Political Ruminations

Press is Silent on Mitt Romney's Tax Havens

Economist Kenneth Thomas on the media silence regarding Mitt and Ann Romney’s offshore accounts:

Obama Campaign Maps Romney's Tax Havens, (Almost) No One Notices

If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, did it really happen? That's what you've got to wonder in the wake of this week's (non-)coverage of Mitt Romney's tax haven use.
Via Tax Research UK, The Hill reports that the Obama campaign has published a handy map of presumptive opponent Mitt Romney's tax haven holdings around the world. So Tax Research UK obviously noticed. But a search ("Romney tax havens map) of the premium Nexis database shows virtually no one else did. Agence France Presse ran a story the same day (May 1) and India's The Pioneer mentioned it in a story on May 4, but that's the sum total for the week. Running the same search on Google yields the Tax Research UK article and one at The Political Carnival, plus Bob Cesca picking up The Political Carnival and then Political Ruminations picking it up from him.
Where is the U.S. press on this?

“Where is the U.S. press on this?”

Is the answer that the tax havens of a U.S. presidential candidate aren't important?

Not so much.

The real truth is the same as it always is in this country: our corporate media, which our founders considered important enough to convey constitutional protections upon, tries very hard, and with great success, to ignore stuff which isn't to the liking of their corporate owners. And that simple truth is devastating for any democracy.

Quote of the Day: Barack Obama on Corporations

President Obama in Ohio today, at his first official campaign rally:

“ Corporations aren't people. People are people.”

You probably remember when Mitt Romney famously said “Corporations are people, my friend.”

And, when Romney followed that up with “Everything corporations earn, ultimately goes to the people.”.

But of course, Mitt Romney, Man Shill for the 1 percent, stands for corporations, not people.

Flashback Quote of the Day: Gov. Rick Snyder

Michigan’s hated Republican governor, Rick Snyder, taken from his written endorsement of Mitt Romney in February 2012:

“ Mitt understands the challenges confronting Michigan as few Americans do. ”

Yeah, Romney certainly understood Michigan’s “challenges” when he said “let Detroit go bankrupt”.

Snyder is now facing another recall action, this one far more likely to be successful.

Related Posts:
~ Gov. Rick Snyder & Michigan GOP Engaging in Disaster Capitalism
~ Republican Governor Rick Snyder Signs Draconian Bill in to Law
~ Republican Gov. Rick Snyder Begins Rape of Michigan to Benefit Wealthy
~ The Corporatization of Michigan
~ Corporations Behind Michigan’s Unconstitutional EFM Law

Quote of the Day: The GOP Five as the Rear Guard of the Republican Army

Journalist Robert Parry on The Washington Post’s admonishment to President Obama over his remarks to the Supreme Court’s five right wing, highly partisan, justices:

“Official Washington’s polite society – led by the neocon Washington Post – is chastising President Barack Obama for his faux pas in defending the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act and in urging the Republican-controlled Supreme Court to show due deference to a law approved by the elected branches of government.

Since Monday when Obama uttered his statement, the Post’s editors have been suffering from the vapors – publishing two breathless editorials and various columns – and sputtering about Obama’s “jarring” comment.

While rapidly fanning themselves and trying to control their heart flutters, the Post’s editors lamented again on Wednesday that Obama’s “comments strayed perilously close to a preemptive strike on the court’s legitimacy if it were to declare the individual mandate unconstitutional.”

The Post’s editors were apoplectic, too, “that some liberal supporters of the law are preemptively trying to delegitimize a potential defeat, as if no honest justice could possibly disagree with the mandate’s constitutionality. The president’s initial remarks added unnecessary fuel to this contention.”

The Post then lectured Obama about maintaining his proper posture while in the Establishment salons of Washington. “Given the power of the bully pulpit, presidents are wise to be, well, more judicious in commenting about the high court,” the Post said.

What you’re seeing in the Post’s overwrought reaction is its protection of a favored fiction of Official Washington, that the deeply partisan GOP Five, who now run the High Court on behalf of the Republican Party, are not really partisans at all, just responsible jurists fairly applying constitutional principles.

You are not supposed to notice the ugly truth that the GOP Five (like an earlier incarnation of the group in the Bush v. Gore case in December 2000) has set itself up as the rear guard of the Republican army.

