When Roger West first launched the progressive political blog "News From The Other Side" in May 2010, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, Roger wrote his copious blogs about national politics, the tea party movement, mid-term elections, and the failings of the radical right to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Roger West's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach. NFTOS has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as FOX NEWS, Breitbart's "Big Journalism.
Roger's breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership - over 92 million visitors - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media and political rhetoric that exists in our society today.
What we are against:
Radical Right Wing Agendas
Incompetent Establishment
Donald J. Trump
Corporate Malfeasence
We are for:
Global and Econmoic Security
Social and Economic Justice
Media Accountability
THE RESISTANCE
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) — chair of the House Tea Party Caucus and potential 2012 presidential candidate — said that she opposes a government shutdown. Gridlock during upcoming votes on federal budgets and the debt ceiling could lead to a shutdown, and host David Gregory asked Bachmann if she agreed with White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, who said earlier in the program he was “hopeful” a shutdown could be avoided. “Well, I’m hopeful,” Bachmann said. “I don’t think anyone wants to see the government shutdown.” Watch it here at NFTOS:
This stance is consistent with Bachmann’s earlier public record on a government shutdown, which she has warned would be undesirable. “To me a shutdown is an admission of failure that we have not been able to come together and get our work done,” Bachmann told The Hill last month.
However, one obvious fact — that Gregory failed to mention — undercuts Bachmann’s anti-shutdown message. Only days ago, she opposed continued funding of the government because the funding bill did not completely remove federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
On Tuesday, the House passed,without Bachmann’s vote, a continuing resolution that funded the government for 18 more days. The Senate passed the resolution Wednesday morning, and Obama signed it later that afternoon, less than 48 hours before government funding would have expired.
Bachmann "Welfare Queen"
Hours after the vote, Bachmann told anti-abortion activists she opposed the resolution because it supposedly allowed federal funding of abortion by not stripping Planned Parenthood appropriations, and because it didn’t completely defund health care reform. “For me personally, there were a few of us who voted ‘no’ on the continuing resolution… because it did not defund implementing ‘Obamacare’ because, as you know, ‘Obamacare’ will allow for taxpayer-funded abortions for the first time in history of the nation,” she said. “We shouldn’t have one red cent go for Planned Parenthood,” she added. (For the record, health care reform does not fund any abortion services because the Hyde Amendment already prohibits it; the same is true with Planned Parenthood funding).
If the House resolution that Bachmann opposed did fail, it’s virtually certain the government would have shut down. Bachmann may be backing away from direct calls for a government shutdown simply because it would be politically harmful: a poll this week showed a large plurality of Americans would blame Republicans for a shutdown. But her actions — motivated by fealty to far-right activists — speak louder than her words.
This type of nonsense is typical for the lunatic known as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Ms. Bachmann is so ill-informed on so many levels; NFTOS believes that she must be an embarrassment to the District to which she represents. One would think that if the electorate is not embarrassed, they must be as ill-informed as she is.
Ms. Bachman appears to be a bigger socialist than Fidel Castro. She has been on the corporate farm welfare dole for a very long time. Her business could not exist without government handouts, nor could it ever compete on the global market. Therefore she is unlikely to kill her own cash cow.
Sunday's antics are just more grandstanding to appease her medieval support base.
NFTOS
(portions of blog brought to you by thinkprogress)
The list of issues causing bitter divisions among Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill has a new entry: biodegradable cups.
When the House returns Monday from a week-long recess, members and staffers will see something that hasn’t been in the Capitol for four years: Styrofoam.
In the first move toward phasing out part of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) “Green the Capitol” program, polystyrene cups were reintroduced this week as an option for coffee drinkers in the Capitol Carry-Out, the building’s mini-cafeteria.
The basement eatery had been part of Pelosi’s “Greening” program since 2007, when Democrats took control of the House. The program brought climate-friendly vending machines and compact fluorescent lightbulbs to the Capitol; caused the Capitol Power Plant to switch from burning coal to natural gas; and reduced energy and water consumption in Capitol buildings by 23 percent and 32 percent, respectively, according to an April 2010 report
“‘Foamed polystyrene’ is a miraculous invention that manages to be completely awful through every step of its near-eternal ‘life cycle’ — it is manufactured with petroleum that must be imported from Middle East dictatorships, toxic ‘styrene oligomers’ migrate into the food it holds, it’s highly flammable and produces black poisonous smoke, and most of the 25 billion polystyrene cups tossed every year will take more than half a millennium to degrade. And that’s why the Republican-led House of Representatives made it an immediate priority to cancel the House cafeteria’s four years of biodegradable food and beverage packaging.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), not surprisingly, isn’t happy, noting that the new Republican policy will send 535 more tons of waste to landfills.
