them,” the source said.

The “little techie brats” just won’t play fair. All the police have are Glocks, tasers, pepper spray, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, up-armored Humvees, armored personnel carriers, sound cannons, and heat rays. Somebody has “not fully in control” issues.

They like it, they really like it

They like it, they really like it

by digby

Looks like it’s a hit:

President Barack Obama’s approval rating among Hispanics shot up 10 points to 68 percent after he announced his administration would offer deportation relief to an estimated 4.4 million undocumented immigrants, according to a weekly Gallup poll.

Obama’s surge in popularity among Hispanics follows a nearly two-year long decline from a peak of 74 percent in early 2013, according to Gallup. His approval rating among Latinos has hovered in the fifties since May of this year, dropping to a low point of 44 percent in the first week of September.

The Gallup poll, released Monday, covers the week of Nov. 24 to Nov. 30. Obama announced the changes to deportation policy in a televised speech on Nov. 20.

The figure puts Latino support for Obama some 25 points higher than the national average of 43 percent, and even farther above non-Hispanic whites, only 31 percent of whom currently approve of the president’s performance.

Of course, if you just look at Real Americans, there’s less support for immigration. And they’re the ones that count.