Thus, if somehow democracy breaks through the Republican lines – whether a state-court-ordered presidential recount in Florida or a new federal program pushed by a Democratic president – the GOP Five are there to mount a last-ditch counterattack, charging down the hill while shouting incoherent constitutional “principles.”

At other times – when the battle is less pitched – the GOP Five provide logistical support for the frontline political warriors, either opening supply lines for the delivery of massive campaign money from billionaires (via Citizens United) or empowering police to strip search (and thus terrorize) anti-corporate protesters.

That’s the troubling reality: the Supreme Court’s majority has become a reserve battalion of the GOP army. But the Post’s editors and other protectors of the hollowed-out pillars of the Republic can’t acknowledge this fact because it would threaten to crumble the thin layers of marble that remain of the pleasing façades of the capital.”

Senate Republicans Bought and PAID for by Big Oil to the Tune of Almost $24 Million

Yesterday,  Senate Republicans along with four Conservadems, voted against ending subsidies for big oil. They did this in spite of the fact that the president made a very passionate plea for them to repeal the subsidies only an hour or so prior to the vote. Maddow Blog via Bob Cesca, emphasis mine:

The Senate on Thursday thwarted Democratic plans to strip billions of dollars in tax breaks from the largest oil companies, just an hour or so after President Obama urged the chamber to kill off the deductions.

Lawmakers voted 51-47 to block Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-N.J.) bill. Sixty votes were needed to advance the measure.

Two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, both from Maine — crossed party lines and voted to repeal the tax breaks. Four Democrats — Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska), Mary Landrieu (La.), Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Jim Webb (Va.) — voted against the bill.

Today, we found out that the 47 senators who voted against the bill have received almost $24 million in contributions from oil and gas. The 51 senators who voted to repeal the big oil subsidies received only $5+ million. 

In a 51-47 vote, 43 Senate Republicans and four Democrats filibustered to protect $24 billion in tax breaks for Big Oil. Although a majority voted for Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) bill, it fell short of the 60 needed. The only two Republicans to break rank were Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

A Think Progress Green analysis shows how oil and gas companies have funneled cash to the same senators who protected its handouts:

– The 47 senators voting against the bill have received $23,582,500 in career contributions from oil and gas. The 51 senators voting to repeal oil tax breaks have received $5,873,600.

– The senators who voted for Big Oil’s handouts received on average over four times as much career oil cash as those who voted to end them.

– Overall, Senate Republicans have taken $23.2 million in oil and gas contributions. Democrats received $6.66 million.

– Since 2011, Senate Republicans have voted seven times for pro-Big Oil interests and against clean energy three times.

Democrats who joined the Republicans in defeating the bill include Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Jim Webb (D-VA). Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) broke ranks and voted to cut the tax breaks. Two senators, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) didn’t vote.

Republicans have taken an overwhelming 88 percent of oil and gas contributions this election cycle. While showering politicans with cash, the oil industry also spent over $146,000,000 on lobbying last year.

Although 55 percent of Americans want to see Big Oil welfare end, the GOP once again largely acted in-line with their Big Oil donors.

For a full list of names and dollar amounts of oil and gas contributions to the Senate, visit Think Progress.

Ouote of the Day II

Liberal blogger, Bob Cesca, on oil subsidies and  the character of Republicans in the Senate:

“Oil subsidies will continue thanks to the Senate Republicans and several conservadems[...]

But they’ll slash the hell out of social programs because it’s “fiscally responsible.” $4 billion in oil subsidies every year for companies earning record profits that could go towards reducing the budget or making sure people have healthcare. Good people.”

Republican Hypocrites and Judicial Activism

Even though it is well known and understood by all and sundry who pay attention to politics that should the Supreme Court strike down the Affordable Care Act, they would be ignoring, blatantly ignoring, the Constitution, and almost 200 years of precedent.

Let’s be clear here--that act alone would make these right wing justices activist judges if they weren’t already activist judges given their Citizens United ruling in 2010, and for some, the Bush v. Gore ruling in 2000.

The thing is, on the one hand, Republicans are begging them to strike it down, and on the other, they have the utter gall, the hypocrisy, to decry activist judges in their very next breath. In fact, judicial activism is one of their very favorite talking points when attacking liberal justices.

