intheav.com Blogs - lancaster - My Blog

local democrates pull heads out of asses.

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:59:46 +0000

looks like the demise of the local dem club has come to a halt. will be interesting to see if they can get anything done! oh yeah, and the new president? johnathon. voted in by dems who were vetted and proven to be dems before voting. 30 to 0. 5 provisional ballots, also cast for johnathon. AFTER THE MAN WAS TRASHED HERE, IN THE AV PRESS, and everywhere else, by dems, i don't know why he would want it. but i wish johnathon luck. hope the local dems are worth his effort!

WOW!!!

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:31:52 +0000

this guy just makes it up as he goes! FACTS?!?? HE DON'T NEED NO DAMN FACTS! lolololololololololololol

Jesse Ventura�s Letter to the Ruling Elite!

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:02:24 +0000

Jesse Ventura�s Letter to the Ruling Elite! April 7th, 2011 You control our world. You�ve poisoned the air we breathe, contaminated the water we drink, and copyrighted the food we eat. We fight in your wars, die for your causes, and sacrifice our freedoms to protect you. You�ve liquidated our savings, destroyed our middle class, and used our tax dollars to bailout your unending greed. We are slaves to your corporations, zombies to your airwaves, servants to your decadence. You�ve stolen our elections, assassinated our leaders, and abolished our basic rights as human beings. You own our property, shipped away our jobs, and shredded our unions. You�ve profited off of disaster, destabilized our currencies, and raised our cost of living. You�ve monopolized our freedom, stripped away our education, and have almost extinguished our flame. We are hit� we are bleeding� but we ain�t got time to bleed. We will bring the giants to their knees and you will witness our revolution! Sincerely, The Serfs.

Dead-Missing-Jailed BP WHISTLEBLOWERS

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 02:10:02 +0000

god bless oil company's. SOURCE: REAL COASTAL WARRIORS Gregory Stone February 17, 2011 - LSU scientist Gregory Stone, 54 - Unknown Illness Anthony Nicholas Tremonte January 26, 2011 - age 31 - Mississippi Department of Marine Resources officer, from Ocean Springs arrested on child porn charge Dr. Thomas B. Manton January 19, 2011 - former President and CEO of the International Oil Spill Control Corporation - imprisonment and subsequent murder while jailed John P. Wheeler II December 31, 2010 - a former Pentagon official and presidential aide and a defense consultant and expert on chemical and biological weapons - was beaten to death in an assault, body was discovered in a Wilmington landfill James Patrick Black November 23, 2010 - an incident commander for BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill response team, died Tuesday night near Destin, Florida in a small plane crash' Chitra Chaunhan November 15, 2010 - age 33, worked in the USF Center for Biological Defense and Global Health Infectious Disease Research - Found dead in an apparent suicide by cyanide at a Temple Terrace hotel. She leaves behind a husband and a young child. Dr. Jeffrey Gardner, Swan Doctor November, 2010 - MIA Status, of Lakeland, FL - Swan expert who �ran into legal trouble over an expired prescription license has closed his practice� � Was investigating unexplained bird deaths near Sarasota abruptly and immediately closed his practice, and apparently his investigation into the deaths of swans in Sarasota, suspected to have been impacted by the BP Oil Disaster. No one has heard or spoken with him since. Watch this news report covering his investigation before his disappearance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqbx2TnbYlc&feature=player_embedded Roger Grooters, Cyclist October 6, 2010 - age 66, was hit by a truck as he passed through Panama City, Florida. Mr. Grooters had been knocked down and killed close to the end of a 3,200-mile trans-America charity ride to raise awareness about the Gulf Coast oil disaster. He began his cross-country bike ride in Oceanside, California, on September 10th. Grooters's family and friends will cycle the final stretch of the journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic in his honour, raising cash to support Gulf Coast families. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319529/Cyclist-Roger-Grooters-66-killed-truck-Gulf-Mexico-oil-spill-charity-ride.html#ixzz1G4s6su96 Senator Ted Stevens August 9, 2010 - Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, 86, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, was among nine people on board when the 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter, crashed into a brush- and rock-covered mountainside Monday afternoon about 17 miles north of the southwest Alaska fishing town of Dillingham, federal officials said. Stevens was the recipient of a whistleblower's communication relative to the BP Oil Disaster blow-out preventer, and a conspiracy of secrecy to hide the facts from the public. (http://beforeitsnews.com/story/132/410/Sen._Ted_Stevens_Killed_In_Plane_Crash_He_Got_A_Million_From_BP_And_Knew_Blow_Out_Preventer_Was_A_Problem._Was_He_Whacked.html) "You and your fellow Committee members may wish to require BP to explain what action was ultimately instituted to cease the practice of falsifying BOP tests at BP Prudhoe drilling rigs. It was a cost saving but dangerous practice, again endangering the BP workforce, until I exposed it to Senator Ted Stevens, the EPA, and the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission." The cause of the crash is still an OPEN investigation by the NTSB (http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=ANC10MA068&rpt=p) Matthew Simmons August 13, 2010 - age 67 - Simmons� body was found Sunday night in his hot tub, investigators said. An autopsy by the state medical examiner�s office concluded Monday that he died from accidental drowning with heart disease as a contributing factor - �It was painful as can be� to be only insider willing to speak out against the "officials" during the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico Scientist Joseph Morrissey April 6, 2010 - age 46 - cell biologist and college professor, a near-native Floridian who chose to return to South Florida after studying at elite universities - was fatally shot during what police say was a home invasion robbery. SOURCE: Dead / Jailed /Missing Scientists & Individuals Affiliated With The BP Oil Disaster

was this newt's april fools joke?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:11:27 +0000

