Clipmarks | thinkingblue's POVERTY collection

LYING FORWARDS FROM THE RIGHTWING

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:21:10 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: My niece sent me this email and asked me the following...
Hey Aunt C, Somebody sent this to me and I know you are fantastic at finding the truth, so is this true or some republican trying to change peoples votes. Thanks, (Niece)

LINK HERE:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/taxes.asp

Hi, (Niece). it is completely false... Thanks for asking... I wish that others would question this baloney the republican rightwing sends around to the naive, who mindlessly accept these stupid forwards as the truth... A sad America, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, (and the middle class continues to disappear) is the result of such irrationality... The very ones who get hurt by these forwards are the ones who would probably be helped if the wealthy, whether they be individuals or corporations were forced to pay their share of taxes, instead of getting tax breaks that the republican party keep giving them.
http://thinkingblue.blogspot.com

Clip Source: www.thethinkingblue.com

LYING FORWARDS FROM THE RIGHTWING

THE TRUTH BE TOLD

My niece sent me this email and asked me the following...

Subject: Fw: Taxes...VERY IMPORTANT!!]
Date: Sunday, August 17, 2008, 6:13 PM

Hey Aunt C, Somebody sent this to me and I know you are fantastic at finding the truth, so is this true or some republican trying to change peoples votes. Thanks, Niece

Spread the word.....

Proposed changes in taxes after 2008 General election:
CAPITAL GAINS TAX

0% on home sales up to $500,000

OBAMA
28% on profit from ALL home sales

How does this affect you?

DIVIDEND TAX
MCCAIN 15% (no change)

OBAMA 39.6%

INCOME TAX

MCCAIN (no changes)

OBAMA
(reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts)

INHERITANCE TAX

MCCAIN 0%

OBAMA Restore the inheritance tax

NEW TAXES BEING PROPOSED BY OBAMA

New government taxes

New gasoline taxes

New taxes on natural resources

New taxes on retirement accounts

New taxes to pay for socialized medicine

Thank You
Robert D. Jenkins
Vice President - Investments

Wachovia Securities

Tags: lying, forwards, rightwing, politics, political, obama, mccain

Half America would be on Death Row.

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:16:05 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: If it were up to the R party, half of Amer. would be on death row. I exaggerate but you have to ask...what’s wrong with these people? They can't see society for the people. Sick acts do occur that we’d like to cure. But with brains, one size doesn’t fit all. Many take a beating before maturity, so we wind up with depraved sins by sickos. If laws put all sickos to death there would have to be many death rows. Killing doesn’t stop such acts and sets an example that murder is an answer. Life without parole is cost effective. It takes alota $$ before a slaying occurs, life sentences are cheaper. (to those who tout PRISONS COST US TAXPAYERS MUCH MOOLAH, KILL THE BUMS!) Capital punishment is a fact in this brutal society and the judges must decide what it's slated for. It should only be for homicide. If it starts to pertain to other crimes, we slide backwards and kids will hang for stealing apples. Their legs must be weighted cause small bodies are too light to choke a life away.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Unbowed, politicians vow to execute child rapists

Angry politicians vowed to keep writing laws that condemn child rapists to death, despite a Supreme Court decision saying such punishment is unconstitutional.

Anybody in the country who cares about children should be outraged that we have a Supreme Court that would issue a decision like this," said Alabama Attorney General Troy King, a Republican. The justices, he said, are "creating a situation where the country is a less safe place to grow up."

The court's 5-4 decision Wednesday derailed the efforts of nearly a dozen states supporting the right to kill those convicted of raping a child — and said execution was confined to attacks that take a life and to other crimes including treason and espionage.

Kennedy wrote "the death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," despite the horrendous nature of the crime.

Gov. Bobby Jindal called the ruling "incredibly absurd,"

McMaster said

states

fight

ruling

by waiting for

change

Tags: capital punishment, supreme court, rape

Boston Legal's Depiction of the Supreme Court...