Examples of Republican hypocrites whining about judicial activism:

REP. STEVE KING (R-IA): “If we’re going to respect judge-made law and stop praying in our public schools, that was the beginning of the judicial activism that’s begun to break down this civilization, and this culture.”

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): “Unelected and serving with lifetime tenure, and substituting their view for the views of the people’s…the people and their elected representatives. That’s not the way our democracy is supposed to work.”

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA): “Judges are not policymakers. That’s what we are in the Congress of the United States. Judges are called on to decide the facts and to apply the law.”

Watch the hypocrites at work:

We must hold them accountable.

Via Think Progress

Morning Quote: Sen. John McCain

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), predicts “huge” campaign finance scandals due to the brazenly bad Citizen’s United ruling by the Supreme Court in 2010:

“I promise you, there will be huge scandals, because there's too much money washing around, too much of it we don't know who's behind it and too much corruption associated with that kind of money. There will be major scandals.”

McCain also said that it’s unlikely that the 112th Congress will pass a law to “rewind” the Supreme Court's ruling:

“A majority of Republicans would vote against it because Republicans are profiting by it" in the battle for the party's presidential nomination,and a lot of Democrats don't want to take it up.

But we will go out there again and we'll fight again and we'll continue to fight because this system is not fair to the American people.”

Morning Quote: Justice Antonin Scalia

“Get over it. It was a long time ago, people forget. It was a 7-2 decision. It wasn’t even close.”

- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision. The decision was 5-4, not 7-2, and you, as part of a partisan, Republican majority, assisted George W. Bush in stealing a presidential election.  Just sayin’....

Bob Cesca reaction:

The decision was 5-4. And no sir, we won’t “get over it” because it irrevocably changed the course of history — on top of being a crime against citizen suffrage.

Via Bob Cesca

Quote of the Day

“Well, the banks aren't bad people. They're just overwhelmed right now. The banks are scared to death, of course. They're feeling the same thing that you're feeling.”

- Mitt Romney, continues on with his “corporations are people” theme, on Monday in Florida.

Morning Quote: Mitt Romney Stands for Corporations

“Everything corporations earn, ultimately goes to the people.”

- GOP frontrunner, Mitt Romney, stands up for corporate greed.

Watch:

Yes, and corporations are people, too, so sayeth Mitt Romney.

H/T Kevin Drum

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RELATED POSTS:
. Mitt Romney in His Own Words - 10 Important Mitt Romney Quotes. The Character of Presidents and Potential Presidents Conveyed in Images
. 6 Quotes About Mitt Romney
. Full Video: When Mitt Romney Came to Town

Quote of the Day

Former Massachusetts governor, current candidate for the GOP 2012 presidential nomination, Mitt Romney responds to an Iowa citizen today:

“Corporations are people, my friend.”

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann

GOP presidential hopeful, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) at her finest….making a fool of herself:

“I think clearly what this demonstrates is that the president of the United States is afraid of my candidacy. He fears me.”

Bachmann was responding to a statement from Obama campaign press secretary, Ben LaBolt, who issued a statement in response to Bachmann’s campaign launch in Iowa on Monday. LaBolt said that Bachmann’s policies "would erode the path to prosperity for middle class families", and went on to paint her as someone who would work for the wealthy and corporate interests.

Cartoonish U.S. Supreme Court

The week’s cartoons mocking our corporate-bought SCOTUS’ Walmart ruling.

Cartoonist – John Darkow

Cartoonist – Pat Bagley

Cartoonist – R.J. Matson

Maddow Video: Is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Poised for Impeachment or Resignation?

Supreme Court Justices are not legally required to follow the federal code of conduct for the judiciary, but they are supposed to do so.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is embroiled in an ethics scandal because he has not followed those guidelines, nor precedent in his jurisprudence. Watch:

For your edification, the NYT piece on Crow-Thomas.

Related Posts on Political Ruminations: John Dean: Rehnquist and Mitchell Forced Justice Fortis to Resign

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT (courtesy of The Maddow Show):

MADDOW:  When you are a Supreme Court justice, people tend to name things after you, even build places just to honor you.

This statue, for instance, honors Justice William Brennan in his native Newark, New Jersey.  Consider also the Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston.  The Sandra Day O‘Connor College of Law in Arizona.  Brandeis University in Massachusetts named for Louis Brandeis.