Gingrich Withdraws From GOP Race By Paul Nevins on March 31, 2011 11:38 (Washington, D.C., Vatican News Service. For immediate release). Newt Gingrich is scheduled to deliver an important policy address at Georgetown University today. In large part, the address has been prompted by Gingrich's recent conversion to Roman Catholicism, the faith of his third wife, Callistra Gingrich, who has publicly stated that she wants him to be a good Catholic. During that address, Gingrich will announce that he is withdrawing as a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination. In a remarkable and candid interview prior to today's address, Gingrich explained the reasons why he will no longer be a candidate. "I was drawn to the Catholic Church because it is the faith of my wife. But, in the past few decades, I have also grown to appreciate the importance and influence that the Church exerts in the modern world. In order to be received into the Church," he continued, "I had to study Catholic theology and its catechism, but I had not had a chance to delve deeply into Catholic social doctrine and philosophy. I have now begun to do that as part of my Lenten preparation for Easter." Gingrich says those studies, to date, have fundamentally altered his own world view. "By the time I completed my PhD at Tulane in Modern European History, I was thoroughly imbued with the ideas of the Enlightenment and the Protestant Reformation - the kind of individualism that was emphasized in the works of thinkers like Martin Luther, John Locke, Voltaire and Montesquieu. These thinkers, by and large, defined freedom and rights broadly, as the absence of restraint, and as a necessary check upon the exercise of power by government. They viewed government as something alien and dangerous, and almost always in conflict with the interests of individuals." Because of his affinity for their politics, Gingrich says that he had, heretofore, always identified with the ideals of Republican Party and viewed himself as a conservative: "I now understand, after my initial study of Catholic political philosophy, that the political ideas that I endorsed in the past were not, in fact, conservative - in the Catholic or European sense of that term - but rather were based upon antiquated 18th century liberal notions. I was thus a right-wing, classical liberal parading as a conservative." "The Catholic conservative tradition," Gingrich emphasized, "is very different. It traces its lineage from Aristotle, through Thomas Aquinas, to Catholic philosophers today. It is thus fundamentally at odds with the kind of anti-social individualism that dominates current U.S. political discourse. It is also very radical." Gingrich illustrated this difference by citing Aquinas, who stated that, "It is lawful for a man to hold private property" but that "Man should not consider his outward possessions as his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need." In a wide-ranging interview, Gingrich invoked the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno to the effect that "man does not live alone; he is not an isolated individual, but a member of society...Reason, that which we call reason, reflex and reflective knowledge, the distinguishing mark of man, is a social product." Gingrich also confessed that he has now begun to read the works of the French Catholic philosophers, Gabriel Marcel and Jacques Maritain. He endorsed, without qualification, Maritain's statement that "[T]he primary reason for which men, united in political society, need the State, is the order of justice....As a result, the primary duty of the modern state is the enforcement of social justice." Gingrich observed that his reading of papal encyclicals, too, has helped to enrich and deepen his understanding of politics. He quoted approvingly from Pope John XXIII's Pacem et Terris, in which the pope insisted that "Individual groups and intermediate groups are obliged to make their specific contributions to the common welfare. One of the chief consequences of this, is that they must bring their own interests into harmony with the needs of the community, and must dispose of their goods and their services as civil authorities have prescribed, in accord with the norms of justice, in due form and within the limits of their competence." Lastly, Gingrich praised and recommended Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, Rerum Novarum, from which he read an excerpt: "Let the working man and the employer make free agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages; nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner.If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accept harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford him no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice." That quotation prompted Gingrich to rebuke GOP Governors Kasich, Pawlenty and Walker for the anti-labor legislation that they recently signed into law in their respective states. "They are plain wrong. It is important for American Catholics to carefully examine their consciences and to reflect upon Pope Leo's teaching." Gingrich concluded the interview by stating that he has now embraced the Catholic Church's commitment to social justice in its entirety, which includes support for life-affirming activities such as opposition to capital punishment, to helping the poor, supporting labor rights and a higher minimum wage, extending unemployment benefits, reigning in corporate corruption and greed, and opposing violence - such as that caused by unrestricted access to guns - and unjust wars. He noted wistfully that, as such, he is no longer a viable candidate for the GOP presidential nomination:"Many of the Catholic teachings I have now come to accept are significantly more progressive and require a more courageous stand in support of the public good than almost all elected politicians in the United States - with the possible exception of Congressmen Dennis Kucinich - would ever dare to endorse. I no longer feel that I have a home in the Republican Party or that I will ever have a chance to hold elective office again. But some things are, frankly, more important. I now intend, as penance for my past transgressions, to devote my life to doing good works and to leading by example."

i don't care WHOSE friends they are. PAY UP!

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 01:35:07 +0000

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Sun, 03/27/2011 - 1:55pm. * Alerts A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT The following is a news release from the office of Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont-I) While hard working Americans fill out their income tax returns this tax season, General Electric and other giant profitable corporations are avoiding U.S. taxes altogether. With Congress returning to Capitol Hill on Monday to debate steep spending cuts, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations must do their share to help bring down our record-breaking deficit. Sanders renewed his call for shared sacrifice after it was reported that General Electric and other major corporations paid no U.S. taxes after posting huge profits. Sanders said it is grossly unfair for congressional Republicans to propose major cuts to Head Start, Pell Grants, the Social Security Administration, nutrition grants for pregnant low-income women and the Environmental Protection Agency while ignoring the reality that some of the most profitable corporations pay nothing or almost nothing in federal income taxes. Sanders compiled a list of some of some of the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders: 1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings. 2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion. 3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS. 4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009. 5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year. 6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction. 7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department. 8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury. 9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction. 10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent. Sanders has called for closing corporate tax loopholes and eliminating tax breaks for oil and gas companies. He also introduced legislation to impose a 5.4 percent surtax on millionaires that would yield up to $50 billion a year. The senator has said that spending cuts must be paired with new revenue so the federal budget is not balanced solely on the backs of working families. "We have a deficit problem. It has to be addressed," Sanders said, "but it cannot be addressed on the backs of the sick, the elderly, the poor, young people, the most vulnerable in this country. The wealthiest people and the largest corporations in this country have got to contribute. We've got to talk about shared sacrifice."

this may piss you off!