Part of me wonders if the GOP policy brought back the environmentally-irresponsible cups just to annoy Pelosi, or if Republicans are choosing to thumb their noses at “green” policies, just because it makes them feel better about themselves.
In a script that would have even made Scott Walker look good, and in what could be described as one of the sleaziest legislative moves we here at NFTOS have ever seen, the republicans in the Ohio senate jammed through their union busting SB5, but only after removing two Republicans on two separate committees who were opposed to it in order to get it to the Senate floor.
Firemen fighting for their rights
While the eyes of the nation have been transfixed on the uprising in Wisconsin, Republicans in Ohio have used an unprecedented parliamentary maneuver to railroad their own version of a union busting bill through the legislature. The unpopular measure known as SB5 makes public sector strikes illegal and mirrors a savage assault on workers planned throughout the country.
The former attorney General of Ohio explains what happens in Ohio with the corporate tax cut:
"A dozen cookies are put down in front of a CEO, a Tea Partier, and a union member. The CEO grabs 11 then says to the Tea Partier, “That union guy wants your cookie”.
SB5 passed by a razor thin 17-16 vote, with 6 Republicans switching sides and voting with Democrats against the bill. Before the vote could take place, SB5 had to clear 2 committees where it didn’t have the votes needed.
That is the point where Senate President Tom Niehaus (R) did something never before done: he made the autocratic decision to remove 1 sympathetic Republican from each committee that was against the measure and replaced them with a Republican Senator that supported it. Niehaus pulled Sen. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) off the Ohio state Senate’s Commerce, Insurance and Labor Committee without warning or Message, which violated Senate Rule 19, replacing him with a an anti-union loyalist Senator Cliff Hite (R-Findlay). This allowed a 7-5 vote for the measure.
Plutocracy: rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth.
Oligarchy: a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people.
Plutocracy + Oligarchy = Plutarchy
Repeating this autocratic move a second time, Niehaus also ordered the removal of Sen. Scott Oelslager (R-North Canton) from the Senate Rules Committee to avoid a split vote.Two decrees to strip committee membership and replace with loyalists is unheard of in the history of American politics.
This Starve The Beast pattern is familiar in many states at the moment, where new republican majorities elected to state legislatures as part of the astroturfed Tea Party movement are trying to railroad pro-corporate, pro-rich legislation through chambers at the expense of workers, often in very large bills with little time given to debate or discussion.
This is characteristic of the national policies as well, that have seen a huge ballooning of the national debt under every republican administration in the last 30 years except Clinton. Tax cuts for the rich and corporations paid for on the backs of the poor and the middle class: America is getting a classic case of buyer’s remorse.
There is a reason for this "strong armed robbery" and lead tea bag Jim DeMint states it best:
"Unions are the most powerful political group in our country today. Their power in politics is unprecedented. AND WITHOUT UNIONS, THE DEMOCRAT PARTY FADES AWAY".
Well there you have fellow progressives, the radical right wing agenda is displayed for our very own eyes.
Did you see the NBC/WSJ poll out in the above clip (a must see). Clearly Americans are feed up with the choke and puke politics by these right-wing-nut-jobs.
If we do not allow our voices to be heard, then the freight train called the "tea bag express", which is more powerful than a locomotive, will annihilate the left quicker than a speeding bullet.
If we listen to "economist" like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Dana Loesch, Sean Hannity.....er what a minute, those folks aren't economist are they? No they are not, but if you where too listen to their daily diatribes on the US economy and its woes, their fingers would point directly at unions, teachers, fireman and police for the states monetary plights.
In reality readers this concept or ideology couldn't be further from the truth. States total budget deficits account for 175 billion dollars through 2013 and these states can't print money like the feds can. This means Governors like Wisconsin's Scott "Koch whore" Walker target unions and teachers with their plan too satisfy their 3.6 billion dollar budget shortfall.
All this while most choose stunningly to turn a blind eye (to include MSM) to the mounting evidence of recklessness and outright fraud on Wall Street, that fraud which is responsible for the massive spikes in unemployment and the massive decline in US housing - you add these two things together - this is what's called revenue in America, our tax revenue is driven by the value of your housing stock and the level of economic activity employment in your state and in our country.
So shame on those whom indulge a system that would torpedo the foundation of American finance, housing and unemployment - let those who caused this problem go "Scott" free, and then try to take this out on the nations unions and teachers.
"The pension plan is the direct result of deferred compensation- money that employees would have been paid as cash salary but choose, instead, to have placed in the state operated pension fund where the money can be professionally invested (at a lower cost of management) for the future.
Many of us are familiar with the concept of deferred compensation from reading about the latest multi-million dollar deal with some professional athlete. As a means of allowing their ball club to have enough money to operate, lowering their own tax obligations and for other benefits, ball players often defer payment of money they are to be paid to a later date. In the meantime, that money is invested for the ball player’s benefit and then paid over at the time and in the manner agreed to in the contract between the parties.
