State Gender Bill Introduced
Last year there was a lot of disappointment when the Maryland legislature let a gender-identity nondiscrimination bill die in committee. The state Senate president had said he only had time for "one gay bill" and that wasn't it.
This week the bill was reintroduced, and strangely it has the same number in the Senate -- SB212. A lot has changed in recent years regarding gay and lesbian rights, but the rights of transgender citizens are a little slower in coming. Let's hope this is the year for them in the state of Maryland.
The Baltimore Sun:
This week the bill was reintroduced, and strangely it has the same number in the Senate -- SB212. A lot has changed in recent years regarding gay and lesbian rights, but the rights of transgender citizens are a little slower in coming. Let's hope this is the year for them in the state of Maryland.
The Baltimore Sun:
A bill to protect transgender Marylanders from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations was filed Tuesday in Annapolis by Sen. Richard Madaleno.I think a lot of the difficulty here is that transgender people make up a very small proportion of the population, and it is a hard thing to wrap your head around. Some people, like for instance the nutty psychiatrist on Fox News, simply deny that being transgender exists -- it might require some effortful perspective-taking to empathize with someone who has been assigned to the wrong gender category, and some people want the world to be easy to understand. Transgender people are discriminated against constantly, though, and need some legal support to be equal participants in our society.
The bill's language is similar to that of past bills that also sought to establish a statewide ban on discrimination based on gender identity or expression, but which have all failed in recent years.
Madaleno, a Democrat from Montgomery County, formally filed the bill with the Senate clerk on Tuesday, though it likely won't be considered until later this week.
The bill has 24 co-sponsors, including Sen. Brian Frosh and Sen. Robert Zirkin, who were not co-sponsors of the failed transgender rights bill Madaleno introduced last year.
Both Frosh and Zirkin sit on the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, where Madaleno's previous bill died and where the new bill will first be introduced. Transgender rights bill introduced in Annapolis
Del. Luke Clippinger, a Baltimore Democrat, is expected to bring the bill forward in the House of Delegates, where a similar bill previously passed.It is notable that the Baltimore Sun talked exclusively to Equality Maryland about this, especially after a series in Baltimore Outloud by Sharon Brackett, board chair of Gender Rights Maryland, which is a group dedicated to getting this bill passed. The three-part series is quite candid and critical of EQMD and describes years of power struggles between the two groups. In the end it only matters that the bill passes and transgender Marylanders are treated fairly.
The bill is also expected to receive the support of many top ranking officials in Maryland this year, including Gov. Martin O'Malley. The three Democratic officials looking to take O'Malley's job -- Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, Attorney General Doug Gansler and Del. Heather Mizeur -- all support the legislation.
Equality Maryland, which is the state's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights organization, named the transgender rights bill its top priority this legislative session.
Carrie Evans, Equality Maryland's executive director, said she believes there are the votes this session to pass the bill. She said getting it passed is Equality Maryland's "laser focus."
"No one deserves to be fired, refused work, denied housing, education or credit, or suffer harassment or violence just because of who they are," the organization has said of the legislation.
posted by JimK at 1:47 PM
74 Comments:
this is one of the stupidest TTF posts yet
you can't make this stuff up
Don't feed the troll
don't worry, lazy Priya
no one else wants to make you lunch
I know you're probably still recovering from realizing that the global warming was a hoax, after all you've invested in it, but you need to get back to your routine
In an apparent attempt to break its own record for meaningless votes (44 for bills to repeal Obamacare that they know can’t possibly pass), House Republicans have voted yet again to defund ACORN, an organization that has not existed in nearly four years.
The massive new appropriations bill unveiled Monday night includes four provisions that block funding to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, an anti-poverty activist group better known as ACORN.
The bicameral, bipartisan appropriations bill is the product of last year’s budget deal between Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), filling in the details of the blueprint they agreed upon.
ACORN, however, no longer exists.
The group dissolved in 2010, penniless, after Congress cut off its funding in 2009 based on a selectively edited video released by conservative provocateur James O’Keefe. O’Keefe manipulated the footage to give the impression that ACORN workers were encouraging tax avoidance related to prostitution and child smuggling, but multiple subsequent investigations cleared the group of any wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, the House GOP has voted 13 times since the organization disbanded to block its funding.
Next they’ll be making sure the government doesn't subsidize the production of steam engines and they'll vote to cut off aid to the Roman Empire.
Your Republican lawmakers: making useless gestures to pose for its base as an excuse for refusing to do anything to actually help the United States.
talk about "useless gestures"
Montgomery has a bill banning discrimination against transgenders
totally worthless, transgenders face no hardship here
the locals are just feeding their lunatic base
basically, any place the elected officials would pass a bill banning discrimination against people who talk like truck drivers and dress like ballerinas is, by definition, a place where such a law is not needed
if the local population supports anti-discrimination against them, then they shouldn't have any insurmountable obstacles preventing them from finding work and housing
it's a catch-22, and unfortunately, lunatic fringery is catching
"CeCe McDonald on Sunday gave her first televised interview after spending 19 months in a men’s prison for defending herself during a racist and transphobic attack.
In conversation with Melissa Harris-Perry, McDonald spoke at length about the experience of being a trans woman incarcerated in a men’s prison, as well as the institutional violence faced by all trans people who are incarcerated. “I felt like they wanted me to hate myself as a trans woman,” she explained. “They wanted to force me to be someone that I wasn’t. They wanted me to delegitimize myself as a trans woman — and I was not taking that. As a trans woman — as a proud black trans woman — I was not going to allow the system to delegitimize and hyper-sexualize and take my identity away from me.”
McDonald spoke powerfully about the disproportionate rate of violence faced by trans people — both inside and outside of prison — but also aimed her critique at the dehumanization and violence experienced by all people who are incarcerated. “Prisons aren’t safe for anyone, and that’s the key issue,” she continued.
The segment — which also featured the brilliant Laverne Cox and Trans Youth Support Network Executive Director Katie Burgess — also highlighted the work that was done to secure justice for McDonald and the work that remains in order to secure that justice for others.
“The only way that trans folks are going to be safe in prisons is for incarceration of people to end,” Burgess explained. “The only way that trans folks are going to be safe in prisons is for us to fight against these laws that criminalize things like drugs, sex work, poverty. People of color and trans folks are finding clear pathways to prison because of laws like that and that’s where we need to put our focus here.”
“And the issue too is that we are really stigmatized and criminalized at every level of culture,” Cox added. “The very nature of the gender binary model suggests that we transgender people don’t exist. … There is constantly this denial of the existence of trans people, and because of that denial we don’t get services and are discriminated against disproportionately everywhere. We have to have policies that acknowledge that we exist to even begin to dismantle some of the systemic discrimination that we experience.”
You can (and should) watch both powerful segments here"
Trans Woman Dares Bible-Quoting Councilman to Stone Her to Death:
A Shreveport, La., City Council member Tuesday withdrew a bill that would repeal the city's recently passed antidiscrimination ordinance following backlash from residents, including one woman willing to call his bluff.
"A City Council member in Shreveport, La., has abandoned his effort to repeal an LGBT-inclusive antidiscrimination ordinance, following outcry from the public, including a transgender woman who dared him to stone her to death.
The council passed the ordinance in December by a vote of 6-1, following a successful campaign by a pro-LGBT coaltion known as Be Fair Shreveport. The ordinance, which bans discrimination in housing and employment within city limits on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, received its lone "no" vote from Councilman Ron Webb. During the council's debate last December, Webb voiced his opposition, saying, "The Bible tells you homosexuals are an abomination," adding that he does not socialize with LGBT people, according to TV station KSLA.
Ten days after the council approved the ordinance, Webb drafted a proposal designed to repeal the nondiscrimination policy. On Tuesday, dozens of people registered to testify at the City Council meeting, ready to speak out against Webb's measure, report Lone Star Q.
But none were quite as bold as Pamela Raintree, a transgender woman. Raintree called out the Bible-quoting councilman, daring him to stone her to death.
"Leviticus 20:13 states, 'If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, they shall surely put him to death,'" Raintree began. "I brought the first stone, Mr. Webb, in case that your Bible talk isn't just a smoke screen for personal prejudices."
Webb withdrew his repeal measure just minutes later, without calling for a vote.
Watch the confrontation below via TV station KMSS."
I've added how each state voted in the 2012 President election, FYI.
States With the Best (and Worst) Schools
"For years, American students have consistently ranked poorly compared to most developed nations. And according to a recently released study, the U.S. education system remains mediocre, receiving a C− grade, for the third year in a row.
Education news and research publication Education Week released its 18th annual survey of the status of education in all 50 states. The K-12 Achievement Index is one indicator in Education Week’s “Quality Counts” report that measures key education outcomes and provides ranks and grades for each state based on their commitment to improve educational policies and practices. This year, Massachusetts received the highest score, a B, while Mississippi got an F. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the states with the best and worst scores for K-12 achievement...
...24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 11 best-scoring and 10 worst-scoring states in K-12 achievement, based on Education Week’s 2014 Quality Counts report. Education Week analyzed six separate categories that measure different components of the education system. These categories are K-12 achievement; standards, assessment and accountability; the teaching profession; school finance; students’ chances for long-term success; and transitions and alignment. K-12 achievement measures test scores and graduation rates. Standards, assessment and accountability determines whether schools measure student achievement through standardized testing and rewards and penalizes schools based on performance. The teaching profession category measures whether schools hold teachers accountable to high standards and provide incentives for performance. School finance measures whether the state is spending money on students and identifies funding inequality. The students chances for long-term success category measures family background and employment opportunities. Transitions and alignment measures how schools manage students’ transitions between the school systems and secondary education or employment. All data are for the most recent available year.
These are the states with the best and worst schools.
