FROM LITTLE GREEN APPLES
WE REMEMBER PAT BUCHANAN, RIGHT? THE RACIST WHO WAS BANNED FROM MSNBC, WHO TOLERATES JUST ABOUT ANYBODY FOR THE SAKE OF CONTROVERSY.
Buchanan: Better to Destroy Country Than End Anti-Obamacare Drive.
Kragar
Pat Buchanan shows what he is really all about:
In a column fittingly titled “Republicans, Stand Up - Polls Be Damned!,” Pat Buchanan calls on Republicans in Congress not to give up on the push to derail Obamacare, even if it means the collapse of the Republican Party. If the GOP goes down, Buchanan writes, Republicans should bring America down with them as he urges the GOP to be like Samson, who killed himself along with countless Philistines in bringing down the temple.“Republicans should refuse to raise the white flag and insist on an honorable avenue of retreat,” Buchanan claims. “And if Harry Reid’s Senate demands the GOP end the sequester on federal spending, or be blamed for a debt default, the party should, Samson-like, bring down the roof of the temple on everybody’s head.”He urges Republicans to ignore three new polls showing the GOP approval rating tanking over its role in the government shutdown, because time will prove the Republicans were right about Obamacare all along.
Why Are House Republicans Driving the US Toward Default? Birth Control.
Charles Johnson
Credit: Shutterstock
You probably already know that House Republicans messed around all day and then couldn’t agree on anything enough to call a vote, so we’re one day closer to a default on the US debt. But did you know one of the main sticking points for the Tea Party fanatics driving this crazy train is… birth control?
Conservative House members expressed a desire Tuesday to fund the government only until Dec. 15 in order to force a fight over ObamaCare’s birth control mandate.Members of the House GOP discussed a proposal that would reopen the government through mid-December, just weeks before a provision of the mandate takes effect on Jan. 1 for religiously affiliated groups.Republicans seemed adrift after canceling a vote on a debt-limit plan Tuesday night.But members of the party signaled concerns about letting the Jan. 1 date pass without waging a battle over contraception.“It boils down to conscience protections that basically become compromised on the first of January, and that’s bothersome to a lot of people,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
Report: Greenwald Will Leave the Guardian to Launch Media Organization
Charles Johnson
Buzzfeed reports that Glenn Greenwald is leaving the Guardian to create a media organization.
The best part: news of Greenwald’s venture was leaked.
Greenwald said that because the news had leaked “before we were prepared to announce it, I’m not yet able to provide any details of this momentous new venture.” It will, he said, “be unveiled very shortly.”
The Staggeringly High Public Cost of Low Wages
SpaceJesus
The University of California Berkeley has released a new report today outlining the cost that comes with having a service sector (specifically fast food) labor force making today’s current minimum wage salary. The report finds that by paying fast food workers a meager minimum wage, those workers are forced to take on public services to meet their basic fundamental life needs, thus costing our nation billions in tax dollars each year… and that’s just the effect from the fast food industry.
The report lists its findings:
“1. More than half (52 percent) of the families of front-line fast-food workers are enrolled in one or more public programs, compared to 25 percent of the workforce as a whole.2. The cost of public assistance to families of workers in the fast-food industry is nearly $7 billion per year.3. At an average of $3.9 billion per year, spending on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) accounts for more than half of these costs.4. Due to low earnings, fast-food workers’ families also receive an annual average of $1.04 billion in food stamp benefits and $1.91 billion in Earned Income Tax Credit payments.5. People working in fast-food jobs are more likely to live in or near poverty. One in five families with a member holding a fast-food job has an income below the poverty line, and 43 percent have an income two times the federal poverty level or less.6. Even full-time hours are not enough to compensate for low wages. The families of more than half of the fast-food workers employed 40 or more hours per week are enrolled in public assistance programs.”
Full report found here:
laborcenter.berkeley.edu
laborcenter.berkeley.edu
Further, a second report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP) has found that the same companies who are paying these paltry wages are raking in billions of dollars per year in profits. Meanwhile their employees are forced to take on food stamps, government housing and medical care. The report calculates that this policy costs the public roughly $1.2 billion from McDonald’s alone each year.
Full report from NELP
I guess it shouldn’t come as a huge shocker that a minimum wage below any reasonable standard of living isn’t saving anyone except corporations’ money, but the exact figures are staggering.
House GOPer: “We Want to Make a Deal They Can’t Refuse”
Charles Johnson
If House Republicans want to avoid the appearance that they’re running an extortion racket, maybe it would it would be a good idea to refrain from talking like Mafiosi.
Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) told reporters Tuesday that part of the House Republican calculus in its plan to re-open the government and raise the debt limit was trying to leverage the Thursday default deadline to their advantage in their back-and-forth with the Senate.“We want to make a deal that they can’t refuse, and we’re running out of time,” Fleming said after a two-hour GOP conference meeting Tuesday morning. “Timing is very important here. They’re going to be more motivated to take this up. Otherwise, they miss the Thursday deadline.”
Glenn Greenwald, Super Villain: “The More the US Threatens Me, the More Secrets I’ll Publish”
Charles Johnson
The Kremlin propaganda organ Russia Today reports on the latest comic book super villain threats from the Mighty Glenn Greenwald.
“I intend to publish all the documents I have.The more threats I get from the US and UK, the harder I will work to publish this information,” said Greenwald, adding that the previous revelations on the NSA’s spying activities had fed the debate on internet privacy.He told French radio that he was aware he is under constant surveillance and has taken measures to protect himself.“I don’t use my phone to talk about important things. I know that my emails are being spied on so I use encrypted messages to communicate with my sources, colleagues and even my friends,” he said.
Remember when Greenwald was vehemently denying that he intended to harm the US, and said he was being very careful about which information he released? Well, that was yesterday. Now it’s, “I intend to publish all the documents I have,” to avenge his honor against these imaginary “threats.”
The Birthers’ New Game
lawhawk
Dave Weigel notes how a new smear campaign launched from the right wing echo chamber has exploded across the usual media dumping grounds like Drudge and Fox News. The reports claim that Newark Mayor Cory Booker doesn’t live in Newark. In fact, they go on to claim that he’s never lived there and that his neighbors have never seen him around.
It’s a rather fanciful tale, but the warning flags about these claims should come up from the byline on down.
For starters, let’s look at who’s peddling this particular story. It’s Joel Gilbert, a director who’s best known for putting together birther conspiracy films about how President Obama isn’t an American citizen and should not be president. He’s now doing the same thing with Cory Booker (another African American politician at that). It’s meant to be disruptive, but it doesn’t take much to rebuff this kind of transparent smear job that’s worthy of James O’Keefe.
Read more athttp://littlegreenfootballs.com/#sjrB6dTt3tMeTWyZ.99
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