Does anyone believe that, in the case of the ball player, the deferred money belongs to the club owner rather than the ball player? Is the owner simply providing this money to the athlete as some sort of gift? Of course not. The money is salary to be paid to the ball player, deferred for receipt at a later date."
Walker seems to follow the path of a pathological liar. Time and again Scott Walker has aggressively neglected the facts about Wisconsin's budget woes. InWalker's attempt to maintain good standing with the puppet masters he failed to account for one major variable....fact checking.
As soon as time permits Wisconsinite's need to recall Scott Walker. Many residents of Wisconsin are suffering from "buyer's remorse".
A "do-over" is indeed in order for Wisconsinite's. Please exit the door Mr. Governor, and don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.
Just because Green Bay is the all-time very best Super Bowel-winning cheese-making state doesn't mean you know how to govern Scott.
What has happened to reason? What has happened to common sense? When it comes to radical tea bag ideology, these two concepts rarely seem to exist.
Today at 5 pm EST Governor Walker will give his budget speech to fellow Wisconsinites.
As the standoff between the Main Street Movement and Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) continues for the twelfth day, much of the media coverage — and anger — from both sides has focused on Walker’s efforts to strip Wisconsin public workers of their right to collective bargaining. But Walker’s assault on public employees is only one part of a larger political program that aims to give corporations free reign in the state while dismantling the healthcare programs, environmental regulations, and good government laws that protect Wisconsin’s middle and working class. These lesser known proposals in the 144-page bill reveals how radical Walker’s plan actually is. Here is why the governor is blocking access to the capitol building, here is what Scotty doesn't want marchers and protestors to hear:
1. ELIMINATING MEDICAID: The Budget Repair Bill includes a little-known provision that would put complete control of the state’s Medicaid program, known as BadgerCare, in the hands of the state’sultra-conservative Health and Human Services Secretary Dennis Smith. Smith would have the authority to “to override state Medicaid laws as [he] sees fit and institute sweeping changes” including reducing benefits and limiting eligibility. Ironically, during the 1990s it was Republicans, especially former Gov. and Bush HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, who helped develop BadgerCare into one of the country’s most innovative and generous Medicaid programs. A decade later, a new generation of radical Republicans is hoping to destroy one of Wisconsin’s “success stories.”
2. POWER PLANT PRIVATIZATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEGLECT: The same budget bill calls for a rapid no-bid “firesale” of all state-owned power plants. One progressive blogger called the proposal “a highlight reel of all of the tomahawk dunks of neo-Gilded Age corporatism: privatization, no-bid contracts, deregulation, and naked cronyism” and suggested that the provision will open the way for large, politically connected corporations to buy up the state’s power plants on the cheap. While it’s unclear whether corporations would be interested in buying the plants, a similar proposal was vetoed six years ago by Gov. Jim Doyle (D), who called the plan fiscally and environmentally irresponsible. Many of Wisconsin’s power plants are in violation of federal clean air regulations and desperately need to be upgraded and cleaned up — not dumped into the private sector.
3. DANGEROUS DRINKING WATER: Republican lawmakers have introduced bills in both the Senate and the House which would repeal a rule requiring municipal governments to disinfect their water. Conservatives have said that the clean water rule — which went into effect in December — is simply too expensive. Yet the rule only affects 12 percent of municipalities and the price may be worth it. In 1993, 104 people died and 400,000 fell sick when the Milwaukee water supply became infected. Even two decades later, the Environmental Protection Agency Advisory Board notes that 13 percent of acute gastro-intestinal illnesses in municipalities that don’t disinfect their water supplies are the result of dirty water. Municipalities can keep their water clean for as low as $10,000 per well — but apparently for the Wisconsin GOP that is too high a price to pay to keep citizens safe from deadly microorganisms.
4. DESTROYING WETLANDS: In January, Walker’s proposed regulatory reform bill exempted a parcel of wetland owned by a Republican donor from water quality standards. But the exemption was more than just an embarrassing giveaway to a GOP ally: environmental groups believe the bill’s special provision would actually affect the entire county, eliminating public hearings on proposed wetland development, short-circuiting approval of development projects, and disrupting the region’s water system.
5. FISCAL IRRESPONSIBILITY: Walker signed a bill this week requiring a 2/3 supermajority in the legislature to pass any tax increase. Republican lawmakers are now reportedly considering a constitutional amendment that would make the rule permanent. A similar constitutional amendment in California has been called the “source of misery” of that state’s crippling budget crisis and has forced lawmakers to “gut public education, slash social services and health care programs, close prisons, and lay off record numbers of public employees.” While claiming to “make a commitment to the future instead of [choosing] dire consequences for our children” Walker and GOP lawmakers are instead putting generations of Wisconsinites in a “fiscal strait-jacket.”