Best Schools
#1 Massachusetts OBAMA 60.8%, Romney 37.6%
#2 Maryland OBAMA 61.7%, Romney 36.6%
#3 New Jersey OBAMA 58%, Romney 40.9%
#4 New Hampshire OBAMA 52.2% Romney 46.4%
#5 Vermont OBAMA OBAMA 67%, Romney 31.2%
#6 Minnesota OBAMA 52.8%, Romney 45.1%
#7 Florida OBAMA 50%, Romney 49.1%
#8 Pennsylvania OBAMA 52%, Romney 46.8%
#9 Washington OBAMA 55.8%, Romney 41.7%
#10 Colorado OBAMA 51.2%, Romney 46.5%
#11 Virginia OBAMA 50.8%, Romney 47.8%
Worst Schools
#1 Mississippi ROMNEY 55.5%, Obama 43.5%
#2 Louisiana ROMNEY 57.8%, Obama 40.6%
#3 New Mexico OBAMA 52.9%, Romney 43.0%
#4 West Virginia ROMNEY 62.3%, Obama 35.5%
#5 Alabama ROMNEY 60.7%, Obama 38.4%
#6 Alaska ROMNEY 55.3%, Obama 41.3%
#7 South Carolina ROMNEY 54.6%, Obama 44%
#8 South Dakota ROMNEY 57.9%, Obama 39.9%
#9 Michigan OBAMA 54.3%, Romney 44.8%
#10 Oklahoma ROMNEY 66.8%, Obama 33.2%"
any place the elected officials would pass a bill banning discrimination against people who talk like truck drivers and dress like ballerinas is, by definition, a place where such a law is not needed
Yeah anon, just let us know when you find that bearded ballerina - in real life, not in your imagination.
didn't say "bearded"
but if there isn't something off about them, there would also be no problem because no one would know
chromosome testing is generally not part of employment screening
the real problem is when some guy thinks he's a girl but obviously isn't because he looks, acts, talks like a guy
it's a mental problem
but, in places where the democratically elected local government passes laws requiring the hiring of people with this mental disability, it's likely these people would have no problem finding employment
it's what lazy Priya read somewhere and mimicked "a useless gesture"
it has no effect except to feed the lunatic fringe's need to feel relevant
Interesting thread. The logic, of course, of the anonymous posters opposing the bill is that legislation barring discrimination is per se unnecessary if a majority of people in a community don't engage in such discrimination. So by that logic, the federal Civil Rights Bill of 1964 was unneeded, even though there was lots of racial discrimination (even if most people may not have engaged in such discrimination).
Moreover, calling those who oppose unfair discrimination a "lunatic fringe" is a bizarre use of language. The Anons are entitled to their opinion (as strange as it may be) that those who believe that all people should be treated fairly regardless of sexual orientation or gender are lunatics, but, given the Maryland referendum election results in 2012, we are certainly not a fringe.
Interesting thread. The logic, of course, of the anonymous posters opposing the bill is that legislation barring discrimination is per se unnecessary if a majority of people in a community don't engage in such discrimination. So by that logic, the federal Civil Rights Bill of 1964 was unneeded, even though there was lots of racial discrimination (even if most people may not have engaged in such discrimination).
Moreover, calling those who oppose unfair discrimination a "lunatic fringe" is a bizarre use of language. The Anons are entitled to their opinion (as strange as it may be) that those who believe that all people should be treated fairly regardless of sexual orientation or gender are lunatics, but, given the Maryland referendum election results in 2012, we are certainly not a fringe.
Aunt Harriet said:
“didn't say "bearded”
Doesn’t matter. Like the rest of your distasteful didactic diatribes, it’s not well grounded in reality. You’re about as likely to see a transwoman in Montgomery County dressed like a ballerina as you are a Giant Galapagos Turtle in a Ride On bus on his way to Silver Spring. Unless perhaps, you’re at the ballet, and she happens to be a dancer – in which case, that would be part of her work attire. I doubt you visit the ballet much though, since it’s not a secret that some of the male dancers are likely to be gay. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to buy a ticket and be forced to watch gay men jump around on stage in tights.
“Montgomery has a bill banning discrimination against transgenders
totally worthless, transgenders face no hardship here”
Montgomery county also has non-discrimination clauses for religion.
They’re probably worthless. When is the last time you heard of someone being fired for their religion? Or changing their religion? We have all sorts of religious people in Montgomery County and clearly they have no problem finding jobs, in spite of how obnoxious they can be.
“but if there isn't something off about them, there would also be no problem because no one would know”
You’ve just managed to stumble upon why those of us that can afford it have facial surgery. If people simply don’t know, we may be discriminated against because we’re women, but that’s far, FAR easier to deal with than being discriminated against because we’re trans. Trust me. I know from first-hand experience.
“chromosome testing is generally not part of employment screening”
Again, doesn’t really matter.
All employees are required to fill in an I-9 Form:
http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-9.pdf
Some states refuse to update birth certificates and / or licenses for the appropriate gender no matter how well one can pass. Some states require surgeries, which is fine, if you can keep employed long enough to pay for it yourself. Once you show your ID with a gender marker that doesn’t match your obvious gender, the cat is out of the bag. Either you’re using a fake ID, or you’re some kind of very incompetent criminal, or a transsexual. Yeah, that’s not gonna raise any red flags.
Of course, if you’re already working somewhere and you try to transition, they will fire you even with a valid I-9 and an active security clearance. One example is currently helping me around my house. Fortunately her (ex) employer is in PG County so she has some legal recourse. It is also fortunate that there are some great lawyers that work on cases like hers for free, because she’s gone into significant debt paying for things like food and rent since losing her job.
Try to do a little research or something before babbling on about things you don’t know about. It might make your posts a little more relevant.
Have a nice day,
Cynthia
"Interesting thread. The logic, of course, of the anonymous posters opposing the bill is that legislation barring discrimination is per se unnecessary if a majority of people in a community don't engage in such discrimination."
You're right, David. The point is interesting, and logical.
"So by that logic, the federal Civil Rights Bill of 1964 was unneeded, even though there was lots of racial discrimination (even if most people may not have engaged in such discrimination)."
actually, most people did engage in discrimination against blacks at that time
further, this was a national bill, covering a lot of territory where discrimination is wise spread and mobility was not easily available
neither is true in Montgomery County
it's useless legislation and has no effect
"Moreover, calling those who oppose unfair discrimination a "lunatic fringe" is a bizarre use of language. The Anons are entitled to their opinion (as strange as it may be) that those who believe that all people should be treated fairly regardless of sexual orientation or gender are lunatics, but, given the Maryland referendum election results in 2012, we are certainly not a fringe."
David, you embarrass yourself with this remark. Homosexuality and transgenderism are two things.
Transgenderism is as fringe and non-sensical as astrology and alien kidnapping.
Transgenderism involves people who believe, despite all physical evidence that they beling to another gender. It's by definition a mental defect and those buy into are, by definition, fringe.
"Doesn’t matter. Like the rest of your distasteful didactic diatribes, it’s not well grounded in reality. You’re about as likely to see a transwoman in Montgomery County dressed like a ballerina as you are a Giant Galapagos Turtle in a Ride On bus on his way to Silver Spring. Unless perhaps, you’re at the ballet, and she happens to be a dancer – in which case, that would be part of her work attire."
You're being too literal, cicno. You know as well as I that appearances are incompatible with intention among many trans. That's all I was saying. If not, they can find a way to blend in easily.
"Montgomery county also has non-discrimination clauses for religion.
They’re probably worthless. When is the last time you heard of someone being fired for their religion? Or changing their religion? We have all sorts of religious people in Montgomery County and clearly they have no problem finding jobs, in spite of how obnoxious they can be."
I'm not in favor of banning discrimination based on religion.
Although there is a case to be made that is unique because religion has been discriminated against by our Constitution, so it could be seen as compensatory.
The government can endorse all kinds of ideas but not religion, so there is a bias against religion built in to our society.
"You’ve just managed to stumble upon why those of us that can afford it have facial surgery."
well, if you can't afford it, you should simply maintain your actual gender at work
businesses hire workers to fulfill their needs
that's what employees should endeavor to do
"Have a nice day"
yeah, why don't you stick a pencil behind your eyeball and itch your "brain"?
President Obama thinks some people don’t like him because of his race.
“There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black President,” Obama told The New Yorker’s David Remnick in the magazine’s Jan. 27 issue.
“Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black President,” he added.
The article noted that Obama lost white voters in 2012 by history’s largest margin for a winning presidential candidate, and that his plunge in the polls last year – which many pundits declared the worst year of his presidency — was steepest among whites.
Some observers immediately mocked Obama for suggesting that race — and not his policies — is the reason for his dismal numbers.
“I’m fine with losing my job, losing insurance, being audited. I just can’t stand that he’s black,” said one tweeter, cramming the weak economy, Obamacare and the IRS’s scrutiny of political nonprofits into one tweet.
"totally worthless, transgenders face no hardship here”
Bad anonymous is not in any position to know what hardships transpeople face in Maryland. He just pulls such comments out of his butt which is actually quite a feat given that he has to squeeze them past his head.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Freedom Industries, the company that fouled thousands of West Virginians' water with a chemical leak last week, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today.
This company lacks the assets to clean up their own messes. So have filed for bankruptcy.
A real winner here.
To all this can be added the fact that Freedom Industries was cofounded by an individual named Carl Lemley Kennedy II. As the Charleston Gazette has reported, Kennedy filed for personal bankruptcy in 2005 after he was hit with federal charges of tax evasion and failure to remit employee withholding taxes. He is reported to have admitted to diverting more than $1 million that should have gone to the Internal Revenue Service.
Kennedy's involvement in Freedom Industries, the Gazette notes, does not seem to have been affected by the fact that he had once pleaded guilty to selling cocaine in connection with a scandal that involved the mayor of Charleston. The paper quotes the current mayor, who is said to have known Kennedy since the 1980s, as an "edgy guy."
Another remarkable aspect of the story reported by the Gazette is that Freedom Industries was struggling in 2009, and its Elk River facility was able to go on functioning only after the Army Corps of Engineers dredged that portion of the river using federal stimulus funds.
To summarize: a tax evader and drug dealer helped to establish a largely unregulated chemical company that benefitted from the federal stimulus but apparently did little in the way of preventive maintenance and set the stage for large-scale drinking water contamination.