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 02:55:49 +0000

Holland, MI � By RAY BUURSMA Community columnist Posted Mar 23, 2011 @ 04:40 AM Are you an American employee? If so, today�s column will likely offend you. If you�d rather not be offended, read no further. If you continue and then complain, I�m sorry, but that simply proves you�re, well, stupid. But then again, stupidity plays a large role in today�s topic. Still reading? OK. You�ve had fair warning. So you�re an American employee. Maybe you make car parts. Maybe you�re an engineer or designer. Maybe you�re an accountant, store clerk or tradesman. Whatever you do, you�re probably stupid or lazy. Yes, I wrote it, and I mean it. You are either stupid or lazy. Maybe both. Now, I�m not referring to your work ethic or job performance. No, most of you are competent and devoted to your profession or vocation. I�m addressing the way you view economics and employment. I�m challenging your gumption to advocate for yourself and your fellow Americans. Here�s what I mean. Remember the Reagan standard? Are you better off today than you were a decade ago? Two decades? Three? Unless you make more than $380,000 a year, the answer is no. In fact, your standard of living over the last quarter century has actually decreased while millionaires have added 30 percent to their net wealth. Why? Two reasons. First, hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs went overseas while the politicians you elected did nothing to stop them. Yet you continue to elect leaders who offer nothing but tax cuts, as if that would stem the flow of disappearing jobs. Did you demand your leaders address America�s trade imbalance or continuous outsourcing of jobs? Did you demand your leaders require foreign countries to buy a dollar�s worth of American goods for every dollar of goods they sell here? No and no. You didn�t bother. You simply crossed your fingers and prayed, �I hope my job�s not next.� You made concessions to your employer and hoped that would stem the exodus of jobs, or at least yours. How�d that work for you? Second, you bought into the myth that unions are the cause of America�s demise. You didn�t bother to learn America became a world power when union membership was at its peak. You didn�t bother to learn America became the envy of the world while 1 of every 3 Americans was a union member. So, how are things going for you? How do your benefits compare to a quarter century ago? Are you paying a higher or lower percentage of your income for health insurance? Does your company offer a pension plan, or do you now fund your own 401(k)? Maybe you�re thinking, �I�m not a union worker, so this doesn�t affect me.� Stop being stupid. Union benefits provide a standard other companies have to match, or at least come close to. When those benefits are cut, yours are, too. Or do you think you operate in your own little employment vacuum? To make matters worse, you�re again being played for a chump. The same puppets who did nothing while your standard of living decreased are now using the oldest gimmick in the book � jealousy � to continue their assault on American workers. Rather than protect Americans� jobs, they deflect your attention through jealousy. �Cut the pay of government workers,� they cry. �Increase their health premiums. Decrease their pensions. Break their unions. After all, you�ve suffered so they should suffer too.� And in your misery, you buy their argument while more jobs head oversees. Pretty stupid, eh? If their antics weren�t so pathetic, if the consequences weren�t so dire, if they didn�t prey on your stupidity, and if you didn�t buy into their convoluted reasoning, this whole situation would be laughable. But of course it�s not. I warned you I�d likely offend you, and I suspect I did. But once you overcome your anger, consider my analysis. Then, either wise up and do something about it, or resign yourself to a lower standard of living for the next decade. Copyright 2011 The Holland Sentinel. Some rights reserved

the difference between my guys and ur guys!

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 05:17:09 +0000

New York Millionaires Offer to Pay Extra Taxes to Offset Budget Cut MANHATTAN -- Millionaires across New York State are banding together to ask for more taxes. About 100 wealthy New Yorkers, including actor Mark Ruffalo, say they want to do their part to help the state out of its budget crisis, and they are encouraging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to extend the so-called millionaire's tax. "Many of us New Yorkers are troubled that you're giving a $5 billion tax cut to 2 percent of New York's most wealthy, while cutting $9 billion from education and social services for the rest of New Yorkers," Ruffalo said in an online video addressing Cuomo. "Please, ditch this backwards Robin Hood plan and give all New Yorkers a fair shake." The millionaire's tax, which is slated to expire in April, takes about an extra 2 percent in state taxes from individuals making over $200,000 a year or families making over $300,000. A group called New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness sent an open letter with about 100 signatures to Cuomo and state legislators Thursday urging them to renew the tax to avert the budget cuts. Donald Shaffer, 82, an Upper East Side resident who worked in insurance and serves on the board of the Civil Liberties Union, said he signed the letter because he would be glad to pay the extra tax. "This is what is decent and sensible as part of the social contract," Shaffer said in a phone interview Thursday. "We've done very well in our society, and we should be happy to see to it that others who require public services are not short-changed." Cuomo's spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who oppose extending the tax, have said they worry it would drive wealthy New Yorkers out of the state, but Shaffer said that was "absurd." "The mayor has not left," Shaffer pointed out. Shaffer added that the recently extended Bush tax cuts would remove most of the burden of the millionaire's tax, so it would not have a large impact on people's finances. The United Federation of Teachers and lower Manhattan parents are also advocating for the state to extend the tax, so the city doesn't get hit with over $1 billion in cuts to education funding. Other rich city residents who signed onto the open letter include Bill Samuels, a Democratic activist and entrepreneur, and Leo Hindrey Jr., chairman of the Economic Growth/Smart Globalization Initiative at the New American Foundation.

Mar 25, 2011 Haley Barbour defends use of state jet

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:18:41 +0000

So, didn't brown just fly commercial a couple weeks ago, visiting so cal? By Catalina Camia, USA TODAY Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential GOP presidential candidate, defended his use of a state-owned plane to come to Washington in February for a speech before conservative activists. "I will tell you that compared to my predecessor, my hours on our state plane are almost exactly the same, less than 10% difference per year," Barbour told the Associated Press during a visit today to Iowa. Barbour was preceded in the governor's office by Democrat Ronnie Musgrove. TIME magazine reported that Barbour billed taxpayers $7,020 to fly himself, his wife, two aides and two security guards for a weekend in Washington, where his work included a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. Several Republicans thinking about running for the White House addressed the influential gathering. The AP obtained flight records that listed the purpose of Barbour's trip as "meeting with congressional members." Barbour's spokeswoman, Laura Hipp, said: "The trip requests make clear the governor was on official business, including meetings with members of Congress about issues ranging from economic development to energy policy and health care reform -- all important to the people of Mississippi." The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. reported Barbour spent more than $300,000 travel last year and spent at least 175 days out-of-state last year. The story did not accuse the governor of wrongdoing, but was a check on his travel.

who won in wisconsin?