LA TIMES Complains About Term “Lamestream Media”

Writer Paul Whitefield, of the LA Times, wrote (he intended this as criticism for those who constantly call the mainstream media by less flattering names, such as “lamestream”):

By regularly demonizing major, reputable media outlets, some political leaders have taken us to a very dark place, a place where people don't believe anyone: not the media, not the government, not elected officials. And that's a bad place to be.

Well, yes, it is a “bad place to be” but we the people did not get there by ourselves nor did we get there by listening to the right-wing decry the “lamestream media”. We got there because the curtain parted, and we finally see the Wizard in all his nakedness with his inglorious attributes of greed, corruption and narcissism.

I mean, are there really any “major, reputable media outlets” left? I can only think of maybe one. But only certain writers for that publication. And even on that one that I still consider 95% reliable, I always question, and frequently look for verification from other sources. And some of their writers I just won’t read.

I feel that way not because I listened to Palin, or some other loser decrying “lamestream media”, but because I have learned over the past few years that our media is not objective, and thus can not be counted on to present the facts in a truthful or secondarily important to me, objective light. After all, our mainstream media is entirely corporate owned. 

Whitefield goes on to further blame terms such as “lamestream media” for the lack of confidence in our media:

that's the real problem, because that's what this "lamestream media" nonsense has done: Too many people see political motives in everything; too many people believe anything but the truth.

Someone should remind Palin and her ilk of what Thomas Jefferson said, that given a choice between government without newspapers and newspapers without a government, he'd choose the latter.

Really, Mr. Whitefield? Really? It isn’t just Palin or the right-wing who see the media as lame. And what should we see when we look at corporate owned media?

It isn’t the term “lamestream” or any other derogatory term that has undermined our confidence in media.

It is the incompetence, and the corruption that much of the media exhibits or partakes in that is the cause of our disenchantment with media. It is the media’s participation in the ridiculous “both sides meme”, and their willingness to play simpering, stupid idiots for the dollars of their sponsors and the coffers of their corporate owners.

It is why people read the blogs, preferring them to more mainstream sources, particularly for political news. It is why I and many others blog. It is not, however, that we've been sucked in to the idea of the "lamestream media" as promoted by right-wingnuts such as Sarah Palin.

Win America: Multinational Corporations Clamoring for a Tax Holiday

The multinational corporations behind the Win America campaign want a tax holiday because they chose to avoid paying their fair share of taxes by stashing much of their money in offshore tax havens.

The problem with their tax avoidance arises when they want to bring that money back in to the U.S./repatriate that money, and they consequently have to pay a statutory tax rate of 35%. To avoid paying the 35% statutory rate, they then, as history has it, initiate a concerted effort to convince Congress to give them a “tax holiday”. A tax holiday which would result in a 5.25% tax rate on the repatriated funds rather than the statutory rate of 35%. That’s quite a hefty savings.

Sen. Orrin Hatch Wants to Raise Taxes on the Poor and the Middle Class

On the Senate floor yesterday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) suggested raising taxes on the poor and the middle class:

Well, Bastiat, the great economist of the past said, the place where you’ve got to get revenues has to come from the middle class. That’s the huge number of people that are there. So the system does need to be revamped. As far as, I think I made the point that if you just go with what the president says about the wealthy, you might get $36 billion compared to the $1.5 trillion expenditure this year, or should I say deficit this year. And the problem with that is that you hit about 800,000 small businesses where the jobs are created that would hopefully get enough people to pay taxes. So, yeah, we have an unbalanced tax code that we’ve got to change.

I tell you, if we get control of that committee, the Finance Committee, I intend to see that it’s changed. Not to hurt the poor. We should help the poor. But to make sure that there’s a civic duty on the part of every one of us to help this government to, uh, to be better.

Think Progress, emphasis mine:

GOP Priorities Exposed

Once again, the GOP tells the American people that we don’t matter.

But tax cuts for milionaires, big oil subsidies (going to the same industry that loves to bilk us for every dime), and tax breaks for offshoring companies…….these things matter. To the GOP.

All this, even as almost every single House Republican voted to end Medicare as we know it, making 165 billion in cuts under the Ryan plan. 

Pitchforks and torches anyone?