"Bad anonymous is not in any position to know what hardships transpeople face in Maryland"
nor do you, you lousy subject of the Queen
but, in any case, the remedy to any hardship is simple
change your ways
no one is forcing these guys to act and dress like girls
stop acting like the world owes you a living and make it so people want you around
that's what everyone else has to do
and if you would really, really like to be a girl when you aren't, play your games with your recreational time and not at work
not really much of a hardship at all
right?
Oregon investigators say a Christian cake maker acted unlawfully when he declined to use his creative expression to support a same-sex ceremony last year.
Aaron Klein, of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, told a couple that because of his beliefs about marriage, he would not be able to make them the cake. One of the women filed suit claiming he violated the Oregon Equity Act.
Aaron’s wife, Melissa Klein, posted a Facebook update Friday responding to the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI):
To all of you that have been praying for Aaron and I, I want to say thank you. I know that your prayers are being heard. I feel such a peace with all of this that is going on. Even though there are days that are hard and times of struggle we still feel that the Lord is in this. It is His fight and our situation is in His hands.e still feel that the Lord is in this. It is His fight and our situation is in His hands.
The couple owns and operates the bakery together. In the fall, they closed down the company’s physical location after activists launched boycotts and threatened other vendors who did business with the Kleins. They now operate the company solely online.
In November, Friends of Religious Freedom (FRF) filed an initiative that would let voters approve protections for business owners of faith. The initiative would mean that those with deeply held religious beliefs would be exempt from supporting same-sex ceremonies.
“We are deeply concerned that even Oregon elected officials are becoming hostile toward religious freedom,” said FRF Spokeswoman Teresa Harke.
She noted comments state Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian previously made about the situation. “The goal is never to shut down a business,” he said. “The goal is to rehabilitate.”
Harke found this concerning.
“It is very troubling that Oregon elected officials believe people of faith or with conscientious objections need to be ‘rehabilitated,’” she said.
Meanwhile, the Kleins will need to settle — if not the labor department may pursue charges via an administrative judge, according to The Oregonian.
Melissa wrote on her Facebook page that she and Aaron will know what fines they face within 60 days.
“I can’t say much more but will update when I’m able to,” she wrote. “Please continue to pray for our family. God is great, amazing and powerful. I know he has a plan.”
here we sit in Washington, D.C., subtropical capital of the greatest nation on Earth
by midnight, we will have up to a foot of snow and wind chills below zero
adding to the proof to the 12,000 studies that global warming has arrived
oh, the geniuses tell us that the last ten years have been the hottest on record
hard to remember what it was like before it got so warm
oh, and no one event proves anything
why does it seem like that phrase gets uttered over and over again the last fifteen years?
when does a series of unfortunate events become a trend?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
What do young Americans want? Something different from what they've been getting from the president they voted for by such large margins.
The reasons for Millennials' decreased approval of Obama become clear from a Harvard Institute of Politics poll of 18- to 29-year-olds conducted in November.
That poll shows Obama's job approval dipping to 41 percent, the lowest rating in any HIOP survey.
One reason for the decline is Obamacare. Only 38 percent approved of Obamacare (39 percent approved of "the Affordable Care Act"). Only 29 percent of those who were uninsured said they would definitely or probably enroll in the health insurance exchanges.
Those results were registered five to nine weeks after the Oct. 1 healthcare.gov rollout. Tech-savvy millennials must have been astonished that government produced a website that didn't work.
They also perceived, accurately, that Obamacare health insurance would cost them a lot. The law passed by Democrats elected in large part with millennial votes was designed to have people under 30 subsidize the insurance premiums of those older, less healthy people over 50.
The old tend to have significant net worth, and the young -- with credit card and student loan debt -- tend to owe more than they own. Evidently, the Obama Democrats think it's progressive for the young to subsidize the working-age old.
That, after all, is the essence of Social Security, whose benefits some left-wing Democrats want to increase.
But millennials, whose penchant for volunteering is admirably high, are not being simply selfish. The Harvard survey also finds that they tend to believe, by a 44- to 17-percent margin, that the quality of their health care will get worse under Obamacare.
That suggests a healthy skepticism about the ability of a government, a government that lied about whether you could keep your insurance and your doctor, and couldn't construct a workable website, to produce a system that will improve service delivery.
That skepticism may owe something to young Americans' experience with student loans. Some 57 percent of the Harvard study millennials say that student loan debt is a major problem for young people. The responses don't vary much by political party identification.
Once again, the millennials have a point. The Obama administration did not initiate government student loans, but it continues to speak of them approvingly.
Yet it's obvious that the vast sums government-subsidized student loans have pumped into higher education over the last three decades have been largely captured by colleges and universities and transformed into administrative bloat.
Economics blogger Timothy Taylor notes that if you count prices in 1982-84 as 100, the average cost of all items in the consumer price index increased to 231 in September 2012. Energy, housing and transportation all increased about that much.
But college and tuition fees increased to 706 -- seven times the level when the government started pumping money into higher ed. Medical care increased to more than 400.
Suddenly, in their early adult years, millennials find themselves socked with the inflated costs of higher education and, thanks to Obamacare, those of older people's health care.
In the meantime, in the Obama new normal economy, they aren't finding jobs -- and may be giving up on looking for them.
Labor force participation among those 55 and over has held steady since 2009. But labor force participation among those younger has been declining, as have earnings of college graduates.
The combination of higher education and health care costs and the new normal economy amount to what analyst Walter Russell Mead calls "the war on the young."
No wonder they're unhappy with the president who promised hope and change. They're in the market for an alternative.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has adopted a new state marketing strategy.
Here is Cuomo’s pitch on a recent radio program: Referring to divisions within the Republican Party, he asked, “Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are, and if they are the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.” Only “moderate Republicans have a place in this state.”
So, Virginia is for Lovers. Maryland is for Crabs. New York is for liberals, and for moderates Cuomo chooses to tolerate.
The governor of New York is not only putting a damper on conservative tourism to see “The Book of Mormon” or “Kinky Boots” on Broadway, he also is displaying one of the worst tendencies of modern liberalism. Cuomo does not deign to argue with New Yorkers who oppose abortion, support a maximalist interpretation of the Second Amendment or defend the position on gay marriage held by Barack Obama when he was first elected president. These extreme views, according to Cuomo, are fundamentally illiberal and foreign to the values of his state. Such positions are not to be engaged with and refuted; they are to be marginalized.
We are accustomed to this approach within the gates of certain colleges and universities that have vague, open-ended speech codes intended to stigmatize certain viewpoints. This is often taken by ideologues as implicit permission to shout down differing opinions. The power to define the boundaries of acceptable discourse is the power to intimidate.
Academic liberals tend to regard universities as “our place,” in which others may stay as long as they behave. Now Cuomo has applied this attitude to the whole of the Empire State. From a provost, this is a violation of academic freedom. From a government official, it is an attack on genuine pluralism.
Cuomo is clearly frustrated with opposition to elements of his social agenda (his abortion rights expansion bill was blocked last summer). His life would be easier without critics. So he is telling various Catholic bishops and priests, Republican politicians and conservative groups that their opinions are outside the norms of state politics. Cuomo has reached an advanced stage of political polarization: regarding one’s democratic opponents as unfit for democracy. I imagine the feeling will now (in some quarters) be returned. And so the spiral continues — sometimes leftward, sometimes rightward, ever downward.
This is dangerous in a democracy, not only because the rights of individuals are important but also because diversity of opinion balances factions against each other.
Given his family background, Cuomo also symbolizes a shift in the nature of Catholic engagement within the Democratic Party. When Cuomo’s father, Mario Cuomo, was governor of New York, he felt compelled to offer tortuous theological and philosophical justifications for holding pro-choice views as a Catholic public official.
Andrew Cuomo, in contrast, proposed to remove most meaningful restrictions on post-viability abortions in New York, and then declared pro-lifers to be aliens in his promised land. What the younger Cuomo lacks in rhetorical skill he makes up for in chilling clarity. Even a fig leaf of internal conflict no longer seems required on matters of Catholic conscience.
Cuomo holds one of the most prominent public offices in the United States. He is regarded by some Democrats as Plan B if Hillary Clinton does not run for president. And he apparently believes that the views of a significant minority of citizens have no place in his state. Does anyone find this troubling enough to object? It’s up to you, New York, New York.
Someone summarized Barack Obama in three words -- "educated," "smart" and "ignorant." Unfortunately, those same three words would describe all too many of the people who come out of our most prestigious colleges and universities today.
President Obama seems completely unaware of how many of the policies he is trying to impose have been tried before, in many times and places around the world, and have failed time and again. Economic equality?
That was tried in the 19th century, in communities set up by Robert Owen, the man who coined the term "socialism." Those communities all collapsed.
It was tried even earlier, in 18th century Georgia, when that was a British colony. People in Georgia ended up fleeing to other colonies, as many other people would vote with their feet in the 20th century, by fleeing many other societies around the world that were established in the name of economic equality.
But who reads history these days? Moreover, those parts of history that would undermine the vision of the left -- which prevails in our education system from elementary school to postgraduate study -- are not likely to get much attention.
The net results are bright people, with impressive degrees, who have been told for years how brilliant they are, but who are often ignorant of facts that might cause them to question what they have been indoctrinated with in schools and colleges.
There is the current hysteria which claims that people in the famous "top one percent" have incomes that are rising sharply and absorbing a wholly disproportionate share of all the income in the country.
But check out a Treasury Department study titled "Income Mobility in the U.S. from 1996 to 2005." It uses income tax data, showing that people who were in the top one percent in 1996 had their incomes fall -- repeat, fall -- by 26 percent by 2005.
What about the other studies that seem to say the opposite? Those are studies of income brackets, not studies of the flesh-and-blood human beings who are moving from one bracket to another over time. More than half the people who were in the top one percent in 1996 were no longer there in 2005.
This is hardly surprising when you consider that their incomes were going down while there was widespread hysteria over the belief that their incomes were going up.