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 19:16:10 +0000

Eric Brant * Madison Political Buzz Examiner For many people, March of 2011 will now be remembered as the month that democracy died in Wisconsin. On March 11, Scott Walker and the State Republicans successfully stripped public unions of their rights to collectively bargain. Days after the bill was signed, several State Republicans flew to Washington D.C. to celebrate their victory with the lobbyists that put them in power. But who really won this war? There is no doubt that the republicans won the battle, but the war is far from over. On Saturday, March 12, Madison was the sight of the largest protest in the history of the state. Over 100,000 people showed up to stand with the workers of Wisconsin. Among them, I saw only 1 person who had a pro-Walker sign. So what does this mean? As you are reading this, there are 17 recall efforts taking place throughout the state. These recall efforts are aimed at 8 eligible Republicans, 8 eligible Democrats, and Scott Walker himself. Many of these efforts are steadily gaining steam. The Republican Party has publicly admitted that they are being out organized by the recall efforts that are aimed at their own candidates. United Wisconsin has been holding meetings all over the state in an effort to recall Scott Walker. Their online �Pledge to Recall Walker� (found here: www.unitedwisconsin.com) has gained over 165,000 signatures. With 540,206 names needed to successfully force a recall election, they are well on their way. The recall efforts aimed at the 8 Republican senators are also gaining attention. The Democrats need to flip 3 senate seats to regain control of the senior house. As of right now, there are 3 seats that are almost guaranteed to flip in favor of the Democratic majority. Some people may be surprised that only 3 of the seats appear to be a lock. With over a month of protests and hundreds of thousands of workers showing up at the Capitol, you would think that all 8 of them would be in danger. Well, the part that we need to remember is that these 8 Republican senators have been in office since at least 2008. That means that they survived the Democratic take over under Barack Obama. This means that these 8 districts are loyal Republicans, and recalling them may not be as easy as it seems. However, in January of 2012, the rest of the Republican senators will become eligible as well. These seats may prove easier to sway, considering that many of them rode the tidal wave of voter discontent in 2010. The tide is now receding and we shall see the true feelings of the American, specifically the mid-western, populace. The Tea Party wave of 2010 has awoken a sleeping giant. Many people are realizing the consequences of their knee jerk reaction to the 2006-2008 democratic majorities. People are noticing that the GOP rarely (if ever) asks the question, �Is this the right thing to do?� They always talk about money, but hardly ever about people. When they do talk about people, it is normally either a lie or a way to take away our rights. How? Look at the 2010 campaign, all we heard about was, �JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!,� but is has been nearly 4 months since the GOP took over the House of Representatives and there has not been 1 single jobs bill introduced. What has the GOP done? They have voted on the removal of abortion rights, their state legislatures are voting to take away union rights, they are even trying to remove the rights of people to elect their own city representatives. Not to mention the legislation that makes it harder to register to vote. That is unless you are either elderly or a gun owner. These 2 groups were exempted from the ruling. Amazingly, these 2 demographics are notoriously Republican voters. Coincidence? But as I said, still nothing to create jobs. As a matter of fact, under the GOP budget, jobs will be lost. What did John Boehner say about these losses? �If jobs are lost in the process, so be it.� So be it? Really? And what about the GOP�s so called �fiscal responsibility?� The RNC is currently $20,000,000 in debt. They voted to repeal the health care law. The Congressional Budget Committee has already noted that a repeal of the Affordable Care Act would add over $200,000,000 to the deficit. When Scott Walker stopped the high speed rail project in Wisconsin, he ended up costing the state $60,000,000. The federal funding for the rail project contained $60,000,000 to repair our current rail system as well. When Walker stopped the project, the current problems didn�t go away, and now we need to pay $60,000,000 out of our own pockets. (note: the federal funding would have also come from our tax dollars, but it would come from a much larger pot that the entire country pays into. Meaning that instead of 5.5 million Wisconsinites, it would have been paid for by 200 million US citizens. Everyone pays a little, instead of a few paying a lot.) The really interesting part is that the high speed rail would have cost us $600,000 per year. This $60,000,000 would have funded the rail for 100 years. Another way to look at it is that Walker�s tax cuts for the wealthy, the one�s that cost us $137,000,000, would have funded the rail for over 200 years. Many of you may have heard Republicans state that we need to remove collective bargaining so that, �in 2 years we don�t find ourselves in the same economic situation that we are in now.� I have 3 solid points that need to be brought up when they say this: 1. Public sector employees did not get us into this mess, and they can�t be expected to get us out of it. 2. If you believe that this type of over reach is necessary to guarantee economic safety in the future, then why did your party vehemently oppose Wall Street Reform? 3. The people that Walker is hurting make up the marketplaces that purchase goods from the private sector. Next time, we will examine what is meant by these statements. For now, I think you can figure it out for yourselves.

GOP and late late term abortions!

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:18:52 +0000

NH GOP Senator Says The Disabled and Mentally Ill Are �Defective People� That Should Be Shipped Off To Siberia By Matthew Desmond � March 11, 2011Posted in: News A community health program manager got a surprise when she e-mailed her NH Senator recently to ask him about why he had voted to cut money from mental health programs. The Senator told her that society would be better without disabled people, and he wishes he could ship disabled people to Siberia. Via the Concord Monitor; Barrington Republican Martin Harty told Sharon Omand, a Strafford resident who manages a community mental health program, that �the world is too populated� and there are �too many defective people,� according to an e-mail account of the conversation by Omand. Asked what he meant, she said Harty clarified, �You know the mentally ill, the retarded, people with physical disabilities and drug addictions � the defective people society would be better off without.� Harty confirmed to the Monitor that he made the comments to Omand. Harty told the Monitor the world population has increased dramatically, and �it�s a very dangerous situation if it doubles again.� Asked about people who are mentally ill, he asked, apparently referring to a lack of financial resources, �Can we afford to bring them through?� Harty said nature has a way of �getting rid of stupid people,� and �now we�re saving everyone who gets born.� Harty�s conversation with Omand became public at a hearing on the state budget yesterday when Laurie McCray, a registered nurse and board member of the Disability Rights Center, read Omand�s account to the House Finance Committee. Afterward, McCray said she wanted people to know about the representative � whom she did not identify publicly � because he �didn�t deserve to represent people in New Hampshire.� In an interview and in an e-mail Omand sent to her friends, Omand said she called Harty, who represents her district, to tell him her concerns about the House Finance Committee�s proposed cuts to mental health services. Omand said Harty said he disagreed with her and made the comments about eugenics. Omand says Harty then stated, �I wish we had a Siberia so we could ship them all off to freeze to death and die and clean up the population.�

people dying, while the right yells DRILL BABY DRILL

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 05:46:45 +0000

"I have critically high levels of chemicals in my body," 33-year-old Steven Aguinaga of Hazlehurst, Mississippi told Al Jazeera. "Yesterday I went to see another doctor to get my blood test results and the nurse said she didn't know how I even got there." Aguinaga and his close friend Merrick Vallian went swimming at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in July 2010. "I swam underwater, then found I had orange slick stuff all over me," Aguinaga said. "At that time I had no knowledge of what dispersants were, but within a few hours, we were drained of energy and not feeling good. I've been extremely sick ever since." BP's oil disaster last summer gushed at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, causing the largest accidental marine oil spill in history - and the largest environmental disaster in US history. Compounding the problem, BP has admitted to using at least 1.9 million gallons toxic dispersants, including one chemical that has been banned in the UK. According to chemist Bob Naman, these chemicals create an even more toxic substance when mixed with crude oil. Naman, who works at the Analytical Chemical Testing Lab in Mobile, Alabama, has been carrying out studies to search for the chemical markers of the dispersants BP used to both sink and break up its oil. Poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from this toxic mix are making people sick, Naman said. PAHs contain compounds that have been identified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic. "The dispersants are being added to the water and are causing chemical compounds to become water soluble, which is then given off into the air, so it is coming down as rain, in addition to being in the water and beaches of these areas of the Gulf," Naman told Al Jazeera. "I'm scared of what I'm finding. These cyclic compounds intermingle with the Corexit [dispersants] and generate other cyclic compounds that aren't good. Many have double bonds, and many are on the EPA's danger list. This is an unprecedented environmental catastrophe." Aguinaga's health has been in dramatic decline. "I have terrible chest pain, at times I can�t seem to get enough oxygen, and I'm constantly tired with pains all over my body," Aguinaga explained, "At times I'm pissing blood, vomiting dark brown stuff, and every pore of my body is dispensing water." And Aguinaga's friend Vallian is now dead. "After we got back from our vacation in Florida, Merrick went to work for a company contracted by BP to clean up oil in Grand Isle, Louisiana," Aguinaga said of his 33-year-old physically fit friend. "Aside from some gloves, BP provided no personal protection for them. He worked for them for two weeks and then died on August 23. He had just got his first paycheck, and it was in his wallet, uncashed, when he died." National health crisis Many of the chemicals present in the oil and dispersants are known to cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, kidney damage, altered renal function, and irritation of the digestive tract. They have also caused lung damage, burning pain in the nose and throat, coughing, pulmonary edema, cancer, lack of muscle coordination, dizziness, confusion, irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, difficulty breathing, delayed reaction time and memory difficulties. Further health problems include stomach discomfort, liver and kidney damage, unconsciousness, tiredness/lethargy, irritation of the upper respiratory tract, hematological disorders, and death. Pathways of exposure to the chemicals are inhalation, ingestion, skin, and eye contact. Al Jazeera has talked with scores of sick people across the Gulf Coast who attribute their illnesses to chemicals from BP's oil disaster. Paul Doom, 22, from Navarre, Florida, was training in preparation to join the US Marines, until he became extremely ill from swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. "I stopped swimming in July because I started having severe headaches that wouldn�t go away," Doom told Al Jazeera. "But each time I went to the doctor they dismissed it." In October, Doom began to have internal bleeding, but this too was dismissed by doctors. In November, when it worsened, he was given pain medications in the Emergency Room and was told it would pass. Less then three weeks after that, Doom collapsed with a seizure. "Since then, I've had two blood tests for Volatile Organic Compounds [VOC's] which are in BP's oil and dispersants, and they both came back with alarmingly high levels," he said. Children playing in the surf at Orange Beach, Alabama, despite independent scientists' warnings of toxins in the water, air, and seafood [Erika Blumenfeld/AJE] Since the onset of his symptoms, Doom has been dealing with ongoing internal bleeding, nose bleeds, bleeding from his ears, blood in his stool, headaches, severe diarrhea, two to five seizures per day, paralysis in his left leg and arm, and failing vision. "A toxicologist that interpreted my blood VOC results told me they didn't know how I was alive," Doom explained. "My Hexane was off the charts, and I have 2 and 3 Methylpentane, Iso-octane, Ethylbenze, and mp-Xylene." Wilma Subra, a MacArthur Fellow and chemist in Louisiana, has been testing the blood of BP cleanup workers and residents in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Subra tested Doom's blood and found high amounts of several VOC's. "Ethylbenzene, mp-Xylene and Hexane are volatile organic chemicals that are present in the BP crude oil," Subra told Al Jazeera. "We're finding these in excess of the 95th percentile, which is the average for the entire nation. Sometimes we're finding amounts 5 to 10 times in excess of the 95th percentile." Subra explained that there has been long enough exposure so as to create chronic impacts, that include "Liver damage, kidney damage, and damage to the nervous system. So the presence of these chemicals in the blood indicates exposure." Testing by Subra has also revealed the chemicals are present "in coastal soil sediment, wetlands, and in crab, oyster and mussel tissues." Staggering toll Since January, at least 67 dead dolphins have washed ashore along the Gulf Coast, an event the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared as "an unusual mortality event". In the whole of 2010, 89 dolphin deaths were reported for the same area. In January, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute chemist and colleagues reported that the toxic chemical dispersants BP used to sink its crude oil remained in the deep ocean in an oil and gas-laden plume that had still not degraded. Also in January, Louisiana Senator AG Crowe wrote a letter to President Barack Obama expressing his deep concern about the toxic dispersants BP used, and according to Senator Crowe, continues to use along the Gulf Coast. "Mr President, my concern is that this toxic and damaging chemical is still being used and it will compound the long-term damage to our state, our citizens, our eco-system, our economy, our seafood industry, our wildlife and our culture," the letter read. "We will not be fooled in to believing that the oil and the toxins are gone. Because the toxic dispersants have been, and are still being used today, the oil is being forced downward in to the water columns and then carried endlessly around and about by the Gulf currents adversely affecting our environment." Subra, the MacArthur Fellow, is alarmed by what she is finding in the people whose blood she is testing. "Severe symptoms, lots of respiratory and cardiovascular problems, and skin lesions," she explained. "There is a lot of internal bleeding, and the chemicals cause this by disrupting the integrity of the red blood cells." Subra said: "We�re seeing the chemicals in different classes of people. Cleanup workers employed by BP, clean-up workers no longer employed, and we�re seeing it in community members who come in contact with the crude by fishing or recreating in the Gulf." Al Jazeera asked Subra what she thought the local, state and federal governments should be doing about the ongoing chemical exposures. Tar mats remain along large swaths of coastal Louisiana [Erika Blumenfeld/AJE] "There is a lack of concern by the government agencies and the [oil] industry." She said, �There is a leaning towards wanting to say it's all fixed and let's move on, when it's not. The crude oil is continuing to come on shore in tar mats, balls, and strings." Subra continued: "So the exposure continues. There is still a large amount of crude in the marshes and buried on the beaches. As long as that pathway is there for exposure, these problems will continue quite a long time into the future." A bunch of guinea pigs Jo Billups is an environmental activist who has taken it upon herself to assist in the funding, along with her friend Michelle Nix, in the blood testing being carried out by Subra. Working with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and several doctors along the Gulf Coast, Billups and Nix have been holding workshops and helping sick people get their blood tested and find medical assistance. "We have sick people from Apalachicola, Florida, to Grand Isle, Louisiana, and it's not stopping and that's what's disturbing," Billups said. "The levels we are seeing are not dropping, and we're seeing new chemicals now. We gave some of our blood test results to [EPA head] Lisa Jackson. They know what is going on, and they are not doing anything about it." "The saddest part is the children," Billups added. "We�re seeing young children with extremely high levels of chemicals. We're altering our DNA and our bodies forever, We're a bunch of guinea pigs." Jennifer Rexford, from Panama City, Florida, was an oil clean-up worker for BP. "We were taken to clean up oil and tar balls with inadequate equipment," Rexford told Al Jazeera. "We regularly got oil all over us." Rexford now has a staph infection that covers much of her body that she attributes to the chemicals in BP's oil she was cleaning up. "Everyone I know of that I worked with are now having kidney problems, along with lots of other illnesses," Rexford, who has been to the hospital four times trying to find a solution to her infection, said. "My neighbor has a rash all over her body, and another clean-up worker I know found a lump in her breast a month ago. So when I started calling my co-workers, I realized that we�re all sick." BP cleanup workers regularly are not provided with the proper protective equipment for cleaning up hazardous material such as crude oil [Erika Blumenfeld/AJE] Paul Doom has been to 18 hospitals and seen 129 doctors. "I have documentation and images showing lesions in my brain," he said. "Lesions that are the same as lesions on the brains of marine life from the Exxon Valdez spill from marine necropsies. This is a life and death situation and a race against time." Doom said the water and food along the Gulf Coast are not safe, and he is angry at the Obama administration. "I would ask them why have they allowed this to happen," he said, "How can you live with yourself knowing you allowed this to happen and continue?" Aguinaga feels betrayed as well. "I feel stabbed in the back by my own country," he said, "I feel we are being dictated to by a foreign power. Maybe our president is not strong enough to stand up against them. I know money buys people, but they couldn't offer me enough money for the loss of my friend, and the stuff we�re going through." Aguinaga's prognosis for the future of Gulf Coast residents? "We�re all lab rats and we didn�t even know it. We�re waiting to see how it�s going to turn out."