6. DISENFRANCHISING VOTERS: This week, Republican lawmakers moved forward on a bill that would require voters to present a photo ID from the DMV at the polls, making it significantly more difficult for the elderly, the disabled, college students, and rural residents to participate in elections. While Republican lawmakers insist the bill is necessary to prevent voter fraud, there have been almost no documented cases of fraudulent voting in the state. Instead, the Wisconsin State Journal writes, the GOP bill is going “overboard in limiting ballot access in a state proud of its long history of high participation in elections.”
7. CUTTING JOBS, LOSING THE FUTURE: Last fall, Walker killed an $810 billion federally funded high-speed rail project, forcing the Transportation Department to pull its funding. Walker’s decision killed 130,000 expected jobs and forced the Spanish company Talgo to close its Milwaukee factory and layoff its 40 person staff. A spokeswoman for the company told The Daily Reporter that “the state’s decision to back away from the high-speed rail project sends a terrible message to businesses considering locating in the state.”
8. STIFLING INNOVATION: In late January, Walker introduced a bill that would ban wind-powered energy from Wisconsin and exacerbate the state’s dependence on out-of-state coal. If passed, it’s estimated that the law would immediately eliminate $1.8 billion in new wind power investments and jeopardize eleven currently proposed wind projects. After a public outcry earlier this month, Walker’s bill is (for now) dead.
9. “NAKED POWER GRAB”: Earlier this month in a party-line vote, the legislature ceded “extraordinary control” of the state’s rule-making oversight process to the governor. Walker now has complete power to draft agency rules which the legislature must then either approve or reject. The law gives Walker the power to write rules for formerly independent state agencies like the state Departments of Justice and Education — and most ominously the Government Accountability Board, the state’s ethics watchdog.
10. POLITICIZING STATE AGENCIES: A provision in Walker’s budget repair bill would convert thirty-seven state employees from civil servants to political appointees —
Republican Disease
Republicans often suffer from foot-in-mouth disease. Why is that you ask? This disease forms when one constantly exhibits diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain. Its clear that Walker's "budget" proposal is the model of radical right wing leadership.
The above plan looks like a script created and formulated by Koch Industries as they seem best suited to gain the most fruit from this less than bountiful tree.
Walker in his childlike giddiness to be the next Ronnie Reagan exemplifies what old school republicans are not - a extremely racial group.
Walker's efforts to undercut the unions is just the tip of the iceberg, and his framed assault on the states residents will hopefully be quashed with a resounding thud.
NFTOS THINKS' Bill Clinton should be allowed to be President again... Remember when he left us with a balanced budget?
NFTOS Thinks' the attack on teachers across this country is reprehensible...
NFTOS THINKS' the attack on unions is a right wing attempt to destroy the Democratic backbone.
NFTOS THINKS' Hilary Clinton will some day be the nation's first female Vice President...
NFTOS THINKS' it's tragic the way the tea bags ignore the climate change...
NFTOS THINKS' it's somewhat shocking that the USA is still so dependent on oil...
NFTOS THINKS' that Faux News should be held accountable for its lies and actions...
NFTOS THINKS' that Glen Beck-istan, Dana Loesch, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Andy Breitbart should be shipped off to some war torn country and then forced to defend "their" country....then maybe they will have a better understanding and outlook on "their" country..
NFTOS THINKS' that the republican tea baggers should be forced to get an education prior to them opening there mouths...
NFTOS THINKS' that Michele Bachmann, Christine O'Donnell, Sharon Angle, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Scott Walker, are dimwitted muttonheads of epic proportions.....
NFTOS THINKS' that the Chamber of Commerce and Koch Industries need to step away from imposing their business ideologies on politics...
NFTOS THINKS' republicans need to learn to speak for themselves and not their puppet masters..i.e. Rupert Murdock and David Koch...
NFTOS THINKS' that it is the woman's prerogative whether to not abort or not...especially in cases of rape and incest!!!!
NFTOS THINKS' that Democrats are for the working man and Republicans are for the Businessman......
NFTOS THINKS' Democrats think for themselves and Republicans do what they're told.
NFTOS THINKS' that republicans should study and understand the constitution prior to invoking everything is "un-constitutional".....
NFTOS THINKS' that's enough of thinking for the day.....
Either that or she just lies about the smears. Either way, it's not a flattering portrait.
A more flattering portrait of Loesch
CNN hired Dana Loesch as a political contributor in which Loesch calls CNN “the biggest bunch of idiot blockheads,” (June 6, 2009) “state-run media,” (March 2010) and said that the network was the home to “tinfoil hats” (Sept. 2008).
One would guess CNN is really desperate to hire Loesch with comments like above. She ceratainly wouldn't be working for NFTOS and any other reputable media group.