Empirical studies that follow income brackets over time repeatedly reach opposite conclusions from studies that follow individuals. But people in the media, in politics and even in academia, cite statistics about income brackets as if they are discussing what happens to actual human beings over time.
All too often when liberals cite statistics, they forget the statisticians' warning that correlation is not causation.
For example the New York Times crusaded for government-provided prenatal care, citing the fact that black mothers had prenatal care less often than white mothers -- and that there were higher rates of infant mortality among blacks.
But was correlation causation? American women of Chinese, Japanese and Filipino ancestry also had less prenatal care than whites -- and lower rates of infant mortality than either blacks or whites.
When statistics showed that black applicants for conventional mortgage loans were turned down at twice the rate for white applicants, the media went ballistic crying racial discrimination. But whites were turned down almost twice as often as Asian Americans -- and no one thinks that is racial discrimination.
Facts are not liberals' strong suit. Rhetoric is.
"by midnight, we will have up to a foot of snow and wind chills below zero"
Yeah, but don't forget....
Washington DC Weather Jan. 20, 2014: High 59 degrees, that was 16 degrees above average
Heatwave halts Australian Open tennis matches
"Jan. 16, 2014: Soaring temperatures have halted matches at the Australian Open tennis tournament, as a report warns that the country will see hotter heatwaves.
Melbourne, where the tournament is held, is seeing a third consecutive day of heat above 40C, with temperatures of 41.7C (107F) on Thursday.
Australia's Climate Council says in a report that the number of hot days in the country has "more than doubled".
2013 was recently declared Australia's hottest year on record.
The Climate Council report attributed the development to climate change, caused by greenhouse gases.
Fire bans are in place across the states of Victoria and South Australia, as firefighters battle bushfires.
In Victoria, several fire emergency warnings have been issued, as fires in the Northern Grampians area merged into one "out of control" bushfire and residents were urged to evacuated...
...'A thousand fires'
Meanwhile, an interim report from the Climate Council said the number of heatwaves in Australia was "projected to increase significantly."
"Both the duration and frequency of heatwaves" had increased between 1971 and 2008, it said.
"As greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, more heat is trapped in the lower atmosphere," the report added.
"This increases the likelihood that hot weather will occur and that heatwaves will become longer and more intense."
In the South Australian capital, Adelaide, temperatures were forecast to reach 46C, nearing the city's record of 46.1C.
Victoria Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said earlier on Thursday: "A thousand fires have been reported over the past 24 hours and 39 of those are still listed as going."
South Australia fire services co-ordinator Leigh Miller said some firefighters had started to develop "heat exhaustion-type issues".
"Fighting fires in 40 odd degrees weather with little sleep is a real problem for us."
Forecasters say the extreme heat in much of south-eastern Australia is not expected to ease until the weekend, the BBC's Jon Donnison reports."
Highs hit 90 as heat wave continues to grip Southern California
"January 15, 2014: A winter heat wave continued across Southern California on Wednesday, setting or tying record temperatures for the day and creating extreme fire conditions across parched wildland areas.
Point Mugu Naval Air Station, Fullerton and Camp Pendleton each topped out at 90 degrees, which were the highest temperatures in the nation, according to the National Weather Service.
Downtown Los Angeles hit 85, tying a daily record set in 2009. Bob Hope Airport in Burbank recorded a high of 86 degrees, breaking by one degree a record for the day set in 1976.
Santa Barbara Airport also broke a daily record, topping out at 82 degrees. The previous record of 81 degrees was set in 1991, the Weather Service said..."
Its been unusually mild for January here too with daytime highs near or slightly above freezing as compared to normal daytime highs of -20 or so. That ought to be all the proof bad anonymous needs to believe global warming is happening as he thinks a localize cool period is proof that it isn't. Of course those of us who aren't willfully stupid know that a localized warming or cooling period by itself doesn't prove anything but bad anonymous thinks it does so by his own logic global warming is proven.
"Over the weekend, we found out what it takes to get suspended from the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP). It involves writing a letter to your local newspaper that begins like this:
“Since the passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, the nation has been beset by serious storms and floods.”
The letter, written by Councillor David Silvester, only gets worse from there. “Is this just global warming or is there something more serious at work?” he asked of the country’s devastating weather. Silvester continued:
I wrote to David Cameron in April 2012 to warn him that disasters would accompany the passage of his same sex marriage Bill.
“But he went ahead despite a 600,000-signature petition by concerned Christians and more than half of his own parliamentary party saying that he should not do so.
“Now, even as Cameron sheds crocodile tears on behalf of destitute flooded homeowners, playing at advocate against the very local councils he has made cash-strapped, it is his fault that large swathes of the nation have been afflicted by storms and floods.
He has arrogantly acted against the Gospel that once made Britain ‘great’ and the lesson surely to be learned is that no man or men, however powerful, can mess with Almighty God with impunity and get away with it for everything a nation does is weighed on the scaled of divine approval or disapproval.”
(U.S. conservatives, it should be noted, beat Silvester to the punch on this one: back in November, then-potential Senate candidate David Barton calmly explained how recent disastrous climate events were actually God punishing us for abortion, our support for which opened the doors to murder, pedophilia and, yes, floods.)
While there was enough outrage over Silvester’s comments, the sheer ridiculousness of his trying to connect same-sex marriage and floods has of course been met with aggressive mockery.
At the Guardian, Dean Burnett sought a scientific explanation for the gay-weather connection:
Logically, same-sex marriage leads to an increase in the number of weddings. Weddings invariably involve a large number of people congregating in one place, which leads to a lot of body heat and warming, and this heat enters the atmosphere, increasing the air temperature and producing more warm fronts. People also cry a lot at weddings. This is likely to be even more pronounced at same-sex weddings, with the added element of recently achieved equality making the events even more poignant. Tears are basically water, which quickly evaporate, thus adding to the water content of the atmosphere. Weddings also typically involve a lot of alcohol, which makes people colder, meaning they’re more likely to turn on heating systems when they arrive home, releasing more heat and CO2 into the atmosphere."
look, someone with common sense:
"The Hill, the newspaper that covers Congress, says this year, there will be a major policy battle over "climate change." Why?
We already waste billions on pointless gestures that make people think we're addressing global warming, but the earth doesn't notice or care.
What exactly is "global warming" anyway? That's really four questions:
1. Is the globe warming? Probably. Global temperatures have risen. Climate changes. Always has. Always will.
2. Is the warming caused by man? Maybe. There's decent evidence that at least some of it is.
3. But is global warming a crisis? Far from it. It's possible that it will become a crisis.
Some computer models suggest big problems, but the models aren't very accurate. Some turned out to be utterly wrong. Clueless scaremongers like Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Cal., seize on weather disasters to blame man's carbon output. After Oklahoma's tragic tornadoes last year, Boxer stood on the floor of the Senate and shrieked, "Carbon could cost us the planet!" But there were actually fewer tornadoes last summer.
4. If the globe is warming, can America do anything about it? No. What we do now is pointless. I feel righteous riding my bike to work. That's just shallow. Even if all Americans replaced cars with bicycles, switched to fluorescent light bulbs, got solar water heaters, etc., it would have no discernible effect on the climate. China builds a new coal-fueled power plant almost every week; each one obliterates any carbon reduction from all our windmills and solar panels.
Weirdly, the only thing that's reduced America's carbon output has been our increased use of natural gas (it releases less greenhouse gas than oil and coal). But many environmentalists fight the fracking that produces it.
Someday, we'll probably invent technology that could reduce man's greenhouse gas creation, but we're nowhere close to it now. Rather than punish poor people with higher taxes on carbon and award ludicrous subsidies to Al Gore's "green" investments, we should wait for the science to advance.
If serious warming happens, we can adjust, as we've adjusted to big changes throughout history. It will be easier to adjust if America is not broke after wasting our resources on trendy gimmicks like windmills.
Environmental activists say that if we don't love their regulations, we "don't care about the earth." Bunk. We can love nature and still hate the tyranny of bureaucrats' rules.
The world has real problems, though: malaria, malnutrition, desperate poverty. Our own country, while relatively rich, is deep in debt. Obsessing about greenhouse gases makes it harder to address these more serious problems.
Environmentalists assume that as people get richer and use more energy, they pollute more. The opposite is true. As nations industrialize, they pay more attention to pollution. Around the world, it's the most prosperous nations that now have the cleanest air and water.
Industrialization allows people to use fewer resources. Instead of burning trees for power, we make electricity from natural gas. We figure out how to get more food from smaller pieces of land.
And one day we'll probably even invent energy sources more efficient than oil and gas. We'll use them because they're cost-effective, not because government forces us to.
So let's chill out about global warming. We don't need more micromanagement from government. We need less.
Then free people -- and rapidly increasing prosperity -- will create a better world."
just goes to show,
Americans aren't lazy thinkers like Canadians
I bet lazy Priya feels preeetty stupid right about now!
yeah, my climate has changed to subzero wind chills here in Washington while lazy Priya cackles on
if we can survive this, I think we can put up with a few summer heat waves
the economic disruption envisioned by warmist alarmists would cause widespread suffering, bourne mainly by the world's impoverished citizens
fortunately, no one much listens to the nuts anymore
they sitting in places like the dark corner of sullen apartments in Saskatchewan, scouring the internet for something to justify their flawed theories that never produce the predicted results
how gullible so they think we are?
The American Voting Experience:
Report and Recommendations of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration
"....Our examination spanned six months of public hearings and included consultations with state and local election officials, academic experts, and organizations and associations in- volved in one form or another with voting or election administration. In connection with testimony provided to the Commission, the Caltech-MIT Voting Technology Project also conducted a comprehensive survey of the views of thousands of local election officials around the country. As a result, the Commission presents its unanimous recommendations, together with an array of best practices in election administration, which will significantly improve the American voter’s experience and promote confidence in the administration of U.S. elections.