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:59:27 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: Was right on target. When I first saw this clip, I couldn't believe how wonderful it would be if this was not fiction. Well, it seems the Supreme Court may not be as politically polarized as I thought but just one more Republican justice and it will be. When that happens a case like this will only be a fairytale. I can't embed it any longer but you can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqlGoxfAkuU

See John Stewart's hilarious view of Scalia and the Supreme Court. Click Here: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/30/daily-show%20-the-loveable-and-charming-antonin-scalia/

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

Supreme Court Fictionalized Dramatization

UPDATE: SUPREME COURT REJECTS THE IDEA OF DEATH FOR RAPE OF A CHILD:
WASHINGTON - Proponents and opponents of imposing the death penalty for rape of a child underwent intense questioning Wednesday from a seemingly divided Supreme Court.

The hour-long argument came in the case of inmate Patrick Kennedy, sentenced to death for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter.

Kennedy's lawyer, Jeffrey L. Fisher, told the court the death penalty for child rape under Louisiana law violates the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
More here: msnbc.msn.com/id/24155465/

This is a short video clip that shows how the Supreme Court has become partisan during the long reign of the Republican Party. If only this depiction could be reality,

But alas, it can never be, as long as we have the Limbaughs, the Coulters and the radical, religious wing of the Republican Party. Too bad, too sad!

Tags: supreme, court, boston, legal, politics, death, penalty

Employee Freedom Of Choice Act (petition)

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:51:27 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: Please sign this petition to urge Congress to pass this act. The middle class is going under and we need to restore the freedoms we once had. Thanks, thinkingblue.blogspot.com

Clip Source: www.thethinkingblue.com

This Is Important! Please sign the EMPLOYEE FREEDOM OF CHOICE ACT, PETITION

To: The New President and Congress, The undermining of the middle class which has been going on during the long stranglehold of the Republican, takeover, is finally killing it.

Their mission seems to appear, accomplished but I think they may be scratching their heads and realizing, although, perhaps too late, that this isn't exactly what they intended. If you kill an organism too quickly during torture you didn't do it correctly. The goal is to distress the servitor just enough to show who's boss but hold back a bit as to not finish 'em off.

Well, what was bound to happen ... happened and the middle class is gasping its last breath.

Thank you,
thinkingblue

I urge you to enact the Employee Free Choice Act immediately. This crucial legislation will protect workers’ freedom to choose a union and bargain, without management intimidation.

My bargaining rights are worth working for and voting for!

Tags: freedom, employee, politics, congress

Limbaugh tops his own bigotry with this one.

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:15:15 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: It's hard to believe what can come out of the mouth (butt) of Rush Limbaugh but his latest tirade is beyond belief, beyond disgusting, beyond loathsome.

Yes it's very hard to believe this mindless little man could stoop so low as to praise the flood victims in Iowa, Illinois who happen to be mostly white and at the same time, condemn the Katrina victims with the same old rhetoric, innuendos and outright bigotry that the KKK type people carry in their bags of hateful garbage.

Those poor hurrican victims, who happen to be mostly of color are responsible in the intolerant brain cells of Rush, for their fate. I know beyond the pale, is too weak a phrase for this criticism from a genuine butt-hole. The only bewilderment I feel of such a creep sputtering into a microphone that goes out over the airwaves is, WHY THE HELL WOULD ANYONE LISTEN TO HIS SHIT AND STILL THINK OF HIM AS A CREDIBLE BEARER OF THE TRUTH? http://thinkingblue.blogspot.com

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

Directly From The Butt Of Rush Limbaugh

[Video]

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated coastal areas of the Gulf Coast states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, including the city of New Orleans.

It was among the greatest of natural disasters to ever strike the United States.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so true, but words are important just the same. What is happening in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast region, is beyond pictures and beyond words

The babies, old people, desperate mothers, hungry, thirsty little children and the dead bodies floating in the sludge mixture of the Pontchartrain river and filthy debris left in the storm's wake, played out a nightmare scenario that no movie set could have duplicated with more heart wrenching agony.

Now, Limbaugh, an arrogant ideologue

and hates the black victims of NOLA. He wants you to understand, it was all their fault for not escaping Hurricane Katrina!