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLLOOOOLLLLLOOLOLOLLLOLLLO

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 06:41:55 +0000

you might be a teabagger if.......

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:10:05 +0000

You Might be a Teabagger If�.. By Bruce Lindner 1) You�re offended at any suggestion that the Tea Party is racist, even though nobody objects when people show up at your rallies with blatantly racist signs and slogans. 2) Ronald Reagan is your hero because he was against raising taxes and big government� even though he raised taxes 11 times, doubled the national debt, and tripled the size of government. 3) You mocked Nancy Pelosi for getting emotional when she reflected on the murder of her friend, Mayor George Moscone, but you think it�s manly when John Boehner blubbers when he watches reruns of Flipper. 4) You were all in favor of George Bush bringing �Democracy� to Iraq by invading and killing hundreds of thousands of women and children, but you think Obama �blew it� by staying out of it when the people of Tunisia and Egypt toppled their dictators in popular revolts. 5) You think Climate Change is a big hoax because Senator James Inhofe, firmly in the pocket of the oil companies says it�s bogus. 6) You think president Obama�s birth certificate is a forgery, and that he managed to fool the CIA, FBI, NSA, Secret Service and the entire US government archive of documents with one Photoshopped image. 7) You think president Obama is a socialist, because he wants all Americans to pay their share of taxes, including the rich, and all Americans to enjoy the same benefits of an equitable society, including the same healthcare that Congress enjoys. 8) You think Glenn Beck�s theory of a Code Pink/Muslim/Communist alliance conspiracy to take over the world in a 21st Century caliphate makes perfect sense. 9) You believe the Citizens United decision was all about corporate �free speech,� yet you�re against the Fairness Doctrine being reenacted, because you think it�s contrary to �free speech.� 10) You are absolutely pro-life, under all circumstances � except when an abortion doctor is executed in his church, because he asked for it. 11) You thought it was cool when Sarah Palin �targeted� Democratic seats on her website with crosshairs, including Gaby Giffords. But when Giffords was shot in Arizona, you didn�t see any connection. 12) You think Sarah Palin would make a good president because she�s a feisty conservative, but that Dianne Feinstein should be run out of town, because she�s a feisty liberal. 13) You think George Soros, a Hungarian born American citizen, is an enemy of freedom because he uses his vast wealth to meddle in foreign affairs. But you think it�s great that Australian-born Rupert Murdoch uses his vast wealth to meddle in American affairs. 14) The main reason you despise George Soros, is because he helped bring down three foreign governments; the Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, and Soviet Georgia. Three communist regimes. Ronald Reagan on the other hand, took down one communist regime: Grenada� Reagan: 1, Soros: 3. Ergo, Soros is an un-American commie. Besides, Sean Hannity said so. 15) You think being a Teabagger makes you more patriotic than liberals, because you own more guns than them wussies. 16) You screamed bloody murder when president Obama rescued GM and Chrysler, because they were �going to fail anyway.� But now that they�re both on the road to recovery, you think George W. Bush deserves most of the credit. 17) When Barack Obama was sworn in, the Dow Jones was at 6500. Today, it�s at 12,400, almost double where it was. And at that time, the economy was shedding 700,000 jobs per month, a trend that has been arrested and reversed ever since. From that, you deduce Obama�s the one who wrecked the economy. 18) You still believe Saddam had WMDs. 19) You are dead-set against �judicial activist� judges, but you were okay with it when the five conservative justices of the Supreme Court voted in favor of Citizens United, effectively guaranteeing our politicians will be bought by the highest bidder, rather than elected by the people. 20) You�re strongly opposed to gay rights, because you claim it�s not biblical. Except in the case of Ken Mehlman, Mary Cheney, and Ted Haggard, because they still vote �right� on the issues. 21) You want all illegal immigrants rounded up and deported, ASAP, no exceptions, period, period, PERIOD. But you don�t want any criminal charges filed against the corporations that have been hiring them en masse in violation of law. 22) One of your stated concerns with Barack Obama�s candidacy, was that he was too inexperienced for the job, yet you want Sarah Palin to challenge him next year. 23) You hate tax cheats, and people who abuse their status for personal advancement � but you admire Clarence Thomas, and have no problem with his wife �speaking on behalf of her husband� at the Heritage Foundation, a far right-wing organization. 24) You went ballistic when an illegal immigrant murdered an American in Texas two years ago, and you demanded justice. But when three members connected to the Tea Party murdered 9 year old Brisenia Flores, you and your right-wing media barely even mentioned it, nor the conviction. 25) You equate being a �community organizer� to being a Marxist, yet you claim to worship a God whose entire life was being a community organizer. 26) You claim Barack Obama is soft of terrorism and that he�s sympathetic to Muslim extremists. Yet during his first two years in office, his administration captured or killed more terrorists than George Bush did in all eight years of his presidency. 27) You cheered as Andrew Breitbart and his faux journalists brought down ACORN. But when Breitbart got caught doctoring footage of Shirley Sherrod, which brought into question his veracity, you accused her of waging a �race war.� 28) You support Israel�s policies regarding the West Bank and Gaza, because Israel is a democracy, like us. But when Arabs democratically voted in anti-American and anti-Israeli governments, it bewildered you. 29) Your spiritual hero, the Grande Dame of the conservative movement, is Ayn Rand; the dedicated anti-socialist. And yet, she herself in her later years, had no problem secretly cashing in on social security and Medicare. 30) You still think fascism and socialism are basically the same thing, because Glenn Beck has convinced you of that with his magic blackboard. And because of this twisting of history, you don�t think anybody can accuse you of being ideologically aligned with the Nazis� even though you are.

for the truth about wisconsin. may be to much for the neo-cons here!