Chart via DCCC

The Corporatization of Michigan

Via Laura Conway, writing for Maddow Blog, I learned today that there is pushback from a reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette regarding Maddow’s position on the events occurring in Benton Harbor. .

The reporter, Julie Mack, writes:

What's worse for Benton Harbor: A financial manager with dictatorial powers or an utterly dysfunctional city government? Are Benton Harbor residents better served by 90 acres of parkland, or 68 acres and a new source of revenue for cash-strapped city coffers? Is it insensitive to build an upscale development in a downtrodden community, as Maddow suggests? Or does it show that the business community hasn't turned its back on Benton Harbor?

Yes, Ms. Mack apparently thinks (or was told to write by her corporate bosses) that both the governor, and his wealthy cronies behind the golf club, are doing Benton Harbor a favor.

I strongly disagree. Here's why.

Robert Bobb, Detroit Schools EFM, Attempts to Sell His Treatment of Teachers, Charter Schools, and School Reform in a Video Interview

The videos are from an interview (aired just a few minutes ago) with Robert Bobb, the Detroit School District's Emergency Financial Manager,  and conducted by Carolyn Clifford, a reporter for the local ABC affiliate in Detroit.

Presented without comment.

Watch:

Part 1

SCOTUS Rules Against Innocent Man in Wrongful Conviction Lawsuit

Yesterday, Antonin Scalia evidently caused a 4-car accident on his way to court, possibly salivating, in his frenzy to dismiss, and/or mock the female plaintiffs in the Wal-Mart v. Dukes case on the days docket.

(I should add that Scalia was only fined $70, which does not begin to compare to what my son was recently fined ($500) when he was ticketed for being 5 miles over the speed limit, and a registration that was a day late in being re-upped--but that's another story of inequity in the case of the People v. the Elites)

But the mocking of people with lady parts was possibly minor when you consider the ruling of our right-wing Supreme Court in the case of Connick v. John Thompson, wherein, the Court ruled against John Thompson, and thus ensured that there would be no repercussions when prosecutors withhold evidence, and innocent people go to jail, and in Thompson's case, to death row for 14 long years. No damages were allowed Mr. Thompson, and simple human decency was notably absent.

A bitterly divided Supreme Court on Tuesday tossed out a jury verdict won by a New Orleans man who spent 14 years on death row and came within weeks of execution because prosecutors had hidden a blood test and other evidence that would have proven his innocence.

The 5-4 decision delivered by Justice Clarence Thomas shielded the New Orleans district attorney's office from being held liable for the mistakes of its prosecutors. The evidence of their misconduct did not prove "deliberate indifference" on the part of then-Dist. Atty. Harry Connick Sr., Thomas said.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg emphasized her disapproval by reading her dissent in the courtroom, saying the court was shielding a city and its prosecutors from "flagrant" misconduct that nearly cost an innocent man his life.
"John Thompson spent 14 years isolated on death row before the truth came to light," she said. He was innocent of the crimes that sent him to prison and prosecutors had "dishonored" their obligation to present the true facts to the jury, she said.

In the past, the high court has absolved trial prosecutors from any and all liability for the cases they bring to court. The key issue in the case of Connick vs. John Thompson was whether the district attorney could be held liable for a pattern of wrongdoing in his office and for his failure to see to it that his prosecutors followed the law.

Also...too....apparently, DAs may now be held innocent regarding any wrongdoing in their offices, and prosecutors need no longer follow the law.

H/T Kevin Drum and MrBrink

Adding………Irrelevant but of interest; the district attorney in the case, Harry Connick Sr. is the father of singer, Harry Connick Jr..

Republicans Caught: They DO Want a Government Shutdown

Although Republicans keep on saying that they don’t want a government shutdown, and although Republicans will try to blame it on Democrats when they do actually shut down the federal government (rest assured, they will shut it down in April), but yet….here they are, recently caught on tape spewing in favor of a federal government shutdown.

Transcript of remarks made by Republican lawmakers in favor of a federal government shutdown below the video.

Watch:

Morning Quote: Anthony Weiner

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) talking to a TPM reporter (after an address at the Center for American Progress) on what may happen re the Affordability Care Act if any of the current lawsuits end up in our corporatist, predominantly right-wing, Supreme Court:

The Supreme Court unfortunately is a corporate-dominated arm of the Republican Party right now. I put nothing past them. But they would have to take a Bush v. Gore like leap to strike down the constitutionality of the whole law. Even the mandate is a pretty thin reed.