We've documented how CNN's latest contributor Dana Loesch has trouble telling the truth during her nationally televised appearances. But apparently that's nothing compared to the misinformation and falsehoods she peddles on the local level as a right-wing radio show host in St. Louis with ties to the Tea Party.
This latest episode is telling in terms of just how brazen Loesch's lie was this week, and the fact that Loesch is so far out on the right-wing fringe that she's targeting local Republicans for race-baiting smears.
Here's the background, courtesy St. Louis Activist Hub [emphasis added]:
Backstory: the St. Louis Tea Party doesn't like the proposal to restore control of the St. Louis Police Department to the City of St. Louis. In fact, they dislike it so much they made a blatantly race-baiting video suggesting that the bill had something to do with the New Black Panther Party (and remember, in tea party language, New Black Panther Party = "wants to kill crackers"). In fact, the tea party even suggested that House Speaker Steve Tilley is "associated with the New Black Panther Party" because he supported the bill.
That's right, Tea Party conservatives in Missouri are claiming local Republicans (like Steve Tilley) are conspiring with the New Black Panther Party. (Don't ask.)
On Thursday, Tilley appeared on Loesch's St. Louis radio show and she assured him that he wasn't the target of a Tea Party attack:
"I don't think that anyone was specifically trying to tie, like, you to the New Black Panther Party."
Right, except earlier this week Loesch herself tweeted along a link to a Tea Part site that maliciously hyped "Tilley's recent association with the New Black Panther Party."
So on Tuesday, Loesch was helping peddle the smear that a local Republican was associated with the NBPP. Then on Thursday when the Republican appeared on her radio show, Loesch assured him nobody was trying to associate him with the NBPP.
Keep it classy Dana.
Oh, and for the record Loesch then waited until after Tilley hung up and ended his radio interview with her before she launched into an extended attack against him.
I had another blog lined up today, but I just couldn't pass up an opportunity to show my readers how diabolical this gal really is. She has been a top NFTOS topic since our inception as she was a leading factor in us creating our media group. Ms. Loesch is the biggest liar and hypocrite this side of the Pacific.
She loves that her puppet master allows her free reign to spew radical ideology unchecked, why is this you ask, because Andy Breitbart is the creator of the concept.
Loesch also models herself after Ann Coulter, the only difference is that Coulter has the Adams apple. This trio (Breitbart, Loesch, Coulter) have made it their mission to piss off anyone from the left, and will go too great lengths to do so. Even if that means they have to doctor up videos to make their clam.
NFTOS editor-in-chief Roger West sent an open letter to CNN calling for them to rescind the offer to Loesch and this was their reply:
NFTOS said it was told by CNN that "CNN has always been a news organization committed to having political analysts and commentators from across the entire political spectrum. As an independent news organization we don't take sides. Naming someone a ‘CNN Contributor' doesn't mean we endorse their political viewpoint. Instead, it means we have added them to our wide of range of voices which also includes invited guests and analysts on our TV networks, as well as opinion leaders on the CNN.com Opinion section."
Loesch is running full bore with her fifteen minutes of fame, we at NFTOS can only hope that it ends soon with a resounding thud!
Special thanks too Eric Boehlert at mediamatters for the story. Its good to see that someone else recognizes that Dana Loesch is a hack.
Tuesday when Wisconsin Governor (R) Scott Walker woke up, his chest was swollen with pride, and he needed Crisco oil placed upon him so he could fit through standard doors, by days end, Walker was in need of union EMT's to provide him political CPR. Yes, how apropos is it that the "Koch Whore" (pronounced Coke) needed revival from the very group whom he is trying to emaciate.
This story to a progressive blogger is like walking through the woods and stumbling upon the staff that Moses carried during biblical times, its like being handed the keys to the pearly gates of heaven.
It just goes to show you that if you hold your cards long enough - over time - if you give a republican a long enough rope, that sooner or later they will hang themselves. The noose is tight on Walker as the "short drop" has him squealing and squirming like a pig for his political life.
GOV. WALKER GETS PUNK'D
In a move that would have made both Andy Breitbart and Ashton kutcher proud, buffalobeast blogger Ian Murphy PUNKD Scott Walker in an epic way. View both videos here:
Part One
The conversation continues: the other man talks about his plans to threaten workers with layoffs, about sowing divisions between the public sector and private sector unions, and the potential for their union busting efforts to spread to other states. "This is our moment," he tells Murphy when Murphy describes him as "the first domino."
Part Two
[For a longer collection of transcripted highlights of this call, click here.]
Its apparent that Scott Walker and staff failed political office protocol 101. Instead of Walker and staff asking for a call back number, their giddiness to satisfy their dad or the grand Oz overwhelmed their rationale to think logically that this call might not be real.
From listening to the conversation we clearly see that Scotties plan was never about balancing the budget, we see that Scott's ideology is the new order of republican regime, and this choke and puke politics has now been exposed for what it is. Walkers agenda is about busting up unions, make no doubt about it.