They were lazy

people that deserved their fate

Tags: limbaugh, katrina, poverty, iowa, floods, politics, political

Small Government and other Goofy Ideas!

Wed, 21 May 2008 14:05:27 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: This paragraph is encouraging:
(Even John McCain, who tells conservatives that he's a Reagan disciple, proposes far-reaching government action on issues such as climate change, high energy prices and the mortgage crisis -- problems that are supposedly better left to the CRUEL GENIUS OF THE FREE MARKET, according to ... Bush ...)
I could never understand why people especially LIBERTARIANS believe small or no government is what this nation needs... The GOP sure jumped on that bandwagon. Here is a great site to compliment Mr. Robinson's stance... http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=24
Time and time again, I have repeated the old axiom WE'RE ONLY AS STRONG AS OUR WEAKEST LINK! And the weakest amongst us may need a helping hand now and then...(Katrina). Here's good quote:
“The weakest link in the chain is also the strongest. It can break the chain.”
- Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

The GOP's Ideas Deficit

By Eugene Robinson

The Reagan era in American politics is about to end, and we have George W. Bush to thank for its demise.

All three of the remaining presidential candidates propose a far more activist role for government. Even John McCain,

It took a leader of the Decider's uncommon gifts to kill the philosophy he worships.

Violating the basic rights of citizens and noncitizens alike in the name of his "war on terrorism."

Otherwise, he has interpreted Reagan's small-government mandate as an excuse -- or an instruction -- to abdicate government's most fundamental responsibilities. Anyone who wants to argue this point need simply remember the "heck of a job" our government did in handling the devastation from Hurricane Katrina.

Even more telling, though, are the polls showing that soaring numbers of Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction

Decades of government inattention have allowed chronic problems to grow and fester and putrefy and

Tags: small, government, eugene, robinson, bush gop

Paul-The-Credit-Card-Extortionist

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:06:39 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: Kiss credit card rip-offs goodbye!
Bank of America is hiking rates for some good customers--to as high as 28%! Because they can.
We just hand-delivered 120,000 Valentines Day cards to Congress from people like you--telling them to help us "kiss credit card rip-offs goodbye"! Now we need to follow that up with strong support for legislation just filed by two powerful lawmakers.
We have huge momentum, but this bill needs cosponsors. Let's get another 100,000 messages to lawmakers in the next two weeks and gather the cosponsors we need to move the bill to the House floor.
Just send the message below or edit it (click in the box and type your own words) to tell your lawmaker what you want in your own words. Click the link, and our system will automatically address the letter correctly by adding your information and send it on to your lawmaker.
https://secure.consumersunion.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1797
http://thinkingblue.blogspot.com

Clip Source: thinkingblue.blogspot.com

My two cents worth:

Over the years I have paid out tens of thousands of hard earned cash in interest fees. Credit cards have been my nemeses throughout life while raising 3 children. Now my grown kids are hitting the same struggle.

Sometimes, when incomes are not enough to live on, most turn to credit because it's constantly thrown in their face.

If the credit card companies were regulated and fair, this could help low income families, now and then, but instead these companies are allowed to bleed them dry.

There was a time before the Republican stranglehold on our country when you could deduct these fees from your income on yearly tax statements. But the Republican Congress arranged to have that slight financial aid taken away.

Those of us, at the bottom rungs of the income ladder need protecting from these vultures but do we get any? Not on your life! There is just too much money to be made off the backs of the low to middle income worker and that is thoroughly loathsome and WRONG!

Tags: credit, card, rip-off, extortionist

David's Story At Tyson's Hog Plant

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:41:56 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: The story you are about to read (that is if you are fair minded enough to read it) just about scratches the surface of what is wrong with employment in this country. How hard it is to make ends meet, for anyone with little or no "skills". The "working poor" is a catch phrase of recent times but they were always out there, just more so, today. The reason for this, is the long Republican rule this country has been under. Corporate laissez faire is the ideology that's promoted under their domination.

Even their monarch, Ronald Reagan used the phrase "Welfare Queens" to put down any or all who simply cannot make a decent livable salary and must depend on state hand-outs when they were available. And oh, how his disciples latched on to that one even though it was a big fat LIE!!
Myth: There are Welfare Queens driving Welfare Cadillac's.