...the Commission’s key recommendations call for:
• modernization of the registration process through continued expansion of online voter registration and expanded state collaboration in improving the accuracy of voter lists;
• measures to improve access to the polls through expansion of the period for voting before the traditional Election Day, and through the selection of suitable, well-equipped polling place facilities, such as schools;
• state-of-the-art techniques to assure efficient management of polling places, including tools the Commission is publicizing and recommending for the efficient allocation of polling place resources; and,
• reforms of the standard-setting and certification process for new voting technology to address soon-to-be antiquated voting machines and to encourage innovation and the adoption of widely available off-the-shelf technologies."
I hope this report goes a long way to eliminating the need for some voters to wait many hours in long lines simply to exercise their Constitutional right to vote.
gee, why didn't I think of that?
we just need to use "state of the art techniques"
brilliant
I don't remember there ever being lines before Obama started paying people to vote for him
"measures to improve access to the polls through expansion of the period for voting before the traditional Election Day,"
this is great
it will give Dems more time to round up people who wouldn't usually bother to vote and put them on a bus and pay them to vote for the lunatic fringe
perfect example of a worthless commission:
"modernization of the registration process through continued expansion of online voter registration and expanded state collaboration in improving the accuracy of voter lists"
in other words, continue and expand what you're already doing
wouldn't that have happened anyway?
"measures to improve access to the polls through expansion of the period for voting before the traditional Election Day, and through the selection of suitable, well-equipped polling place facilities, such as schools"
in other words, keep doing what you're doing
thanks, we needed that
"state-of-the-art techniques to assure efficient management of polling places, including tools the Commission is publicizing and recommending for the efficient allocation of polling place resources"
well, any chance you could tell us what those tools are?
or is it one of those things where you would have to kill us if you tell us?
"reforms of the standard-setting and certification process for new voting technology to address soon-to-be antiquated voting machines and to encourage innovation"
encourage innovation?
wow, what genius thought up that one?
glad we now have a commission issuing its predetermined propaganda
priceless
Facts from Forbes for the Bubblehead echo chamber denizen:
Crazy For "Obama Phones" - But Are They For Real?
"...The bottom line is that there is free phone assistance available to those who qualify but it is not an Obama administration program. Taxpayers do support the program but not through federal income taxes. And despite the screaming lady in the video, eligibility doesn’t hinge on Social Security, disability or food stamps; there’s no “buy one bag of chips, get an Obama phone free” promotion. Just because a woman holding a sign gets a microphone in her face doesn’t make her statements true."
Oh and you might learn something here too:
More religiously conservative Protestants? More divorce, study finds
"Divorce is higher among religiously conservative Protestants – and even drives up divorce rates for other people living around them, a new study finds.
The study, slated to be published in the American Journal of Sociology, tackles the “puzzling paradox” of why divorce is more common in religiously conservative “red” states. If religious conservatives believe firmly in the value of marriage, why is divorce especially high in places like Alabama and Arkansas?
To figure that out, researchers from the University of Texas and the University of Iowa analyzed county divorce statistics against information from an earlier study of religious congregations. They categorized Protestant denominations that believe the Bible is literally true as "conservative Protestants."
Researchers discovered that higher divorce rates among conservative Protestants were tied to earlier marriages and childbearing – factors known to ramp up divorce. Starting families earlier tends to stop young adults from pursuing more education and depresses their wages, putting more strain on marriages, University of Texas at Austin professor Jennifer Glass said.
But the study went a step further: Glass and another researcher also discovered that people living in areas with lots of conservative Protestants were at higher risk of getting divorced, even if they weren’t conservative Protestants themselves.
County by county, for every 1% increase in the share of conservative Protestants compared with mainline Protestants, the divorce rate increased 0.02%, the study found. Glass argued that community institutions in such areas might encourage early marriage, affecting divorce rates for everyone who lives there.
“Pharmacies might not give out emergency contraception. Schools might only teach abstinence education,” Glass added. On top of that, “if you live in a marriage market where everybody marries young, you postpone marriage at your own risk. The best catches … are going to go first.”
The study also found that it was not poverty nor higher rates of marriage, on the whole, that were driving up divorce in “red” counties, as others had theorized..."
This Map Of U.S. Divorce Rates Shows Where Marriages Go To Die
Virginia Attorney General Says Gay Marriage Ban Is Unconstitutional And Will Not Defend It
"RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Following a seismic political shift in Virginia's top elected offices, the new attorney general has concluded that the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional and he will no longer defend it in federal lawsuits, his office said Thursday.
Virginia, widely considered a battleground state in the nationwide fight to grant same-sex couples the right to wed, will instead side with the plaintiffs who are seeking to have the ban struck down, a spokesman for Attorney General Mark Herring said in an email to The Associated Press.
"After a thorough legal review of the matter, Attorney General Herring has concluded that Virginia's current ban is in violation of the U.S. constitution and he will not defend it," spokesman Michael Kelly wrote.
Herring, a Democrat who campaigned in part on marriage equality, planned to file a brief Thursday morning with the federal court in Norfolk, where one of the lawsuits is being heard, as notification of the state's change in position in the case, Kelly said.
The state's shift comes on the heels of court rulings in which federal judges struck down gay marriage bans in Utah and Oklahoma.
The lawsuits in Virginia say the state's ban violates the Constitution's equal protection and due process clauses.
With the election of Democrats Terry McAuliffe as governor and Herring as attorney general, Virginia made a hairpin turn away from the socially conservative officeholders they succeeded, particularly Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, an activist on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage. McAuliffe issued an executive order on inauguration day prohibiting discrimination against state employees who are gay.
Virginia voters approved the same-sex marriage ban 57 percent to 43 percent in 2006. But a Quinnipiac University poll in July found that 50 percent of registered Virginia voters support same-sex marriage, while 43 percent oppose it. The survey's margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Proponents of striking down the state's ban say the issue resonates in Virginia in particular because of a landmark 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving a Virginia couple and interracial marriage..."
abstinence education increases divorce rate?
duh...
obviously, if you live in the liberal megapolis or on the left coast and just live together instead of committing to marriage, divorces will be less frequent
news flash: you have to marry to get divorced
in the South, people who aren't churchgoing believers might still feel social pressure to not live in sin
that may increase the percentage getting divorced of those who get married but society is still better off
the social costs of unmarried mothers in the Northern inner cities is well documents
those single mothers got pregnant without being married and are raising at-risk kids without a father
that's the liberal way to keep the divorce rate down!
Ask Bristol Palin how her abstinence-only sex education, her subsequent high school pregnancy, and her plans to marry her teenaged baby daddy worked out.
Maybe it was just another virgin birth.
ask all the young women in the inner city, not as fortunate as the Palins, who got pregnant and are raising teen boys without a father what they think of their high school curriculums that told them that abstinence education doesn't work
go ahead
take a stroll in Anacostia and ask all the single mothers if they wished the schools would teach that girls should wait until a man has committed to marriage before having sex with him
be sure and duck when you hear gunfire
ask America what a great job they think Obama is doing:
As President Obama starts his sixth year in office, his job ratings remain near record lows and more voters think his policies have hurt rather than helped the economy.
A third of voters say they like both Obama and his policies -- a dramatic drop from 47 percent who felt that way in October 2012. In addition, 62 percent now say they dislike the president’s policies, up from 51 percent the month before his re-election.
Voters aren’t impressed with Obama’s economic policies: while 27 percent think they’ve helped, 73 percent don’t.
Most voters -- 74 percent -- say it still feels like the country is in a recession. The silver lining for the president is this is an improvement over the 86 percent who felt that way in September 2010.
ask the editor of the New Yprk Times if she thinks Obama believes in the constitutional right to a free press:
In a new interview with Al Jazeera America, New York Times editor Alice Abramson called the Obama administration "the most secretive" she has ever had to contend with.
Speaking to the network's John Seigenthaler, Abramson pointed to the administration's unprecedented number of leak investigations:
"It is the most secretive White House that I have ever been involved in covering...I dealt directly with the Bush White House when they had concerns that stories we were about to run put the national security under threat. But, you know, they were not pursuing criminal leak investigations. The Obama administration has had seven criminal leak investigations. It's on a scale never seen before. This is the most secretive White House that, at least as a journalist, I have ever dealt with."
She added that the decision to be so aggressive towards the press "would have to" come directly from President Obama himself.
Abramson has spoken out against the Obama administration's handling of the press before. In June of 2013, when the revelation of the Justice Department's surveillance of reporters came out, she said she was "concerned that the process of news gathering is being criminalized."
"WASHINGTON -- Whether or not Mike Huckabee is at all serious when he says he's thinking about another presidential run in 2016, what he says still matters to the conservative evangelical wing of the Republican party.
And many in that wing also belong to the tea party movement, whose appetite to take on Republicans in primary elections has not abated -- even when that has meant putting ideological purity ahead of electability.
On Thursday at the Republican National Committee winter meeting, Huckabee did not name any names, but he sent a clear signal to organizations like the Senate Conservatives Fund, Heritage Action, FreedomWorks and others who are supporting efforts to defeat elected Republicans, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Just stop it, Huckabee said.
"Whatever differences we have, compared to the differences that we have to the other party, they're small," Huckabee said at a lunch. "And that's why I've asked Republicans, let's stop using the term 'RINO'" -- Republican In Name Only.
Huckabee, the 58-year-old former Arkansas governor, has been beloved by grassroots conservatives for years, going back to his insurgent run for president in 2008, when he won the Iowa caucus and gave eventual nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) a run for his money.
But Huckabee does have a contentious relationship with some outside conservative groups. The Club For Growth spent $750,000 running ads against Huckabee in 2008, according to Federal Election Commission reports, accusing him of raising taxes as Arkansas governor and framing him as fiscally irresponsible.
"Let's stop calling each other somehow less Republican than someone else. Be for the person you're for," Huckabee said.
He said that he will be traveling to Auschwitz next week for the anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp, and noted that the horror of the Holocaust began with the devaluation of people.
"It all started when people were devalued, when people were deemed 'less than someone else,'" Huckabee said. "We look back on that time in history and we think, 'How can educated people, university trained, how can a nation like Germany with all of its resources, with its vast level of its population with higher education, get to a place where they can do something so heinous?' You realize that the only way you can end up there is when you start with the idea that people just aren't as valuable as you are."