Walker's take it or leave politics now has some flaws.
Now tea bags across the land are bashing unions and protesters, especially the "EX" Deputy attorney General portrayed in a Ed Shultz video . Watch his video here:
The smoking gun is this prank call. This puppet governor answers to money guys and to the corporate overlords. Walker wasted no time in taking the fight to public sector unions, but union supporters and the alternative press have spared no expense firing back. Governor Walker's revealing conversation with a gonzo journalist pretending to be one of his wealthy financiers could constitute an ethics violation and a breach of campaign law.
Quoting sources on subject matter like political ethics:
"In a call with who he thought to be billionaire political donor David Koch, Gov. Walker may have broken campaign finance and ethics laws, If he did, he should resign."
"If you didn’t believe it before, you have to now—this fight isn’t about the budget, it’s about favors for corporate special interests. If Wisconsin law forbids coordination with political donors similar to federal law, Gov. Scott Walker is not just in political trouble, but in legal hot water."
This conversation between Walker and the Fake David Koch detail a possible Trojan horse for the Senate Democrats, potential ethics violations, close communication with other Tea Party governors, a belief in plutocracy, and an obvious history of a cozy, top-down relationship between the Kochs and Walker.
NFTOS firmly believes that Walker and the Koch brothers have a alliance to reform politics that best suits them.
Everyone knows that money buys political access. But in Wisconsin, apparently all you have to do to get the governor on the horn is just pretend to be a super-rich contributor – who also happens to be aiding his fight against unions – and he’ll be happy to take your call.
Walker is incapable of an independent thought outside of what his puppet masters want him to think, or else he would be asking himself what is going to happen to the state economy and the housing market without a middle class.
Confucius say “To see what is right and not do it, is for want of courage.”
Walker talks about how he might be the next Ronald Reagan, - even recalling that before he began the budget bill fight - he held up a picture of the former president and said: "This is our moment. This is our time to change the course of history."
Here at NFTOS we try to give you a myriad of facts when providing you a story. When we set out to do this blog several groups advised us of do's and don'ts in a digital age. One rule of thumb is to keep blogs short, 300 to 500 words for SEO, (search engine optimization) and also the reader tends to lose focus and attention after 350 words. HUH! Are you kidding me?
I say if reading more than 350 words taxes you that much then "Houston we have a problem"! Maybe we do need teacher unions to enable us to concentrate longer than 350 words. Might it help to take our ADD meds so that we ensure that our country can read more 350 words at a session?
Anyway (in my Ellen DeGeneres sarcastic voice) - we posted a story yesterday about Faux news lying yet again. Because this story was well over 350 words, so editor-in-chief Roger West thought it was best to re-post a portion of the story, which in reality is more meat of the story than Faux News Lying.
Here is the portion of blog we are speaking of:
It’s worth pointing out that, Jim Glassman, the Bush Center director who appeared on the show to argue against collective bargaining, said right after the poll was shown that “many” states actually don’t have collective bargaining. The truth is that only five states do not have collective bargaining for public employees — Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. Those states rank 45th, 48th, 49th, 38th, and 34th, in average SAT/ACT scores, respectively. Wisconsin is 2nd.
Unions are the grunt workers in America, they make the product and services that get the "made in America" stamp of approval! They do the work know one else wants to do i.e. go five miles deep into the earth and grab your heat source! Unions are about dignity and respect. If you want to be treated like the 8 year old kid manufacturing NIKE shoes, then continue down this path Governors!
Now we know republicans are allergic to truth, honesty and facts, but the facts are, unions work. Collective bargaining. These two words are viral in our country. Unions are the backbone to our country. They are the men and women whom run towards the fire when you are running away. They are the guy and gal whom get there finger nails dirty. They do the job republicans will not do. Why, because it involves LABOR!
How apropos is it that when in times of disasters republicans often drape the American flag around themselves often encapsulated themselves with union fire and police. How hypocritical can one be?
Rep union hypocrite
Know the facts readers before you try to quash something as important as unions, for if not doing so, you risk the chance of having Governors with hidden agendas like Scott "Koch Whore" Walker destroying the backbone of our middle class.
Giving credit where its due - Sheppard Smith daytime horseshoe guy from Faux news jeopardized his career yesterday at Faux by telling the truth. Yes that's right, a Fauxy told the truth. NFTOS is sure that Roger Ailes has issued the pink slip to Shep, but its good to see that someone inside camp tea bag has the stones to be honest and call a spade a spade when they see it. Watch Shep here:
Yesterday, USA Today and Gallup released a new poll that found that a whopping 61 percent of Americans oppose efforts like those of Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) to strip public sector unions of collective bargaining rights. The poll also found that only a third of Americans support such a policy, indicating that Walker is pandering to the far-right of the American electorate and is hardly representative of mainstream political thought in this country.