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:47:25 +0000

Really Bad Reporting in Wisconsin: Who 'Contributes' to Public Workers' Pensions? David Cay Johnston | Feb. 24, 2011 12:16 PM EST When it comes to improving public understanding of tax policy, nothing has been more troubling than the deeply flawed coverage of the Wisconsin state employees' fight over collective bargaining. Economic nonsense is being reported as fact in most of the news reports on the Wisconsin dispute, the product of a breakdown of skepticism among journalists multiplied by their lack of understanding of basic economic principles. Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to "contribute more" to their pension and health insurance plans. Accepting Gov. Walker' s assertions as fact, and failing to check, created the impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from taxpayers. They are not. Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin' s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers. How can that be? Because the "contributions" consist of money that employees chose to take as deferred wages � as pensions when they retire � rather than take immediately in cash. The same is true with the health care plan. If this were not so a serious crime would be taking place, the gift of public funds rather than payment for services. Thus, state workers are not being asked to simply "contribute more" to Wisconsin' s retirement system (or as the argument goes, "pay their fair share" of retirement costs as do employees in Wisconsin' s private sector who still have pensions and health insurance). They are being asked to accept a cut in their salaries so that the state of Wisconsin can use the money to fill the hole left by tax cuts and reduced audits of corporations in Wisconsin. The labor agreements show that the pension plan money is part of the total negotiated compensation. The key phrase, in those agreements I read (emphasis added), is: "The Employer shall contribute on behalf of the employee." This shows that this is just divvying up the total compensation package, so much for cash wages, so much for paid vacations, so much for retirement, etc. The collective bargaining agreements for prosecutors, cops and scientists are all on-line. Reporters should sit down, get a cup of coffee and read them. And then they could take what they learn, and what the state website says about fringe benefits, to Gov. Walker and challenge his assumptions. And they should point out the very first words the state has posted at a web page on careers as a state employee (emphasis added): The fringe benefits offered to State of Wisconsin employees are significant, and are a valuable part of an individual's compensation package. Coverage of the controversy in Wisconsin over unions collective bargaining, and in particular pension plan contributions, contains repeated references to the phrase "contribute more." The key problem is that journalists are assuming that statements by Gov. Scott Walker have basis in fact. Journalists should never accept the premise of a political statement, but often they do, which explains why so much of our public policy is at odds with well-established principles. The question journalists should be asking is "who contributes" to the state of Wisconsin' s pension and health care plans. The fact is that all of the money going into these plans belongs to the workers because it is part of the compensation of the state workers. The fact is that the state workers negotiate their total compensation, which they then divvy up between cash wages, paid vacations, health insurance and, yes, pensions. Since the Wisconsin government workers collectively bargained for their compensation, all of the compensation they have bargained for is part of their pay and thus only the workers contribute to the pension plan. This is an indisputable fact. Not every news report gets it wrong, but the narrative of the journalistic herd has now been set and is slowly hardening into a concrete falsehood that will distort public understanding of the issue for years to come unless journalists en masse correct their mistakes. From the Associated Press and The New York Times to Wisconsin's biggest newspaper, and every broadcast report I have heard, reporters again and again and again have written as fact what is nonsense. Compared to tax, this economic issue that reporters have been mishandling is simple. But if journalists cannot grasp the economics of this issue, then how can we hope to have an intelligent debate about tax policy? Dedicated tax journalists like my colleagues Lee Sheppard and Martin Sullivan at Tax Analysts have exposed, and explained in laymen terms, the arcane rules underlying the important tax debates and controversies that affect corporate and individual taxpayers. But the mainstream press is not even getting basic labor economics right, a much simpler matter. Among the reports that failed to scrutinize Gov. Walker' s assertions about state workers' contributions and thus got it wrong is one by A.G. Sulzberger, the presumed future publisher of The New York Times, who is now a national correspondent. He wrote that the Governor "would raise the amount government workers pay into their pension to 5.8 percent of their pay, from less than 1 percent now." Wrong. The workers currently pay 100 percent from their compensation package, but a portion of it is deducted from their paychecks and a portion of it goes directly to the pension plan. One correct way to describe this is that the governor "wants to further reduce the cash wages that state workers currently take home in their paychecks." Most state workers already divert 5 percent of their cash wages to the pension plan, an official state website shows. Gov. Walker says that he wants them to "contribute more" via deductions from their paychecks. But since the workers already contribute 100 percent of the money going to the pension plan the real issue is changing the accounting for this to reduce cash wages. Once the state has settled on the compensation package for its workers then how the cash flows is merely accounting for how the costs are divvied up. If the workers got higher cash pay and diverted all of the pension contributions from their pay it would be the same amount compared to having the state pay directly into the pension funds. By falsely describing the situation the governor has sought to create the issue as one of the workers getting a favor. The Club for Growth, in broadcast ads, blatantly lies by saying "state workers haven't had to sacrifice. They pay next to nothing for their pensions." We expect ideological marketing organizations to shade the truth and even outright lie, as the Club for Growth has done. But journalists are supposed to check the facts, not adopt lies as truths. Having had the good fortune long ago to train the presumed future publisher of the Los Angeles Times I focused on making sure he understood why careful checking of facts and questioning assumptions was a commercial, as well as journalistic value, for which reporters should be properly compensated because it made the paper reliable and thus more valuable to its owners. (Sadly my trainee later died and the paper was sold.) Having worked at The New York Times I can tell you how editors might try to excuse this error. They call it "shorthand." But shorthand that is wrong is, in short, still wrong. So, Mr. Sulzberger, take the initiative and correct your error. Doing so, you would set an example that will become newsroom lore long after you retire. Here are some other examples of inaccurate reporting of the issue, followed by a critique and a simple solution. * Todd Richmond of the Associated Press reported on Feb. 20 that the governor wants state workers "to contribute more to health care and pension costs." Richmond has repeatedly used variations of that phrase. * On Feb. 18, Michael Cooper and Katherine Q. Seelye of The New York Times reported that the legislation sponsored by Gov. Walker would "require workers to contribute more to their pension and health care plans." * Jane Ford-Stewart of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel' s on-line community news service reported Feb. 22 on "an effort by Gov. Scott Walker to get state employees to contribute more toward their health insurance and pensions so that the costs are more in line with contributions by workers in the private sector." * Politifact.com has a Wisconsin operation and it was also among those that got it wrong � 100 percent dead wrong -- because it assumed the facts as stated by Gov. Walker and failed to question the underlying premise. Further, contrived assumptions make it is easy for the perpetrators of the misrepresentation to point to data that support a false claim, something Politifact missed entirely, on