The clear implication by Huckabee was that those within the GOP who make a habit of demeaning others as not conservative enough are flirting with behavior that can have grave ramifications down the road. It was a serious charge.
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, said that because of his Christian faith, "the one thing that I have to constantly remind myself is that none of us are better than another, and no one is less than any of us."
"And if I accept that for the great human family, and I'm willing to value every human life as having worth and intrinsic value, then surely I'll be able to value the life of those who voluntarily join me in a party that I joined when I was a teenager," he said.
Huckabee told the assembled Republicans that their party should engage Democrats on questions of income inequality, poverty and other issues that some conservatives think the party should shy away from.
"I ask us, let's fight the real battle," Huckabee said. "The real battle in this country is joblessness, it's poverty. It's despair, the lack of hope."
Huckabee told reporters before his speech Thursday that he is giving another presidential run a serious look, because the encouragement to do so "has been much stronger than I would have anticipated.""
"As President Obama starts his sixth year in office..."
ROFL Thanks for the Fox News poll
But you missed one
"The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 49% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Obama's job performance. Fifty percent (50%) disapprove (see trends).
The latest figures include 25% who Strongly Approve of the way Obama is performing as president"
if you're ROFL about that, check this out, from the Waaashington Post
If you looked at today’s headlines and had to advise Republicans on the 2014 midterm elections, you might give them the wrong idea. The anti-Republican media is working overtime to convince voters that the Republicans are wounded and in disarray. They are contorting themselves to keep the story about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) in the news and no doubt will linger over every detail of the personal downfall of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell (R) and his wife. Meanwhile, the media flatter the pointless gubernatorial campaign of Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, a Democrat. But if you look at the facts — and ignore the media hype — you will see the real drivers of votes in November will be the economy and Obamacare. Even as the liberal media try to quietly usher these twin embarrassments off the front pages, recent developments can’t be encouraging to Democrats — starting with today’s Quinnipiac poll, which shows that 56 percent of Americans disapprove of how President Obama is handling the economy and only 36 percent approve of how he is handling Obamacare.
We take fleeting comfort in the occasional economic indicator that isn’t awful, but the reality is that growth is stagnant, at best, with gross domestic product growth likely to remain between only 2 percent and 2.5 percent. And more than 23 million American households – 20 percent – rely on food stamps. The Washington Examiner published part of a memo by Wall Street adviser David John Marotta, who reminds us that, “officially reported unemployment numbers decrease when enough time passes to discourage the unemployed from looking for work.” And “discouraged” seems to describe how many Americans feel. Marotta also calculated that the misery index — today’s true unemployment rate plus the true inflation figure — is 14.7 percent, the worst in 40 years.
And Obamacare is not making things better. There are plenty of commentators on the left who want to declare that Obamacare has taken root, is working and is here to stay. But so far, the data the administration has released about Obamacare enrollments suggest that people are signing up because their insurance policies — the ones they liked and were told by the president they could keep — were canceled because of Obamacare. Yesterday, in what seems to be a growing trend, we learned that Target no longer will offer health insurance to its part-time workers. This is just another example of how Obamacare is not only failing in its goal of providing health insurance to the estimated 45 million Americans who don’t have it, but is, for the time being, increasing the number of uninsured Americans.
Megan McArdle of Bloomberg News wrote a smart piece this week, saying that Obamacare is actually beyond rescue because “the original vision of the law will not be fulfilled — the cost-controlling, delivery-system-improving, health-enhancing, deficit-reducing, highly popular, tightly integrated (and smoothly functioning) system for ensuring that everyone who wants coverage can get it” and because “the law still lacks the political legitimacy to survive in the long term.” And Obamacare is deeply unpopular among voters.
Oh, and by the way, while nobody was paying attention? In the latest GWU/Battleground generic ballot poll, Republicans are up by 2 percent. While everyone talks about how unpopular Congress is, we don’t hear a lot about how some of the most recent generic ballot polls favor Republicans.
There is no political front that looks particularly promising for the Democrats, and on what really matters — the economy and Obamacare — things appear to be getting worse.
Mike Huckabee remarks above as so obviously inane that I suspect they are either flatly false or taken out of context
but, whatever, let's look at it
"It all started when people were devalued, when people were deemed 'less than someone else,'" Huckabee said. "We look back on that time in history and we think, 'How can educated people, university trained, how can a nation like Germany with all of its resources, with its vast level of its population with higher education, get to a place where they can do something so heinous?' You realize that the only way you can end up there is when you start with the idea that people just aren't as valuable as you are."
so, when someone committed to Tea Party principles politically opposes someone who isn't that's constitutes devaluing them in a way that leads to Nazism?
why is this only true of Tea Party supporters?
liberals, for example, have long lists of people they won't even engage in debate because they consider them not worthy of a valid opinion
like the person below who would have us believe any poll by Fox News can just be ignored
well, Huckabee would be formidable and with a Scott Walker for VP would have no trouble dispatching Hillary and whoever her running mate might be (Charles Schumer, Martin O'Malley, Elizabeth Warren, the list just gets funnier and funnier from there)
honestly, I don't think Hillary will get the nomination though
people will get sick of her by then, and no one will take a pass on Benghazi
the media's keeping it in their back pocket
"ROFL Thanks for the Fox News poll
But you missed one"
actually, the Fox poll of all voters is consistent with other polls
I find it funny that you find comfort in Ramussen after the liberal attacks on him in the past
his polls of likely voters have skewed higher than other polls in the last year but they wouldn't return Obama to the white House
further, we're not having another Presidential election which is remarkably different from a mid-term one
you're ROFL and laughing?
Republicans are busting a gut
just think, last year at this time you said Republicans will have to chaaaange to get Hispanic voters
then, in October, you said they were destined for the grave yard with the Whigs and Dixiecrats and Bull Moose Parties
you guys are about as good at predictions as the global warmists alarmists
now, I'm ROFL
"Huckabee would be formidable and with a Scott Walker for VP would have no trouble dispatching Hillary"
Q: How many polls are you ignoring with that ignorant statement?
A: All of them!
ROFLMAO!!!
anyone who thinks a poll three years before a primary means much of anything must be looking forward to following an election for the first time
and, there's no other way to say this, they're a real stupid ass
"Emphasizing his role as a job creator, Gov. Scott Walker praised Christopher Barber's moxie during the governor's annual "state of the state" speech.
Barber, 32, left the ranks of the unemployed to land a seasonal job as welder at Ariens Co. in Brillion in late 2012, eventually turning that into a full-time post, according to a press release from Walker's office. Newspapers around the state ran a photo of Barber giving a big wave to the crowd as he exited the Assembly podium to a round of applause during Walker's televised address.
"These are the faces of an improving economy in our state," Walker said Wednesday of Barber and others. "Wisconsin is going back to work."
But there is a reason that Barber -- a resident of Two Rivers -- has had trouble finding steady work in the past.
Records show that he is a registered sex offender with two felonies and three drunken-driving offenses. Because of his checkered past, Barber has been in and out of jail and prison for much of the past decade, with his probation having been revoked at least twice."
"But there is a reason that Barber -- a resident of Two Rivers -- has had trouble finding steady work in the past.
Records show that he is a registered sex offender with two felonies and three drunken-driving offenses. Because of his checkered past, Barber has been in and out of jail and prison for much of the past decade, with his probation having been revoked at least twice."
Wow!
Walker must be doing a great job if even someone with such a past can find work.
We need someone like that in Washington.
btw, did you hear the latest?
the FBI are investigating a DEMOCRATIC Senator from New Joisey
he may have committed another of those felonies that Democratics are known for
"RICHMOND, Va., Jan 24 (Reuters) - Former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife are scheduled to make their first court appearances on federal bribery charges on Friday.
McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were charged this week in a 14-count indictment with accepting bribes from the chief executive of a dietary supplements maker, Star Scientific Inc.
The pair are scheduled to make an initial appearance and be arraigned in federal court, a court filing shows.
McDonnell - who left office this month and was once seen as a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016 - and his wife are alleged to have accepted gifts that included cash, golf fees and clothing, the grand jury indictment said. In exchange, they arranged for Star Scientific executives to meet government officials who could help their business, it said.
The McDonnells, both 59, have denied the charges. If convicted, the couple could face decades in prison and fines totaling well over $1 million.
The indictment portrays McDonnell and his wife, a former cheerleader for the National Football League's Washington Redskins, as short on money and unable to pay the bills for beachfront houses they owned but were renting out.
The relationship with Star Scientific founder and Chief Executive Jonnie Williams began when Wiliams lent his private jet to McDonnell during his 2009 campaign for governor, the indictment said.
The McDonnells got more than $135,000 in direct payments as gifts and loans, as well as thousands of dollars more in golf outings, the indictment said.
Gifts to the couple and their family ranged from a $6,500 Rolex watch for McDonnell, to wedding and engagement presents and money for his daughters and a $15,000 shopping spree for the first lady.
The indictment also alleges the couple attempted to conceal the gifts from Williams and failed to disclose loans from him.
McDonnell said in July he had repaid $120,000 in loans from Williams, who resigned last month as Star Scientific's CEO.
Current Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, has imposed a $100 limit on gifts to him, his family or members of his administration."
while I agree that McDonnell's involvement with this businessman was inappropriate, there is no case that he did anything illegal
wasting taxpayer money on frivolous harassment needs to stop
another Obama scandal, and the year is young
as noted by the editor of the NY Times this week, Barack Obama continues to misuse his office to harass political dissent
first, reporters are under indictment for "leaks",
then the IRS targets the Tea Party,
and now, making documentary that don't glorify the Dear Leader can get you arrested
Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, whose documentary 2016: Obama's America took a critical look at President Barack Obama and was a surprise hit in 2012, will be arrested in New York on Friday for allegedly violating campaign-finance laws.
Federal authorities accuse D'Souza of donating more than is legal to the campaign of Wendy Long, who ran in 2012 for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton but lost to now-Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Long, though, is not mentioned in the indictment.