This morning, during a debate about the situation in Wisconsin and collective bargaining rights in general, the Fox News show Fox & Friends referenced the USA Today/Gallup poll. With incredible brazenness, the Fox hosts actually reversed the results of the poll in order to claim that two-thirds of Americans supported Wisconsin-style laws rather than opposed them.
REAL GALLOP POLL
During the discussion, Fox host Brian Kilmeade asked pro-labor guest Robert Zimmerman if President Obama was taking a “big risk” by opposing Walker’s law. Zimmerman responded by saying that Obama was speaking “for the mainstream of our country, and the mainstream of Republican governors who are not siding with Governor Walker.” Kilmeade responded by saying, “I think Gallup, a relatively mainstream poll, has a differing view. And here’s the question that was posed. Do you favor or disfavor of taking away collective bargaining when it comes to salaries for government workers. 66 percent in favor, 33 percent opposed, 9 percent up in the air.” Watch it here on NFTOS:
Needless to say, it is hardly “fair and balanced,” as Fox News likes to deem itself, to take the results of a poll and simply reverse them when they do not go your way.
It’s worth pointing out that, Jim Glassman, the Bush Center director who appeared on the show to argue against collective bargaining, said right after the poll was shown that “many” states actually don’t have collective bargaining. The truth is that only five states do not have collective bargaining for public employees — Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. Those states rank 45th, 48th, 49th, 38th, and 34th, in average SAT/ACT scores, respectively. Wisconsin is 2nd.
Update: In the final minute of the Fox & Friends episode, Kilmeadeissued a correction and made an apology for reversing the numbers.
Update: Yesterday, scores of New York City residents protested outside of the Fox News headquarters about the network's coverage of the Wisconsin protests, timing their protests to coincide with the 5 pm start of Glenn Beck's show. One protester carried a sign that appropriately read "Fox Lies":
FAUX LIES
Too bad guest Robert Zimmerman wasn't familiar with the Gallup Poll or he could have called Kilmeade out on it right then and there. As far as Glassman, he took the FOX "news" point of view - no surprise there. The fact remains that Kilmeade and his Fox & Friends producers falsified the poll results for their viewers.
Well, I guess we'll see what happens with regards to FOX's policy about "zero tolerance" for on-screen mistakes and their claim that "immediate disciplinary action" would take place "against those who played significant roles in the "mistake chain," and those who supervise them."
To end a high-stakes stalemate over union rights that has captured the nation's attention, a handful of Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin might have to stand up to their new governor.
Gov. Scott Walker made it clear Monday he won't back off his proposal to effectively eliminate collective bargaining rights for most public employees. Senate Democrats who fled the state last week to delay the plan vowed not to come back to allow it to pass – even if they have to miss votes on other bills Tuesday. And union leaders said they would not let up on protests that have consumed Wisconsin's capital city for a week and made the state the center of a national debate over the role of public employees' unions.
Walker said on "Good Morning America" that there is "no room to negotiate" and rejected a compromise proposal from a Republican state senator.
Protesters who crowded inside the Capitol for a sixth day Sunday had a similar message. They hung a banner in the Capitol reading "Wisconsin needs 3 cou(R)ageous Senators," referring to the number of Republicans needed to join with Democrats to block the bill.
While there has been significant attention devoted to the fact that Walker's 144-page budget repair bill would strip away collective bargaining rights for public employees, the site "Rortybomb" points out a less noticed provision that would allow the state to sell or contract out any state-owned energy asset in no-bid deals with private corporations. From the legislation (emphasis added):
16.896 Sale or contractual operation of state−owned heating, cooling, and power plants. (1) Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).
It's truly unclear to NFTOS what "the best interest of the state" is.
But if this deal does goes through, one of the companies that will stand tobenefit significantly is Koch Industries. Koch already has several companies in the state, including a coal subsidiary, timber plants and a large network of pipelines.
During the 2010 election cycle, Walkerreceived $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC, his second-largest contribution. The PAC also gave significantly to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn helped out Walker considerably in his race. Koch also contributed $6,500 to support 16 Republican legislative candidates in the state.
The Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity has also been standing with Walker throughout his budget battles, busing in Tea Party activists and launching the site, Stand With Walker. After the election, Walker and other Republican governors received guidance from the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group that is also funded by Koch dollars and has pushed anti-union measures.
As we see Koch Industries and Gov. Walker are intertwined tighter than two redneck cousins seeking a marriage partner at a family reunion. I am sure that if one looked deeper into the "corporate funding to tea party alliances" that Faux News and the Chamber of Commerce would be linked to Walker's hip as well.