I second the bolded sentiments. Nothing.

Corporations Behind Michigan's Unconstitutional EFM Law, Including Amway and Koch Industries

Trust me when I tell you that this is the most tangled web you have ever seen in your life.

Last week Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation giving him what many have called “dictatorial” powers. The much despised EFM law gives Snyder the power to hand pick emergency financial managers (or emergency financial "corporate persons"), who then have the authority to take the following actions:

1. Consolidate or dissolve local governments and dismiss the officials elected by the people.
2. Consolidate or dissolve school districts, close schools, and dismiss elected school board members.
3. Sell off public property. Public. Property. Parks, buildings, licenses, permits, and so forth. All of it.
4. Privatize government services, with all that entails.
5. Shred all contracts agreed to by local governments and schools, including union contracts.

Which people or what organizations are behind Snyder’s EFM law?

Andy Kroll at Mother Jones enlightens us:

Since 2005, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has urged reforms to Michigan law giving more power and protection to emergency financial managers, state-appointed officials who parachute into ailing cities or school districts and employ drastic measures to fix budgets on the brink of collapse. In January, the free-market-loving center published four recommendations, including granting emergency managers the power to override elected officials (such as a mayor or school board member) and toss out union contracts. All four ended up in Snyder's legislation.

"The Mackinac Center has been tied at the hip with the Republican Party establishment for years," says Doug Pratt, public affairs director at the Michigan Education Association. "It goes to their funding sources; it goes to their ideology."

But wait, according to a statement on their "Purpose" page, the Mackinac Center is non-partisan, emphasis mine:

Michigan Protest Updates & Coverage for March 16

Following the protests in Lansing, Michigan throughout the day. [WHY I'm not there]

11:31AM - A bald eagle was just erected on the lawn of the Capitol building in Lansing, Michigan. Via @mitchellrivard on Twitter.

LIVE streaming coverage throughout the protest via Michael Moore.

Manistee residents protest Snyder budget

12:15 PM - President of the American Federation of Teachers speaking:
“THIS is our house”, “WE are Michigan!” “Some elected officials are using the financial crisis to undercut working people.” “Do we provide EMF managers with the opportunity to say, no thanks, NO collective bargaining!” “We fight back. We unite because WE are the People. WE are ONE.”

12:22 PM - Michigan's Senate minority leader Gretchen Whitmer speaking: "We didn't start this fight, but we sure don't plan to lose it!"  Sen. Whitmer also announced the introduction today of a  constitutional amendment to protect collective bargaining rights.

VIDEO: Statewide Protests in Michigan March 14

A local news report on the protests in Michigan yesterday, March 14, which were all about Michigan’s Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s planned budget cuts, which would slash corporate taxes to almost nothing, and penalize the poor and the elderly in order to pay for it. Fact sheet (pdf).

Watch:

Think Progress:

Ohio Gov. John Kasich FORBIDS Broadcast of Budget Announcement

Unbelievable. Just who do these Republican governors think they are?

Chanel 12 in Cincinnati:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Reporters have been told they will not be allowed to broadcast sound and images from the Tuesday release of Ohio Gov. John Kasich's budget plan.

Spokeswoman Connie Wehrkamp says journalists can bring only pens, notepads and tape recorders to the afternoon briefing, where Kasich is to announce the first details of his state spending blueprint for the next two years. She says videos and photos will be prohibited and the audio may not be used for anything but checking accuracy.

Members of the Statehouse press corps registered complaints with the governor's office on the matter. They noted a lack of precedent for such limits on their ability to cover a governor's budget release. An invitation-only town hall meeting later Tuesday will be broadcast on government television.

Quote of the Day - Michael Moore

In a letter to his fellow Michigan citizens, Michael Moore describes what our dictator wannabe Republican Governor, Rick Snyder, has been up to for the past eight short weeks:

* Gotten the House and Senate to pass bills giving him "Emergency Management" powers such as the ability to appoint a corporation or a CEO who could literally dissolve town governments or school boards, fire the elected officials, nullify any local law and run your local governmental entity. That company then would have the power to immediately declare all collective bargaining contracts null and void.