Insiders say D'Souza has been friends with Long since they attended Dartmouth College together in the early 1980s. According to the indictment, D'Souza donated $20,000 to Long's campaign by aggregating the money from various people and falsely reporting the source of the funds. But Gerald Molen, a co-producer of 2016, says the charge is politically motivated.
"In America, we have a long tradition of not doing what is commonly done in too many other countries -- criminalizing dissent through the selective enforcement of the law," Molen said.
D'Souza first learned he was being investigated in the middle of 2013, several months after "2016" had earned $33 million at the box office and become the second-most-popular political documentary in U.S. history. The film included an interview with Obama's half-brother, George Obama, who was critical of the president.
Molen says D'Souza is being singled out for "an alleged minor violation" in the same way the IRS reportedly targeted conservative Tea Party groups for retribution. "In light of the recent events and the way the IRS has been used to stifle dissent, this arrest should send shivers down the spines of all freedom-loving Americans," Molen says.
D'Souza was in San Diego working on his next film and book, each to be called America, when he was informed he was about to be indicted and that he should fly to New York and turn himself in to authorities. The indictment came late Thursday, according to those with knowledge of the situation.
D'Souza's upcoming film America is due in theaters July 4 and is co-produced by Molen, who won a best picture Oscar for Schindler's List, and Gray Frederickson, who won a best picture Oscar for The Godfather Part II. D'Souza wrote and stars in the film, which is directed by John Sullivan. The filmmakers are vowing to release the film on schedule if they are not arrested first.
"We believe this is an unfortunate misunderstanding arising out of Dinesh D'Souza's desire to help the uphill campaign of a friend," a statement from the filmmakers reads. "There was no intent to do anything illegal or corrupt in any way. This will have no impact on the film America, which will be released on the Fourth of July this year as previously announced. Filming is on schedule and D'Souza will continue to lead the enterprise."
D'Souza has been cooperating with authorities. He will surrender Friday for processing and be arraigned in the Southern District of New York.
Benjamin Brafman, an attorney for D'Souza, said that his client "did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever ... at worst this was an act of misguided friendship by D'Souza."
Molen added: "When American citizens begin to suspect that people are being arrested for alleged minor violations because of their vocal dissent against their elected representatives or rulers, it breeds disrespect and contempt for the law and suspicion of those officials. … If this unfortunate action against Dinesh is intended to deter the release of his upcoming film, America, that effort will fail."
Bad anonymous said "Huckabee would be formidable and with a Scott Walker for VP would have no trouble dispatching Hillary".
What about the remaining 15 years of the Romney and Ryan presidencies you were so ecstatic about in 2012?
thanks for bringing that up, lazy Priya
yeah, Ryan will make a great Treasury Secretary
btw, we haven't been above freezing yet this week and the polar vortex is coming back tomorrow afternoon
this is what global warming is like
in the twilight zone....
doo doo do do
doo doo do do
crash
Bad anonymous in November 2012: "popular vote: Romney 52, Obama 48 you heard at TTF first, people".
Yes, we heard it and we won't let you forget it.
thanks for reminding us how close it was, lazy Priya
Obama used the IRS to harass his political opposition and keep them from organizing a winning effort
when Nixon did that, his minions were indicted and he was impeached even though his wining margin was so low that their actions likely had no effect
in Obama's case, you could make a very feasible case that his actions did sway the close election
why isn't anyone going to jail?
why aren't impeachment proceedings underway?
America won't let the Dems forget it
or the harassment of reporters, Bengahzi, Obamacare, bailouts, drone war, NSA constitutional violations, the embarrassing Syrian ultimatum, the downgrading of our debt, trillion dollar deficits, a record number who have given up trying to find work, national monument shutdowns, et al
ask the record 20% of Americans on food stamps
Bad anonymous, going back to at least 2006 when you incorrectly predicted the Republicans would clean up big time in the mid term elections your success at predicting the winner of federal elections has been much worse than would be expected if your predictions were based on random chance alone. Why should anyone treat your predictions for the 2016 election as anything other than a joke?
thanks for bringing up 2006, lazy Priya
that's was the official end of the Reagan era of low unemployment and high growth, when Americans, frustrated with the Iraq war, sent a message by electing a Democratic majority which proceeded to destroy our economy over the next two years
America now wishes it could undo the last 7 years, based on polls showing they want Republicans back in control of the Congress
weren't you predicting last year that Republicans could never win again unless they declared blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants?
weren't you predicting just a couple of months ago that Americans would never forgive Republicans for the government shutdown?
didn't you predict that Americans would love Obamacare once it was imposed on them against their will?
why should anyone treat anything you say as anything but a joke?
btw, global warmist alarmists have been wrong with every prediction going back to the nineties
you probably agree then that we should treat their predictions now as a joke
right?
"Last year there was a lot of disappointment when the Maryland legislature let a gender-identity nondiscrimination bill die"
who was disappointed?
most normal people were relieved that there was some hope for maryland
"the rights of transgender citizens are a little slow in coming"
WTF?
they have the same rights as everyone else
can you name one right denied to them that the rest of us have?
"A bill to protect transgender Marylanders from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations was filed Tuesday in Annapolis by Sen. Richard Madaleno"
The big story here is the conflict of interest. Madeleno is an admitted homosexual.
Further, the fact that he serves in the state legislature demonstrates clearly there is no need for discrimination protection for transexuals
"The bill's language is similar to that of past bills that also sought to establish a statewide ban on discrimination based on gender identity or expression, but which have all failed in recent years"
anyone thinking about the definition of insanity here?
"I think a lot of the difficulty here is that transgender people make up a very small proportion of the population, and it is a hard thing to wrap your head around"
it's not that hard
these are guys who want to be girls and they want everyone forced to pretend that's normal
"Some people simply deny that being transgender exists -- it might require some effortful perspective-taking to empathize with someone who has been assigned to the wrong gender category,"
that, and the acceptance that you are whatever gender you want to be
why stop with gender?
why not say people can be any animal they want?
and then say people have to hire them even if they show up for a job interview with a woodpecker suit on
"Transgender people are discriminated against constantly, though, and need some legal support to be equal participants in our society"
people have a right to not associate with those they consider strange
it's not the government's business to force association
"The bill is also expected to receive the support of many top ranking officials in Maryland this year, including Gov. Martin O'Malley"
bang up job on that health exchange, Martin
"The lady looking to take O'Malley's job -- Del. Heather Mizeur -- supports the legislation"
big whoop!
she's gay too!!
"Equality Maryland and Gender Rights Maryland are groups with years of power struggles between them"
the homosexual bickering is unbelievable
"btw, we haven't been above freezing yet this week and the polar vortex is coming back tomorrow afternoon
this is what global warming is like"
That's exactly right. Arctic air NOT staying in the arctic, where it belongs, which is one of the predictions of effects of climate change caused by man.
We all got to enjoy that unseasonable 59 degree high temperature on Monday, Jan 20, 2014 between the first two polar vortices of the year.
While we're freezing down south here, they set record high temperatures in Alaska yesterday:
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JUNEAU AK
645 AM AKST FRI JAN 24 2014
...RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES...[SET JAN 23 2014] THURSDAY...
HIGH TEMPERATURE RECORDS
LOCATION NEW RECORD OLD RECORD YEAR SET
JUNEAU AIRPORT 48 47 1985
AUKE BAY, COOP 46 45 1985
*LENA POINT, COOP 47 41 1991
*JUNEAU FORECAST OFFICE 46 40 2011
*JUNEAU OUTER POINT, COOP 45 38 2011
*EAGLECREST, COOP 42 38 2010
*HOONAH, COOP 48 44 1987
HAINES AIRPORT 47 44 1980
*HAINES, COOP 47 39 2006
*HAINES CUSTOMS, COOP 38 36 2006
*SKAGWAY POWER, COOP 49 42 1961
KETCHIKAN AIRPORT 51 TIED 51 1994
*KETCHIKAN 13N, COOP 50 44 2010
*CRAIG, COOP 51 48 2005
*COFFMAN COVE, COOP 47 45 2013
*POINT BAKER, COOP 46 TIED 46 2011
*PETERSBURG AIRPORT 49 48 1985
*PORT ALEXANDER, COOP 49 46 1980
YAKUTAT AIRPORT 46 45 1961
well, as bad as I feel for the Alaskans who've had to put up with these unbearably moderate temperatures, I just don't see anything happening requiring some enormous governmental regulation effort
the planet is warmer now than 200 years ago and yet the very things that are accused of causing this have made life close to a paradise for huge swaths of the planet
as the rest of the world moves in the same direction, only the alarmists would deny the third world their climb out of poverty
get out of the way of you can't lend a hand
the time they are a-changin'
Bad anonymous said "weren't you predicting last year that Republicans could never win again unless they declared blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants? weren't you predicting just a couple of months ago that Americans would never forgive Republicans for the government shutdown?".
Never said any such thing. As is typical for you you're making up B.S. and claiming I said it.
Bad anonymous said "didn't you predict that Americans would love Obamacare once it was imposed on them against their will?"
Obamacare was front and centre in the federal election, people voted on it and chose it, it wasn't imposed on them against their will. People who oppose obamacare now are the people who understand the least about it. Amongst people who understand the law the vast majority support it. When individuals were asked if they supported particular features of Obamacare more than half approved of them. Republicans have done a good job of lying to the public about Obamacare but when people understand it they overwhelmingly approve.
Bad anonymous said "btw, global warmist alarmists have been wrong with every prediction going back to the nineties".
That of course is one of your standard absurd lies. Scientists predicted that the planet would on average continue to warm and predictions made in the 90's as to how much have proven remarkably accurate. Climatoligists predicted back in the 90's that global warming would bring about more temperature extremes and more severe storms more often records since then have confirmed that. Good examples of this are superstorms Sandy and Katrina.
November 2013 and December 2013 were the warmest months on record for global temperatures and 2013 as a whole was warmer than average. Contrary to your lie that more record lows have been set than record highs, over the past decade the U.S. has experienced about two daily record high temperatures for every record low.