Fact: Reagan made up this story.

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-welfarequeen.htm
Read More Below:

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

Vegetables of Mass Destruction - David's Story (UPDATED)

Yesterday I spent an hour speaking with David, a former meatpacker at a Tyson hog plant in Iowa. The conversation left me near tears, and I wonder at how David has been able to pick himself up and move on - or for that matter, do anything other than curl up in a fetal position and cry.

Please read and rec this diary for David.

Chicago
David's story begins in Chicago

Working at Tyson
David told me the plant slaughtered 2000 hogs per shift

Bathroom Breaks
Since Tyson obviously isn't too big on allowing employees any break time, they don't take pleasure in allowing them to use the restroom either.

Race, Sex, Favoritism, and Money
The plant included some blacks, but the workers were mostly Mexican.

Injuries
Most employees were injured in one way or another, David told me.

David's Injury

You Call This America?

David's story is NOT unique to Tyson.

If you can afford it,

Try http://www.eatwellguide.org

Tags: political, income, low, david, tyson

Why Would Anyone Vote For An "R" Guy?

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:18:18 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: Except those who are well off!!
These people invariably, vote for the "R" guy to keep money flowing for the wealthiest and then so arrogantly call this flow, TRICKLE-DOWN ECONOMICS. If you ask me, any
phrase with the word TRICK in it, should make you outright suspicious! www.thinkingblue.blogspot.com
---
In the 1980’s Ronald Reagan ushered in a new era in American economics as he cut the top tax bracket from 70% down to 50% and then down again to 28%. In order to get support for doing this from the people, and also from politicians, a very crafty set of lies were produced. As David Stockman, then Reagan’s budget director, put it: giving small tax cuts across the board to all brackets was simply a “Trojan Horse” that was used to get approval for the huge top tax bracket cuts. “Trickle-Down” was a term used by Republicans that meant giving tax cuts to the rich. Stockman explains that:..
More Below

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Deal for economic rescue package closer

Democratic

Republican

looking for

agreement with the White House on an emergency package to jolt the economy out of its slump

agreed to drop increases in food stamp and unemployment benefits during the Wednesday meeting in exchange for gaining a rebates of at least $300 for each person earning a paycheck

Families with children would receive an additional $300 per child, subject to an overall cap of perhaps $1,200,

Pelosi, D-Calif.,

Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio

had yet to reach agreement

could exceed $70 billion,

Pelosi'

needed to brief fellow Democrats on the emerging but plan.

Bush backs larger rebates of $800-$1,600, but his plan would have left out 30 million working households who earn paychecks but don't make enough to pay income tax,

Boehner pushed

couples with incomes

$130,000 or so

Democrats had pressed to extend unemployment benefits

but Republicans resisted

unemployment payments

money for food stamps

unions, who were already stung

deny

money

Medicaid

Tags: trickle down

AMERICAN RHETORIC Top 100 Speeches

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:15:01 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: Looking for an one of the outstanding American Speeches recited by one of the dynamic speakers of modern times. This is your site. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

Clip Source: www.americanrhetoric.com

Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have A Dream" mp3 Entire 2

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Inaugural Address

mp3 Entire 3

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

First Inaugural Address

mp3 Entire 4

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation

mp3 Entire 5

Barbara Charline Jordan

1976 DNC Keynote Address

mp3

Entire

6 Richard Milhous Nixon

"Checkers"

mp3

Entire

7 Malcolm X

"The Ballot or the Bullet"

mp3

Entire

8 Ronald Wilson Reagan

Shuttle ''Challenger'' Disaster Address

mp3 Entire 9

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Houston Ministerial Association Speech

mp3

Entire

10 Lyndon Baines Johnson

"We Shall Overcome"

mp3 Entire 11 Mario Matthew Cuomo

1984 DNC Keynote Address

mp3

Entire

12 Jesse Louis Jackson

1984 DNC Address

mp3.1 mp3.2 mp3.3

Entire

Barbara Charline Jordan

Statement on the Articles of Impeachment

mp3

Entire

(General) Douglas MacArthur

Farewell Address to Congress

mp3 Entire 15

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I've Been to the Mountaintop"