* Proposed giving business a whopping 86% tax cut while raising everyone's personal taxes by 31%! And much of that tax hike he believes should be shouldered by -- I kid you not -- senior citizens and the poor! He says these two groups have not been "sharing the sacrifice" the rest of us have been burdened with. So his budget proposes a $1.8 billion tax CUT for business and a $1.75 billion tax INCREASE for the rest of us, much of it from the poor, seniors and working people -- even though the top 1% in Michigan ALREADY pay a lower state tax rate than everyone else does!

* Together with the legislature, introduced over 40 anti-labor bills in just the first two months of this session! They have wasted no time and have caught most people off guard. Much of this is being rushed through right now before you have a chance to raise your voice in objection.

And follows up with a plea to Michiganders to stand up, to participate in our democracy. 

Morning Quote: Rep. John Conyers Calls Michigan Martial Law Unconstitutional

In response to the anti-Democratic martial law being enacted in Michigan, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) fired back, calling the bill unconstitutional, emphasis mine:

Worse yet, this bill raises serious constitutional concerns. Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibits any State from impairing a contract, which is exactly what this legislation does. As the Supreme Court has held in Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell (1934), the sanctity of contracts cannot be impaired by a state law “which renders them invalid, or releases or extinguishes them . . . . Not only are existing laws read into contracts in order to fix obligations as between the parties, but the reservation of essential attributes of sovereign power is also read into contracts as a postulate of the legal order.”

Rep. Conyers also inferred that some parts of this bill may be racially motivated, something Karoli at Crooks and Liars has also suggested:

The takeover provision of the legislation – allowing the dissolution of locally elected bodies — implicitly targets minority communities that are disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn, without providing meaningful support for improved economic opportunity.

Finally, Conyers also pointed out that by forcing a community in to bankruptcy (which will likely be done to force union consessions for public sector workers or just to break the collective bargaining contracts which the EMF also has the legal authority to do), the financial situation of the community will actually become worse.

Further, the bill empowers this financial czar with the Governor’s approval to force a municipality into bankruptcy, a power that will surely be used to extract further concessions from hardworking public sector workers. And, by making the risk of bankruptcy a reality, the bill will make it more not less expensive for municipalities to obtain financing given this risk, which will make the financial circumstances of municipalities even worse.

Taking it through the courts could take years. In the meantime, thanks to the Republican controlled House and Senate in Michigan, along with our new Dictator Republican Governor Rick Snyder, the people of Michigan will suffer, because this bill is the most draconian, the most un-Democratic piece of legislation in this country right now.

Wisconsin Farmers Rally Against Scott Walker

While Wisconsin’s family farmers are not union members, they are members of the American middle class, and they recognize class warfare when they see it. This tractorcade in Madison today is in solidarity with all those fighting the corporate power represented by Corporate Shill, Gov. Scott Walker.

                      Image via @WORTnews

From Minnesota blogger, Mike McMahon, on why a Minnesota group is participating in the Wisconsin tractorcade today, emphasis mine:

The Land Stewardship Project is here today participating in the Farmer-Labor Tractorcade being led by Wisconsin farmers because of the actions taken by Gov. Scott Walker.  Walker and his allies have enabled a power-grab by big corporations to the detriment of the land, and people, of Wisconsin.

We know what happens under unchecked corporate power – the people suffer.  That’s why family farmers across the Midwest organized in the 1890s, and the 1910s, and the 1930s, and the 1980s – building farmer co-ops, passing public policy that reined in corporate power and assisted family farms, and establishing farm organizations to fight for the well-being of family farmers, rural communities, and the land.

Today is another such time, in which predatory corporations like Monsanto, Dean Foods,  Smithfield, and the Koch Brothers, are grabbing control over our seeds, our milk, our livestock, our land, our public assets — even our democracy.  And now their political allies in Madison are attempting to pass and implement extremist legislation that breaks the power of working people to organize on their own behalf.  They believe it will greatly diminish the power of people to rein in corporate greed that knows no bounds.  They further this attack on the middle class by attempting to divide portions of the middle class against one another, alleging  that the fight is between a unionized worker and someone who is not in a union.  All of this to advance a pro-corporate agenda of business tax cuts, public asset fire-sales, reduced corporate accountability, and increased profits for the biggest of the big.

GO, Wisconsin!!