The last time Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) went after public sector unions it had “disastrous results” for him and for taxpayers. As Milwaukee County Executive in 2009, Walker tried to get rid of the unionized security guards at the county courthouse and replace them with contractors, which hepromised would save the county money. The County Board rejected the idea, but in March of 2010 Walker “unilaterally ordered it,” claiming there was a budget emergency. Walker hired the British security contractor Wackenhut — of Kabul Embassy sex scandal fame — to replace the guards. Unfortunately for Walker and Milwaukee taxpayers, an arbiter later ruled that Walker had overstepped his authority, and ordered the county to reinstate the unionized workers, pay backwages, and pay tens-of-thousands of dollars in arbiter fees. As MSNBC’s Racheal Maddow pointed out last night, Walker’s “dress rehersal” for his current union busting effort may end up costing Milwaukee taxpayers an extra half a million dollars. Watch it here at NFTOS:
While his anti-union crusade proved to be a boondagle for Milwaukee County, Walker had escaped in time to wash his hands clean of it, as the arbiter’s ruling against didn’t come down until last month — after Walker had been sworn in as governor. Maddow also notes that the man put in charge of Wackenhut’s security at the courthouse had a criminal record and had served prison time.
Oh Scotty, maybe you should stop while your ahead big guy. In politics of late we certainly hear often about "minions" and "puppet masters". Koch Industries is the great and powerful Oz of the GOP, they are behind the curtain pulling the strings that make the talking heads dance and sing.
When MSNBC speaks on Koch Industries they should embed the caption on their crawl "Republican Puppet Master".
Koch's ideology in itself is incongruent and inimical with the Republican image of strength and individualism.
There lies a hammer that nestles itself next to a sacred stained glass window of Ronald Reagan that watches proudly over the Republican Party. Someone needs to pick up that hammer and start swinging. Now.
Koch Industries Slashed WI Jobs, Helped Elect Scott Walker, Now Orchestrating Pro-Walker Protest.
Wisconsin’s newly elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker is facing a growing backlash over his attempt to cut pay and eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in his state. Although Walker is claiming his power grab is an attempt to close a budget gap, the budget “crisis” was engineered by Walker as soon as he got into office. As Brian Beutler reported, half of the budget shortfall comes from Walker’s own tax cuts for businesses and other business giveaways enacted in January.
A number of the big business interests standing with Walker are beneficiaries of his administration’s tax giveaways. But the greatest ally to Walker is the dirty energy company Koch Industries. In response to the growing protests in Madison, Koch fronts are busing in Tea Party protesters to support Walker and his union-busting campaign. Last night, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz reported on the involvement of Club for Growth and the Koch-financed Americans for Prosperity in the pro-Walker protest scheduled tomorrow. Watch it:
Koch Industries is a major player in Wisconsin: Koch owns a coal company subsidiary with facilities in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan; six timber plants throughout the state; and a large network of pipelines in Wisconsin. While Koch controls much of the infrastructure in the state, they have laid off workers to boost profits. At a time when Koch Industries owners David and Charles Koch awarded themselves an extra $11 billion of income from the company, Koch slashed jobs at their Green Bay plant:
Officials at Georgia-Pacific said the company is laying off 158 workers at its Day Street plant because out-of-date equipment at the facility is being replaced with newer, more-efficient equipment. The company said much of the new, papermaking equipment will be automated. [...] Malach tells FOX 11 that the layoffs are not because of a drop in demand. In fact, Malach said demand is high for the bath tissue and napkins manufactured at the plant.
Koch Industries was one of the biggest contributors to Walker’s gubernatorial campaign, funneling$43,000 over the course of last year. In return, Koch front groups are closely guiding the Walker agenda. The American Legislative Exchange Council, another Koch-funded group, advised Walker and the GOP legislature on its anti-labor legislation and its first corporate tax cuts.
According to the EPA, Koch businesses are huge polluters,emitting thousands of pounds of toxic pollutants. As soon as he got into office Walker started cutting environmental regulations and appointed a Republican known for her disregard for environmental regulations to lead the Department of Natural Resources. In addition, Walker has stated his opposition to clean energy jobs policies that might draw workers away from Koch-owned interests.
Moreover, other organizers for the pro-Walker protest are from groups associated with corporate and Koch interests. American Majority, a Virginia-based front group founded by organizers funded by millionaire investor Howie Rich, is on the ground contacting Wisconsin Tea Parties to support Walker in Madison. Austin James, an American Majority official who wascaught teaching Tea Party members to spam Amazon.com profiles of liberal books with negative comments, is the contact for the Facebook page organizing the pro-Walker protest. Eric O’Keefe, a longtime conservative operative who helps lead American Majority, attends Koch strategy meetings.
Update: Koch's Americans for Prosperity group has launched a new website and petition called www.standwithwalker.com. The new site attacks all collective bargaining, not just for public sector unions. Koch's front group also declares: "In fact, every state should adopt Governor Scott Walker's common sense reforms."