mp3

Tags: speeches

Stagflation - 1970's Déjà vu

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:54:21 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: As Yogi Berra once said, "This is like deja vu all over again." 1970's economy looms over us once again.
Stagflation in the 1970s
The term "stagflation" -- an economic condition of both continuing inflation and stagnant business activity, together with an increasing unemployment rate -- described the new economic malaise. Inflation seemed to feed on itself. People began to expect continuous increases in the price of goods, so they bought more. This increased demand pushed up prices, leading to demands for higher wages, which pushed prices higher still in a continuing upward spiral. Labor contracts increasingly came to include automatic cost-of-living clauses, and the government began to peg some payments, such as those for Social Security, to the Consumer Price Index, the best-known gauge of inflation.

While these practices helped workers and retirees cope with inflation, they perpetuated inflation. http://economics.about.com/od/useconomichistory/a/stagflation.htm

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Wholesale prices in 2007 up 6.3 percent

Wholesale inflation last year shot up by the largest amount in 26 years while retailers suffered their worst December shopping season in five years as mounting economic woes caused consumers to put away their wallets.

6.3 percent for all of 2007, reflecting a huge increase for the year in various types of energy costs ranging from gasoline to home heating oil.

Fed is more worried at the moment about weak growth than inflation

economy skidded to a virtual standstill

raising fears the country could fall into a recession

various economic threats have sent consumer confidence plunging

economy to the top of voters' concerns

big increase last year reflected the fact that energy prices rose by 18.4 percent

Fed is closley watching core prices for any signs that the price pressures being seen in energy and food are starting to spread to other parts of the economy.

combat a decade-long bout of stagflation,

Tags: stagflation, 1970

So you can eat healthy, lucky you!

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:58:28 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: Just one more nail in the coffin of poverty. Low income people cannot afford to eat healthy and by not eating healthy they risk getting the diseases associated with unhealthy diets. Since they also can't afford health insurance they can't afford the treatments available for eating unhealthy. So what is their recourse? An early death! So keep thinking people are free and can make life choices to enhance their existence and keep judging that those who eat unhealthy deserve what they get. America The Land Of The Haves And The Have Nots! And the Have Nots are growing bigger everyday

Clip Source: articles.mercola.com

Can You Afford to Eat Right?

There may be one reason why many Americans aren’t eating healthy that has nothing to do with will power or flavor: it’s too expensive.

Millions of Americans simply can’t afford to eat healthy, according to researchers at the University of Washington in the first study of its kind.

prices for healthy food jumped nearly 20 percent over a two-year period, compared to a modest 5 percent increase in the overall food price inflation. Prices of high-calorie foods, meanwhile, remained about the same, and in some cases even dropped.

foods that are currently cheap are expected to rise dramatically in price in the near future, the researchers said. They pointed to three things they believe people will need to eat well in the future: education, money and time.

“If you have all three, you're home free. If you have two out of three, you can manage.

if you have only one out of the three, or zero of the three, you are pretty much screwed

low-income people have zero out of three

January is “Poverty in America Awareness Month”

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:10:30 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: Today, 36.5 million Americans—and 1 in 6 children (that’s 17.4 percent of all American children)—are living below the poverty line. They live in families who are of necessity making hard choices between food, health care, heat and rent. To bring attention to this national crisis, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has designated January as “Poverty in America Awareness Month.”
During this special month of observance, we devote our efforts to heightening the nation's understanding of the breadth and depth of the problems of poverty by: MORE AT THIS SITE:
http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/povamer.shtml

Clip Source: www.usccb.org

Struggling to hang on. Making hard choices between hunger, housing and health care for their families.

It’s time to end poverty in America once and for all. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) invests in community-based solutions — that know no racial or religious boundaries. We support self-sufficiency and self-determination as the best strategies for change.We support projects that break the cycle of poverty for good. Find out more about CCHD and the programs that are changing people’s lives.

Tags: poverty, america, january