at least two occasions, in proclaiming false statements to be true. Given how many journalists rely on Politifact to check political assertions, instead of doing their own research, this is, by far, the inaccuracy likely to have the greatest (or most damaging effect) on subsequent reporting. (Examples of Politifact' s inaccurate assessments can be found here and also here.) Again, the money the state "contributes" is actually part of the compensation that has been negotiated with state workers in advance so it is their money that they choose to take as pension payments in the future rather than cash wages or other benefits today. Next, journalists should ask how elected officials are treated by the pension system. The pay of elected leaders is set by the legislature without collective bargaining. Here it is also true that any money withheld from paychecks to fund the pension plans comes from the employee (the elected leaders) but this is not the result of a negotiated compensation package so there is a colorable argument that pension benefits that are received by elected leaders beyond the wages deducted from those employees' compensation package are a gift from taxpayers. The payroll deduction �- again, a mere accounting measure - - was 5 percent last year for "general participants," official state documents show, a rate that is 56 percent higher than the 3.2 percent rate for "elected leaders." The rates were adjusted for 2011 and now the elected leaders pay 3.9 percent, still well below what the "general participants" collectively bargained to divert from their cash wages through this accounting device. The rest of the money going into the plan is also wages the workers diverted, it just does not show up in paychecks as a line item, the same way that half of Social Security and Medicare taxes do not show up on paychecks, but are still part of total compensation to each worker in those plans. I am being repetitive on purpose � experience supervising others has taught me you usually have to teach something three to seven times before it sinks in. Some management texts also make this point. That is not to say that the state workers make too much or too little. It is to say that journalists as a class are fundamentally getting the facts wrong by not understanding compensation. Simplistic coverage has also resulted in numerous reports that Wisconsin state workers make more than workers in Wisconsin' s private business sector. This is true only if you compare walnuts to tuna fish. State governments (indeed almost all governments) tend to hire people with college educations, including advanced degrees. Overall, private employers in all states tend to hire people with less education. More education means more pay because there is more skill required. America has roughly the same number of food preparers, who can be high school dropouts, as registered nurses, who require a college education. But the nurses make on average $66,500, compared to just $18,100 for the food service workers. The food service workers collectively made less than $50 billion, while the registered nurses made almost $172 billion in 2009, my analysis of the official data shows. Business and government hire both food service workers and registered nurses, but you are much more likely to work for the government as a registered nurse than as a food preparation worker. When you control for the education required to be a prosecutor or nurse, government workers get total compensation that is less than those in the corporate sector. This may reflect the fact that fewer and fewer private sector workers are in unions, about 7 percent at last count. As economic theory predicts, as fewer workers can bargain collectively the overall wage level falls. Effectively wiping out public employee unions would only add to downward pressure on wages, standard economic theory shows. On the other hand, unionized state workers run a much smaller risk of going through bouts of joblessness, an economic benefit. Numerous studies indicate that public workers, including those in Wisconsin, make about 5 percent less than private sector workers when you control for education. But what is the lifetime cost, and risk, of episodic joblessness among comparable private sector workers? Is that cost equal to 5 percent or so of lifetime earnings, which would even out the differential? I have yet to read an analysis of that issue by an academic economist, much less a journalist, so I do not know the truth of that question. What Gov. Walker has achieved in selling a false assumption as fact occurs because journalists failed to follow what I call the first and second rules of journalism. This problem is pervasive in coverage of tax and budget issues, where so much nonsense gets reported as fact by the Washington Press corps that I have stopped filing away all but the most egregious errors � and still I copy a story or three every day to use in lectures on getting it right and not writing nonsense. And what are these two rules for journalists? Rule One: Check it out. Be so skeptical that if your mother says she loves you, check it out. Rule Two: Cross check again and again until you not only know the facts, but can put them in proper context and understand all sides so well that their perspective gets proper weight and lecture, or as I like to say, everyone recognizes their oar in the water. Deadlines may make Rule Two difficult, and often impossible, in writing the first rough draft of history. We are now in the umpteenth draft and the initial mistake keeps getting repeated, as so often happens when a big story brings a herd, until it becomes accepted as unassailable truth. The reason that falsehoods are transformed into the public' s common knowledge via inaccurate reporting is simple. When editors or producers back home get an account that differs from what the news herd says they raise questions and often delete unique and accurate insights. But if a reporter just repeats what everyone else is saying it usually sails unchallenged to print or airtime even when it is untrue. Then there is this: How the compensation packages of state workers get divided up is not a matter of tax burdens. Only how much the state workers get paid is a matter of tax burdens. There are two other important aspects to this, which go to the heart of tax policy and why our country is in for a long stay in the economic doldrums. Traditional or defined benefit pension plans, properly administered, increase economic efficiency, while the newer defined contribution plans have high costs whether done one at a time through Individual Retirement Accounts or in group plans like 401(k)s. Efficiency means that more of the money workers contribute to their pensions - - money that could have been taken as cash wages today - - ends up in the pockets of retirees, not securities dealers, trustees and others who administer and invest the money. Compared to defined benefit pension plans, 401(k) plans are vastly more expensive in investing, administration and other costs. Individually managed accounts like 401(k)s violate a basic tenet of economics � specialization increases economic gains. That is why the average investor makes much less than the market return, studies by Morningstar show. This goes to Adam Smith's famous insight in 1776 about specialization increasing wealth: when pins were made in full by each worker each could make only a few each day, but when one person draws the wire, another cuts, another fashions the point, etc., the output rises to tens of thousands of pins and their price falls from dear to cheap. Expecting individuals to be experts at investing their retirement money in defined contribution plans -- instead of pooling the money so professional investors can manage the money as is done in defined benefit plans -- is not sound economics. The concept, at its most basic, is buying wholesale instead of retail. Wholesale is cheaper for the buyers. That is, it saves taxpayers money. The Wisconsin State Investment Board manages about $74.5 billion for an all-in cost of $224 million. That is a cost of about 30-cents per $100, which is good but not great. However it is far less than many defined contribution plans, where costs are often $1 or more per $100. So, I hope that Mr. Sulzberger in particular will take the initiative to correct the inaccurate reporting and show the way to other reporters, for the betterment of both America and his family' s investment And I hope that all reporters will start questioning the assumption in the governor' s position instead of assuming his statements are infallible. My larger hope is that reporters, editors and producers will apply this thinking when covering taxes and taxation, the system by which we distribute the burdens of living in and sustaining this, the Second American Republic.