So, as we see, it is you who is rife with lies and failed preditions, not me.
Bad anonymous you said the American presidency is largely a ceremonial position with no power so it doesn't matter so what do you care about who is elected president anyway? Or is it that when a Democrat is president the presidency is ceremonial and without power but when a Republican is president he's "The Leader of the Free World"?
Funny how that works, eh?
A nobel prize winning intergovernmental panel's report global warming shows there will be serious consequences in the future if it is not addressed.
The report says scientists have high confidence especially in what it calls certain "key risks":
—People dying from warming- and sea rise-related flooding, especially in big cities.
—Famine because of temperature and rain changes, especially for poorer nations.
—Farmers going broke because of lack of water.
—Infrastructure failures because of extreme weather.
—Dangerous and deadly heat waves worsening.
—Certain land and marine ecosystems failing.
"Climate change indirectly increases risks from violent conflict in the form of civil war, inter-group violence and violent protests by exacerbating well-established drivers of these conflicts such as poverty and economic shocks," the report says.
These things aren't going to happen right away, Bad anonymous probably won't be affected himself but future generations will suffer greatly due to the selfishness and stupidity of people like him. I probably won't be personally affected either, but I have concern for and an obligation to future generations. Its a shame evil people like bad anonymous only think of themselves.
oh brother
now, the latest is that it won't happen in our generation
so, it can never be proven in our lifetimes
priceless
lazy Priya, we don't live on a static planet, we live on a changing one
it's always been that way
our intelligence, except for gay Canadians, insures we'll adapt
it's warmer now than 200 years ago and we're all much better off
notice you didn't mention the 12,000 studies that conform anthropogenic global warming
but why were so many done?
because the results were so inconclusive
otherwise, wouldn't 100 or so studies have sufficed?
they have made bad predictions repeatedly and rationalized wildly
Scientists say we could be headed for another "Little Ice Age," given how eerily calm the sun has been in recent years.
The sun goes through cycles that last roughly 11 years, marked by the ebb and flow of sunspots on its surface. At peak sunspot activity, the so-called solar maximum, the sun sports lots of sunspots and is steadily unleashing solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Since our current solar cycle, Number 24, kicked off in 2008, the number of sunspots observed has been half of what heliophysicists expected.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like this," Dr. Richard Harrison, head of space physics at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in England, told the BBC. "If you want to go back to see when the sun was this inactive in terms of the minimum we’ve just had and the peak that we have now, you’ve got to go back about 100 years.”
A quiet sun could cause problems. Some scientists say that this period of weak solar activity may mirror what happened before the so-called Maunder Minimum of 1645 to 1715 -- a period named after solar astronomers Annie and E. Walter Maunder, who studied sunspots and helped identify the sun's strange activity in the latter part of the 17th Century. That time period saw only 30 sunspots (one one-thousandth of what would be expected) and coincided with a "Little Ice Age" in Europe, during which the Thames River and the Baltic Sea froze over.
Mike Lockwood, professor of space environment physics at the University of Reading in the U.K., estimated that we have up to a good chance of being in Maunder Minimum conditions 40 years from now.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bad anonymous said "now, the latest is that it won't happen in our generation so, it can never be proven in our lifetimes".
You lie, I never said that. What I said was that you and I won't experience the worst of the consequences. It is undeniably happening now and the overwhelming conscensus of scientists is that climate change is a proven fact and will be catastrophic for future generations if nothing is done.
Bad anonymous said "Scientists say we could be headed for another "Little Ice Age," given how eerily calm the sun has been in recent years.".
That's total B.S. and its not "scientists", its one scientist who isn't even a climatologist. 97% of climatoligists agree that the earth is getting warmer and it is man made. If the results of those studies were inconclusive then that's what the studies would have concluded. However, they didn't conclude that, they concluded the evidence overwhelmingly shows the earth is getting warmer. Scientists that think the earth is going into a "mini-ice age" are for all practical intents and purposes virtually non-existent.
Climate change deniers are generally not climate scientists and do not debate the science with the climate scientists directly—for example, by publishing in peer-reviewed scientific journals, or participating in international conferences on climate science. Instead, they focus their attention on the media, the general public and policy-makers with the goal of delaying action on climate change.
Not surprisingly, the deniers have received significant funding from coal and oil companies, including ExxonMobil. They also have well-documented connections with public relations firms that have set up industry-funded lobby groups to, in the words of one leaked memo, "reposition global warming as theory (not fact)."
After 15 years of increasingly definitive scientific studies attesting to the reality and significance of global climate change, the deniers' tactics have shifted. Many deniers no longer deny that climate change is happening, but instead argue that the cost of taking action is too high—or even worse, that it is too late to take action. All of these arguments are false and are rejected by the scientific community at large.
The fact that people are better off now than they were 200 years ago has nothing whatsoever to do with the world getting warmer, its entirely due to technology and ignoring the environmental consequences of that technology. We can ignore the destruction our present technology creates in the short term, but in the long run it will come back to bite us.
Your absurd claims about the world being better off with a hotter planet are based on the same blindered view that you use to claim global warming isn't happening - a look at small regions rather than the planet as a whole.
You childishly claim no one need worry about global warming because a handful of people in Alaska will be better off while ignoring the billions of people in India and Pakistan who will be devistated by floods and the billions of people who live in already warm climates who will be devistated by heat waves and crop failures. Humans and all animal species are adapted for the climate we used to have, none of us can adapt in 100 years to a climate that is much warmer than we are made to cope with, there will be a massive culling of humans and all animal species.
Bad anonymous you said the American presidency is largely a ceremonial position with no power so it doesn't matter so what do you care about who is elected president anyway? Or is it that when a Democrat is president the presidency is ceremonial and without power but when a Republican is president he's "The Leader of the Free World"?
Funny how that works, eh?
The rapid decline of Dinesh D’Souza
How the once-celebrated right-wing author managed to blow up his life and career in little more than two years
"Dinesh D’Souza, the right-wing author, pundit and filmmaker, was indicted Thursday night for campaign finance fraud. According to the indictment, D’Souza, in support of his college friend’s challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, had attempted to circumvent the $5,000 limit for individual donations by having other friends of his donate, too, and then reimbursing them later. It may be the low point of D’Souza’s life and career.
We say “may be” rather than “definitely is” because of the simple fact that, for much of the past two years, D’Souza’s time on this planet has been filled with ignominy and failure. As the Daily Beast’s David Sessions notes, D’Souza went from riding high on the success of his very profitable (and racist) “documentary” — “2016: Obama’s America” — to being forced to resign as president of King’s College, an evangelical school in New York City after becoming engaged with one woman while he was still married to another.
Yet even “2016″ would come to bring D’Souza trouble. David Sain, the producer of the film, ultimately sued D’Souza, claiming the pundit had done a poor job managing the movie’s finances and had also kept producers and other stakeholders in the dark when it was time to make decisions about distribution and marketing. The lawsuit was eventually tossed by a judge, but the blemish on what was previously an absolute success was yet another bump on D’Souza’s as of late very rocky road.
More from Sessions at the Daily Beast:
'D’Souza’s departure from the King’s College was the symbolic end of his career in the institutional conservative movement, which had grown increasingly exasperated with his string of conspiratorial books that failed to live up to his reputation as a star of conservative scholarship. (One advanced the notion that America’s moral decadence led to 9/11; another launched the meme, which has long since become a political punch line, that Obama was a “Kenyan anti-colonialist.”) D’Souza’s tenure at the King’s College was fraught with conflict, as some faculty members viewed him as a name-brand hire who lacked appropriate academic credentials and who was more interested in his own money-making projects than in fundraising for the college.
The conflict came to a head in October, when the evangelical magazine World alleged that D’Souza had shared a hotel room with Denise Odie Joseph, a young woman who had written a fawning blog about about him, and introduced her as his fiancée despite still being married. The college had apparently been aware of D’Souza’s marital problems, but decided to end its relationship with him once news of the scandal engulfed the school.'"
Gay-straight alliances in schools reduce suicide risk for all students
Canadian schools with explicit anti-homophobia interventions such as gay-straight alliances (GSAs) may reduce the odds of suicidal thoughts and attempts among both sexual minority and straight students, according to a new study by University of British Columbia researchers.
Gay-straight alliances are student-led clubs that aim to make the school community a safer place for all students regardless of their sexual orientation. Their members include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth and their straight allies.
“We know that LGBTQ students are at higher risk for suicide, in part because they are more often targeted for bullying and discrimination,” says Elizabeth Saewyc, lead author of the study and professor with the UBC School of Nursing. “But heterosexual students can also be the target of homophobic bullying. When policies and supportive programs like GSAs are in place long enough to change the environment of the school, it’s better for students’ mental health, no matter what their orientation.”
LGBTQ youth and heterosexual students in schools with anti-homophobia policies and GSAs had lower odds of discrimination, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, primarily when both strategies were enacted, or when the polices and GSAs had been in place for three years or more.
Published in the International Journal of Child, Youth, and Family Studies and funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the study drew on data from the British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey to test the link between school policies and programs, discrimination due to perceived sexual orientation, and suicidal thoughts and attempts.
The researchers previously found that Canadian high schools with GSAs in place for three years or more have a positive effect on both gay and straight students’ problem alcohol use.
NB: The study, School based strategies to reduce suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and discrimination among sexual minority and heterosexual adolescents in Western Canada is available here....
"while I agree that McDonnell's involvement with this businessman was inappropriate, there is no case that he did anything illegal
wasting taxpayer money on frivolous harassment needs to stop"
It is never a waste of taxpayer money to punish corrupt politicians who take money from campaign contributors for their own and their family's enrichment.
McDonnell indictment
I suggest you read that indictment and substitute the name of "President Barack Obama" every time you come across the name "Robert McDonnell" and the name "First Lady Michelle Obama" every time you come across the name "Maureen G. McDonnell" and then tell us how illegal you consider their alleged actions to have been and how big a waste of taxpayer money proving those actions occurred in a court of law would be.
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